Bea Reviews Lure of Oblivion by Suzanne Wright

Series: The Mercury Pack #3
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 21st, 2017
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble
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Blurb from goodreads:

Gwen Miller may be a human, but she has no problem taking a stand against her own kind. She’s going to testify against the teenage boy she saw viciously assault a lone shifter female—and no amount of pressure from the boy’s wealthy family will make her back down. But when the harassment turns violent, help comes in the form of a lean, toned wolf with winter-gray eyes.

As a guest at Gwen’s inn, shifter enforcer Zander Devlin can’t help but notice that the fierce and leggy brunette is in serious trouble. Since she’s putting herself at risk for one of his kind, keeping her safe is the least he can do. That’s not the only reason Zander wants her close. He desires her, even as the wolf inside him backs away from her. But his feral instincts are hard to keep down, and as they take shape, they’re harder for Gwen to resist. Then again, embracing them could be the only thing that could save her life.

Bea's Thoughts:

How could I resist that cover? Blond? Beard? That intense expression? Oh yeah, I couldn't.

This was really good for the first 30% or so then the sex started. I did not like how controlling and possessive Zander was, both sexually and relationship-wise. You can dress it up as shifter behavior but it's still ***hole behavior. I also wasn't crazy about the fact that during he would call her 'my baby' as in "I want to f**k my baby". That just squicked me out. If he'd said "my woman" or "my lover" I'd have had no problem but 'my baby' in that context was just icky. It might not bother others but it bothered me. I liked the mate bond - I liked that there's the possibility that it might never happen, there's a not a guaranteed HEA or even a guarantee that they'll ever meet. I wasn't thrilled at how quickly things happened, under a month, but that's typical for paranormal romances.

Gwen was appealing right off the bat - strong, fierce, compassionate, loyal, accepting of others. She had emotional barriers up, even with family members but she loved deeply and completely. She was suspicious of Zander at first but he was suspicious of her too. He also had emotional barriers up, both had unhappy family backgrounds, and that affected their interactions. Zander was impatient, demanding, and controlling which Gwen was mostly okay with but seriously got on my nerves. He was kind to her and took good care of her but let's just say that he had zero concept of personal boundaries. He was basically a decent person but I had a difficult time getting past his controlling behavior with Gwen. Sometimes she accepted his behavior and sometimes she resisted but he always got his way.

I did like the bulk of the story - the case with the shifter who was attacked, Gwen's family, Zander's family and pack, and shifter politics. While there was some predictability, there were twists also and the ghosts were a nice touch. The story grabbed me and kept me reading until 2AM when I finished it. I cared about what happened, I wanted happy endings and justice for everyone.

"Lure of Oblivion" worked perfectly fine as a stand alone. I do have an earlier book from a related series; I'll give that one a try and see if the romance and sex work better for me. I definitely like the world building and I want to give it another chance. Not great but worth a read.