Review: Billionaire Wolf by Karen Whiddon (The Pack)

Billionaire Wolf (The Pack #17)
Karen Whiddon
Published: Oct. 8, 2015 (Harlequin Nocturne)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Jannelle

Rating (out of 5): 3 stars

Maria Miranda is a Drakkor—a shifter transforming her human shape to that of a dragon. Throughout her entire life, it’s been drilled into her the necessity to keep her life a secret and follow her destiny: ensuring the Drakkor race lives on. Of course, the only way she can do this is to find her true love, hope he loves her back, and mate with him to conceive a child.

After years of searching for “the one” it’s looking pretty grim until visiting her favorite bar and running into Ryan Howard. Ryan, however, is a world-renowned billionaire bachelor with nothing in his life a secret. While he is a werewolf by nature, he lives his life in the spotlight, accustomed to a new model and a good time every night. However, after spending some time with Maria, he soon realizes he can’t satiate his need for her with a simple night.

While Maria and Ryan are fighting the gravitational pull they seem to have towards one another, there is a Drakkor killer on the loose—Doug Polacek, who has recently escaped prison. Polacek was responsible for the deaths of dozens of Drakkor women. After a disastrous epidemic that killed off almost all of the women of their species, there are only a few left. Unfortunately, Polacek is known for kidnapping and forcing these women to mate (as in fall in love) with him in order to conceive a child (which is the classic cocktail to have a child for the Drakkor: Love from both sides + sex = baby Drakkors). When he realizes the woman he has kidnapped is not the woman for him—happens every time—he kills her. Now with him on the loose, there is a large possibility that he will be after Maria and the handful of remaining Drakkor women at any minute.

The world building in Billionaire Wolf wasn’t complex at all. For those of you paranormal romance fans who don’t care much for world building and love a flare of drama in your novels, pick up Billionaire Wolf; you’re going to love it. Unfortunately for me, I love complex and thorough world building and a little less drama in my novels. While reading, I felt like I was missing some depth in both characters and their backgrounds (or maybe I’m just greedy and wanted more). I also felt like this translated into the pace of the novel as it staggered from periods of action to nothing at all. Arguably, there was always something going on, but that stop and go feeling remained.

I also wish there was more details in the scenes between Maria and Ryan. Every scene they were in together was full of sexual tension (those were definitely the scenes I was glued to, with non-stop page-turning). But then when the action started, it was over with the details skimmed over. While the scenes were hot, I was hoping for more.

All in all, Billionaire Wolf was an interesting read. The Drakkor’s history was fascinating and kept me hooked until the end. While I wish the pacing was more consistent and the sexy times more detailed, the dramatic flair throughout reminded me of a paranormal version of Days of Our Lives, making for a curious and memorable read.

Sexual content: references to rape, scenes of a sensual nature, sex