I was surprised how much I liked this book. I picked it up for free in an instafreebie deal and thought it would be a basic shifter romance where girl meets animal-guy and there’s a conflict and then they get together with lots of fun sex involved. And, yes, this book has all of that, except it has a whole lot more. It has a complex and lovely fantasy world in Avalore, comprehensive magic system, new and fascinating magical creatures of both white and dark magic, and a whole cast of three-dimensional characters I’m looking forward to getting to know in the rest of the series. And it does a great job of challenging and debunking the whole “fated” mate trope, which is always great to see in a shifter romance. Fun and entertaining read.