Safe in His Arms (Wildwood Mates Book 1)

This was a safe read. Very low angst, easy to get into. No real problems. It losses a star though for one big technical issue from me. Rome vs Roman. The book starts off in the first paragraph saying “Roman was”. The very next paragraph says “Rome looked”. I thought there were two different people. It didn’t end there. It goes on to introduce the pack members, cousins brothers and even his twin with whom he is only ten minutes older. With all these names and the consistent changing from Rome to Roman, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t lost, confused, and a bit annoyed.

In all fairness, I’ve seen this done before. Hell, I’ve done it. So it isn’t the fact that both names are interchanged in the narrative it’s the placement. Something about it jarred me. It was probably the lack of set up for it that made it problematic. It happened so fast. First word first paragraph, which was really short, had one name. The second had another name as the first word but I wasn’t told ‘his name was Roman but his friends call him Rome’. There wasn’t a dialogue section where they called him Rome after setting the reader up with the name Roman in the Narrative to clearly Identify it’s the same person. So for a while it simply read like two different people and required a few rereads of some sections.

The next issue was the chapter after he and Devon bond it begins four days later. Devon wakes up after a night of awesome lovemaking and other activities, at least according to the first sentence but he didn’t just wake up. Four days have passed, and I’m reading this chapter like they just woke up the day after and then somewhere in the middle or close to the end I find out nope. Four days, not one. By this point, the reader is probably already committed to the idea that Devon woke up immediately the following day still enjoying the glow of the previous night. Having the time so late in the chapter bumped me out of the story for a while and slowed down the pace because I had to go reread it to be sure I wasn’t losing my mind and this was the first mention of passing time.

The sharing thoughts plot line is common for shifter romance. I don’t understand why were-fiction does this but it’s odd. Why would anyone be okay with someone spying on their thoughts. It just reeks of personal space violation. Since there’s only a teeny nip of it in this book I could’ve ignored it but Rome/Roman pries into Devon’s past without allowing Devon the chance to open up more and reveal in his own time and that rubbed me wrong. It’s almost like taking away Devon’s power as a separate entity. People should be allowed their secrets and grief and be able to heal as best fits them. Devon was right to be annoyed his thoughts were taken without his permission.

Won’t say much about this one but every Mpreg I read has the omega getting pregnant after the first encounter. Everytime. It’s like their only use is to be helpless enough to be protected and push out babies. Can’t they have more value than that?

Beyond the pregnant immediately trope, the confusing name usage and the one timeline issue, this book is well written. It’s a sweet story about a wolf who finds his mate and helps him heal. A feel-good kind of novel. I enjoyed it but not enough to delve into the second part. This book felt like ‘the dealing with Devon’s past’ drama should have been included and maybe added about two or three chapters. These chapters could also have shared more time with the two leads for a nice wrap-up. I just wasn’t interested enough to read another story to see how all that sorts out.

I’d recommend this story if you like your romance to go just a bit deeper and are a big fan of the Alpha Omega formula of romance. This story hits it well enough to be enjoyable and is a quick read. A nice way to pass the time. But if you really want to dig in to a progressing relationship the leads don’t seem to spend enough time together for that to pay of, especially with it not, as I said above, taking the time to really dig into the issues with Devon’s past.