Review: Carnal Secrets by Suzanne Wright

A pack Alpha and his estranged, true mate wrestle with painful secrets, ruthless enemies, and their own irresistible attraction, in the sexy third book of the Phoenix Pack series.

Half-shifter Shaya Critchley may hold a submissive role in her pack, but she’s done taking orders. After her Alpha wolf mate refused to claim her—but committed to interfering in her life—she took off. Now she hides from him, posing as a human in a town full of anti-shifter extremist groups. She thinks he’ll never find her again, and that suits her just fine. But she’s wrong.

Nick Axton can barely control his feelings for Shaya, but he could never claim her—not if he truly cares for her. The degenerative brain condition he keeps secret would ultimately leave her with a burden rather than a mate. But when Shaya runs away, Nick can’t bear the thought of never seeing her again. After tracking her down, he discovers Shaya’s feisty and passionate side in the process…a side he’d never seen before.

Under the menacing gazes of territorial local packs and violent human extremists, Nick vows to finally claim the spirited Shaya…and despite her initial resistance, Shaya just might find his fiery determination to be the ultimate aphrodisiac

Dear book title,

Because there was nothing carnal about this book. You were barely somewhat steamy. To put it bluntly,

Because I expected some hot sex, some smut, some domineering alpha goodness. And I got some mediocre loving and a few fade to blacks. For serious? I expected

and instead what I got was

I’d say it’s safe to say that this book was a huge disappointment for me. I have been waiting for what feels like forever for Nick and Shaya’s book. Maybe this was the case of setting me hopes too high? Who knows? What I do know, is this was nothing like the first 2 books. It felt like I was reading an entirely different series altogether.

I absolutely loved the first book. The second book was really good, though not as good as the first. This one?

The first half was a whole lot of angst. I was happy to see that Nick was not claiming Shaya not only due to her being a submissive wolf. I was also looking forward to him groveling when he finally got his head out of his ass and went after her. But I did’t expect him to be as mushy as he was. What happened to the domineering, super alpha from the previous books? It was sweet at first, but then I found myself growing tired with his constant “baby” this and “baby” that.

I also really liked Shaya at first. She was sassy, and feisty, exactly the type of heroine I like reading about. But sadly this didn’t last long either. I was tired of the constant push and pull of their relationship. Enough already! She wasn’t sassy anymore, but plain bitchy. Then she does something around the 40% mark and

I was over it!

Luckily around the half way mark, Shaya gets her shit together. But by that time I was just done. The second half of the book dragged. I skimmed pretty much at every chapter. The only highlight was getting more of Taryn, Trey, the grandma, and their snarky bickering.

The suspense and mystery of the second half of the book didn’t do much for me either. At that point I was so bored with the story that it was a whole lot of skimming.

But more than anything, where the hell was the super hot sex scenes? The smut that I’ve come to expect with this series? I’d barely call the 3 sex scenes we get here lukewarm.

There was a twist at the end. It should have been interesting?

I hope to get Dominick’s book next, and I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that this series will go back to what it once was with the next installment. Because this one left a lot to be desired, at least for me. Hopefully you all will enjoy it more than I did.

I really love this author, so I definitely plan to continue with the series. But I guess you can’t love them all…