Wolf Protector: A Wild Security Book, Ruby Forrest

A hot man in an elevator, a shy girl making her way to a new job.  A seemingly random attack on the way home to her apartment brings these two together in more ways than one.  But unless they can eliminate the danger, they'll never find out what they could be to one another.

I had really high hopes for this book because, while having only read one other story by this author, I was impressed with the amount of great she can pack into short stories.  This, however, was a poor showing of what I'm sure she's capable of producing.

We literally know nothing about the male lead except for his name, looks, and that he's a shifter.  His job is vague, his background is nil, his thoughts and feelings are never expressed, and his connection to Mary-Ann is never fully explained.  They do have quite a bit of chemistry, though that doesn't really make the best foundation for a relationship.

Speaking of a relationship, there's no development or growth there.  Getting only Mary-Ann's POV is kind of disappointing, especially because the synopsis is from Alister's side.  There's a few mentions during Mary-Ann's confusion during and the morning after their intimate encounter that hints at the idea of something deeper, something elemental, but nothing is ironed out or even described.

There was plenty of drama to bring them together but there was little to no background of magic, stones, species, factions, roles, Mary-Ann's family coming to have the artifact in the first place...so many elements and so little explanation that I just had to pretend I didn't care about the who, why, and how.

Overall the story had great potential but didn't really meet it.  The passion was there but the characters weren't compelling as individuals so I didn't feel drawn to them or their relationship.  I wish Mary-Ann were more than merely reactionary, stubborn, and content in ignorance.  I wish Alister were more than a pair of glowing amber eyes and way, way too many smirks.  I wish more focus were given to a clear plot and getting to know the characters to provide depth and interest.  Unfortunately, that's not what the ARC contained.

*99¢ on Amazon or FREE on KU!