Mack would very much like her grandmother to stop setting her up on dates, so she might have lied and said she had a boyfriend. Unfortunately, when pressed, she also attached a name to that fake boyfriend: Noah Taylor the big bad wolf of Denver General Hospital. Luckily for her, Noah’s just been outed as an unmated alpha to the hospital board, and he needs a mate quick to avoid unfortunate career repercussions due stigmas about alphas. So the cardiologist agrees to help Mack out, and soon the two of them are convincing everyone they’re a happy couple. But the longer the charade goes on the more they both realize that there might be real feelings involved, and this start to get complicated on multiple fronts.
There’s a lot to like about this book, though I think I may have set my expectations too high when picking it up. I wish there was a little bit more about shifters and how that worked. That part as it was didn’t really add much to the story except give Noah an excuse why he needed a fake make and be a reason for the two of them to have lots of sex in the middle of the book. I think the story could have probably been made to work without that aspect. There was also a part in the middle where them having sex kind of took over things for a while, and though the sex was well written, it was more than I really needed. I also have to admit that alpha/omega stuff didn’t do much for me either. It was both fairly toned down from what that can entail and well done, but it didn’t do much for me. That might be a me problem though; I was introduced to a/b/o via fanfiction where the associated tropes have a lot of breadth and depth at times, and it’s just meh for me in this case.
What really makes this story work though is the characters. Both Noah and Mack are fantastic on their own, and they have both great chemistry with one another and work well as a couple. I also really appreciated that it was more of Noah being reserved and having a bad first impression with Mack than him actually being a brilliant but arrogant asshole. Mack very quickly realizes that he’s this awkward but sweet guy who has mostly kept his distance from people trying to keep the fact that he’s an alpha a secret. And I also appreciate that he’s very much aware that Mack is competent and a great person and tells both her and other people that. They have a great dynamic together, and throughout the book acted in ways that made sense for their characters (even if on occasion that was frustrating). They kept me engaged and reading when parts of the plot didn’t work for me. It’s a good story, but I keep wanting a little more from it. Three out of five stars.