Review:
In the world of this book, wolf shifters exist alongside humans and are generally accepted, although there are some stereotypes about alpha and omega wolves. Mackenzie is an omega wolf shifter who's tired of being set up on bad dates by her well-meaning grandmother. In order to get her grandmother off her back, she makes up a fake boyfriend and finds herself instantly backed into a corner when she's asked for a name and the only one she can think of is Noah Taylor, aka a wolf shifter and the grumpiest cardiologist at Mackenzie's hospital. Mackenzie asks Noah for help making the lie more believable and ends up agreeing to be his fake mate - he's just been outed as an alpha and must somehow combat stereotypes about violent unmated alphas in order to keep his job.
This was a delightful grumpy/sunshine romance. Noah was viewed as a terrifying ogre by most of the hospital, but as Mackenzie got to know him, she realized he was just intense, introverted, and bad with people. The blend of contemporary romance "fake dating/marriage" with light wolf shifter paranormal romance aspects (they have to scent each other to make their relationship believable, and Mackenzie goes into heat once) was perfect. I loved the lack of weighty pack politics - Mackenzie and Noah were just regular people worrying about their jobs and families. They just happened to be a bit biologically different from humans.
For some reason, reading this reminded me of reading manga. I could absolutely imagine it as a fluffy romantic workplace manga with lead characters whose wolfy aspects led to things between them getting a bit steamier than they expected.
The obstacles standing between Mackenzie and Noah's romance weren't really that solid. Yes, Noah was considering a new job in Albuquerque, but it wasn't a done deal. And Mackenzie didn't necessarily have anything against relationships and dating in general (although I expected her to freak out a bit more once she realized that the stories about alpha and omega relationships maybe had some truth to them). Honestly, everyone in this book complicated things way more than necessary. Did that make this any less fun to read? No, it did not.
I'm curious about whether I'd like Ferguson's purely contemporary romance stuff as much as I enjoyed this - the paranormal aspects made it fairly easy to accept the speed with which Mackenzie and Noah started lusting after each other, and the scenting stuff (basically, nuzzling each other's necks) gave them lots of believable opportunities for very close physical contact. I could have done without the knotting thing, though, despite Mackenzie's assurances that it was actually pretty enjoyable.
All in all, this was a lot of fun, and I'd happily read another blend of contemporary and paranormal romance from this author. I may even give one of her regular contemporary romances a try.
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