Little Wolf (Beings in Love #4)

Title: Little Wolf (Beings in Love #4)
Author: R. Cooper and Robert Nieman (Narrator)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: May 2nd 2016
Genre(s): M/M Paranormal Romance
Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 1.5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

On the run from his old-blood werewolf family, Tim Dirus finds himself in Wolf’s Paw, one of the last surviving refuges from the days when werewolves were hunted by humans and one of the last places Tim wants to be. Kept away from other wolves by his uncle, Tim knows almost nothing about his own kind except that alpha werewolves only want to control and dominate a scrawny wolf like him.

Tim isn’t in Wolf’s Paw an hour before he draws the attention of Sheriff Nathaniel Neri, the alphaest alpha in a town full of alphas. Powerful, intimidating, and the most beautiful wolf Tim has ever seen, Nathaniel makes Tim feel safe for reasons Tim doesn’t understand. For five years he’s lived on the run, in fear of his family and other wolves. Everything about Wolf’s Paw is contrary to what he thought he knew, and he is terrified. Fearing his mate will run, Sheriff Nathaniel must calm his little wolf and show him he’s more than a match for this big, bad alpha.

I can honestly say I did not enjoy one single part or moment of this story, either listening or reading.

There is a gross miscommunication between the two main characters. Tim is actually Nathaniel’s mate, which is known by Nathaniel and the whole town, but no one actually tells Tim. This goes on for 90% of the story, because everyone thinks Tim will eventually figure it out. Maddening doesn’t even begin to describe it.

“Is this something else I’m supposed to know? Because we both know I have no real knowledge of anything useful, the way we also know I’m getting sick of people withholding that knowledge from me.”

My frustration with the story was not helped by the fact that I found Tim to be a very unlikable character. Thoroughly clueless about everything, I found it immensely exasperating that he doesn’t try to learn anything about his species, even when he works in a gift shop with books that catalogue their history and lore.

“Oh my God.” Tim dropped the dust rag and turned around. “But I’m not loveable. I’m an asshole.”

The audio book for the story is eighteen hours and fifty-five minutes long. I tapped out with 12 hours to go. The narration was stilted, filled with pauses, and Robert Nieman reads with such a lulling tone and with so little enthusiasm I had to fight to stay awake. There were no discernible character voices used, which is a complaint I’ve made before about Nieman. Adding all of these points together caused me to DNF the audio at 35%. I just couldn’t listen to a minute more.

But I still hoped for something, anything, to validate the time I’d already put into this. I switched to the ebook from audio in order to try and finish the story, even though I had not enjoyed a moment of it until that point, because hope springs eternal. I thought maybe something would break and the story would get better for me.

It didn’t.

The story was way too long; the whole thing could have easily used a 120 page cut with a good editor. The final nail in the coffin for me though was the on page sex between Tim and a character who was not his mate, Nathaniel (which I couldn’t really fault him for as he didn’t know he had a mate). And, even though I can’t fault the character for the action it left an indelible smear on the whole thing for me.

I cannot recommend it.

I haven’t read the series and I can admit after my experience with this story I have absolutely no desire to read any of the other stories in the series after this taste either.

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