I have so many issues with this book, I took notes on multiple post-it notes for this review (as I was reading it at work - guilty!).

This book is 200+ pages of EPIC FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER. I mean, I don't know anyone in real life who just lets miscommunication and crossed signals pile up to this point - and if someone does, they probably shouldn't be in a relationship anyway, because they need to work on their self-confidence. If someone is doing something to piss me off, that person will become quite aware of it quite quickly.

But not Tanner and Finley! No sir! They're both content to be on totally different tracks when it comes to their relationship, and sometimes those tracks aren't even parallel to one another. Having met when Finley was sixteen and Tanner was...22? (sorry, don't care enough to look that one up), these two knew almost instantly that they were destined to be mates. And in this world, that exists, so I'm not going to throw this into "instalove" territory just yet, because Tanner and Finley are werewolves, and that's one of the things that float around in this "world" (also knotting, which I surprisingly haven't seen in a published m/m book until this one, hmm).

But Tanner doesn't want to mate Finley too early. Finley's only sixteen, and Tanner is terrified that if they officially mate too early, Finley will feel like he didn't get a chance to live his life and will leave him.

Finley, on the other hand, just wants Tanner to claim him already - which, to be fair, he does say multiple times. Then, to prove his maturity and readiness to be mated, Finley acts like a petulant child and storms off to a gay club to make Tanner jealous. Regularly. As in, Tanner knew that would be where he would run to because he had done it many times before.

Don't worry, though - Tanner is even a BIGGER moron that Finley! Tanner is SO WORRIED about his mate leaving him, which led me to think that it must be a semi-common thing to happen. Nope. It's not. It just happened once, to Tanner's best friend, Eric. And it wasn't because the wolf he mated was too young - she was just a fickle slut (GOD DAMN IT NO MORE MISOGYNY IN MY M/M THANKS). And she was a "chosen" mate anyway, which meant she and Eric chose to mate (Tanner and Finley are destined mates, which is like more intense than chosen). And Tanner's parents LITERALLY cannot think of another wolf couple that has happened to in ever. So Tanner's fear that Finley will leave him seemed pretty unfounded.

Oh, and for all of Tanner's "we can't mate yet because you're not legal" bullshit, that isn't true either. Turns out that most wolves mate right around eighteen, which coincidentally, is Finley's age.

And Tanner is even MORE stupid, because even though he and Finley have been dating for over two years, not ONCE have they had sex (which can totally happen between mates before the official claiming - just no biting allowed) and not ONCE has Tanner ever told Finley that he loves him! WHAT THE FUCK. That is stupid and Tanner is stupid. It's okay if they want to be celibate, but it becomes pretty obvious fast that neither of them really WANT to be, and besides, what's the deal about not telling your destined one true love that you love him? Finley isn't even sure that Tanner wants to mate with him because he's never heard Tanner really say much of anything to him. Suddenly, Finley doesn't seem as stupid when compared to his bonehead mate.

Oh wait, except that I forget that Finley gets worse. He wants Tanner to mate him so badly that he runs across the country to Oregon (they are in Pennsylvania at the beginning of the book) and immediately starts dating this other guy, Jamie, and starts thinking about what it would be like to mate with him. What the fuck dude, you were practically begging Tanner to mate with you one day and two days later you're with some other guy and potentially planning a future? Don't wolves even DATE? How about mingling a bit before hopping into a serious relationship again? And Finley sort-of cheats on Tanner (I say sort-of because I am uncertain how Finley viewed their relationship at that point, although Tanner still saw them as in a relationship). But it's okay, because he TOLD Tanner if he didn't fuck him, he'd fuck someone else, so it's fine! That's...not how most relationships work, and Finley's rampant immaturity is just ridiculously over the top.

Jamie, the new dude, is kind of a jerk. He lies to Tanner about the nature of his relationship with Finley IN FINLEY'S PRESENCE and Finley does nothing to set the record straight, which is never really addressed AT ALL because they're destined mates so it's ~*~okay~*~. Also, he totally instaloves Finley. And they become "best friends" since they can't be mates, without knowing anything about one another. What.

Also, SUPER CREEPED OUT by the fact that for the claiming ceremony, Tanner and Finley have to fuck in front of members of his wolf pack. Seriously. And the wolves just have sex with their mates in broad view of children (six-year-old Tanner stumbled upon two of his pack members having sex in the woods, for example) and this is seen as totally normal. Tanner's parents, almost whenever they are on the page, have to talk about sex to their son, who is clearly embarrassed and uncomfortable with the situation. This almost feels like a cult that grooms children for sexual abuse, if you ask me. Not good.

If you didn't click on the spoiler cut, you missed out on a shit ton of ranting. Just saying.

Finally, for the love of all that is holy, I do not want to read another scene in which only spit is used as lube EVER AGAIN. Have anal sex with just spit as lube and see how it feels - I am venturing not very good. Having sex with a dildo covered in sandpaper sounds about as appealing to me, personally (which is to say, NOT APPEALING AT ALL THANK YOU). ( )