Review: Willing Prey by Allie Oleander

Willing Prey (Feral Love #1)
by Allie Oleander

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Erotic Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Anything goes in the woods…

Drowning in student loan debt, Claire Collins is about to be made an offer she can’t refuse: spend thirty days indulging corporate lawyer Shane Underwood’s primal desires in exchange for $30,000. All she has to do is give him the hunt of his life.

Claire’s perfectly happy to swap her boring summer serving job for wild, kinky sex. But once they cross the tree line, she realizes how little she knows about the man paying her to be his prey.

Shane is different in the woods. Brutal. Devastating. Feral.

That’s okay with Claire—she is, too. And she’s sinking her teeth a little deeper into Shane’s heart every time he catches her.

My Review

I bought this book shortly after release day as I liked the premise for it and wanted to read it. I decided to get the book in audio as I figured I would get to it sooner then and I already was familiar with one of the narrators. I wasn’t fully convinced I would enjoy this one, but curious enough I wanted to give it a try. It took me a while before I finally found myself in the mood for a steamy romance book and decided to start this one. I enjoyed this one even more than I had expected. It is a very steamy romance with plenty of sexy scenes, but I found there’s a lot of character depth and romance development as well and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Willing Prey follows the story of Claire and Shane and is told in dual point of view. Claire has student debt to pay off and recently got out of a messy divorce as her now ex-husband cheated on her. When Shane offers her a summer of hot sex by being his prey for 30,000 dollars she says yes.

I wasn’t quite sure about the dual point of view set up at first, I thought getting Shane’s point of view made him less mysterious and frankly more creepy as we find out how he got to invite Claire for this. But the further I got the more I was glad to have his point of view, as it quickly becomes clear how much he cares for for Claire and how quickly he falls for her. I also grew to understand his personality better and why he acted the way he did. The Dual point of view really allowed me to get a good understanding of both characters. They both feel very real and have their own trauma and struggles that get touched upon throughout the story.

This is a very steamy book and there’s a lot of steamy scenes. I was in the mood for a steamy read so that worked well. And even so I had almost expected there to be even more sex. Don’t get me wrong there is a lot of sex, but there’s still a lot of romance building and so many sweet and cute banter scenes between the two of them as well. I also think it’s important to note that while Claire has a contract with Shane, she’s totally into primal play and loves it as much as he does. It’s completely consensual and the fact they both enjoy it as much made the sex scenes fun and hot to read. This book has a big variety of steamy scenes and I liked that while they often had a similar vibe the scenes still felt differently enough. The book has an excellent content warning beforehand so you know what to expect.

I really liked reading about these characters. The writing style was well done and easily pulled me in from the first chapter. I enjoyed getting to know Claire and Shane more and they both felt like real people with a lot of depth. They are also both older characters, I think Claire is like 35 and Shane is 40 if I remember correctly, which was nise to see as a lot of romance books follow younger characters This also influenced a lot of who they are as they both have been through a lot and they also are more established when it comes to work and friends.

I really liked seeing them figure out how to go from the contract to a real relationship. There is a bit of drama and conflict there, but I thought it was well written, fit the characters and got resolved quickly in a way that made sense for the characters, which I liked. Again the dual point of view really works here as it’s clear they both don’t want their connection to end and want more and I understood why both characters act the way they do. Seeing Shane and Claire try to communicate and make this relationship work was just wonderful. I liked there is more to the book after that and it still goes on for a while so I could see them making their relationship work. The epilogue was great too and seeing how they’re doing a few years later.

This book also has some interesting side characters and as soon as Shane’s brother Caine gets introduced I knew he would get his own book and was excited to discover there will indeed be more books in this series. Margot and Claire’s friendship was awesome to see and I was happy to discover Margot and Caine are the couple for the next book. I also liked Claire’s best friend who knows what’s going on and checks in with her.

I really enjoyed listening to this one. Amy Hall is a narrator I already know and enjoy her style and I liked how she voiced Claire. Aaron Shedlock was a new to me narrator and I thought he did Shane’s chapters really well. I think the dual narration really worked here and I enjoyed listening to this audiobook.

To summarize: I had a great time listening to this book and enjoyed it even more than I had hoped. This is a very steamy romance book, but they are both very into the primal play sex they’re having and it’s all consensual. There are plenty of steamy scenes and a lot of variety in the actual scenes, but next to that there’s also plenty of sweeter scenes with the characters connection and falling in love. I thought the dual point of view worked well here, while at first I didn’t like how Shane was less mysterious this way and more creepy, having his point of view really helped later on as it made it clear why he acted the way he did. I really liked getting to know both of these characters. They are in their mid thirties/ early forties and have been through some things, this book touches upon their struggles and trauma. I liked seeing these two fall for each other and slowly figure out how to have a relationship. There are some fun side characters and I am excited Margot and Caine’s romance will be next. The narrators were fantastic and I really enjoyed listening to this one.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.