The Wolf Who Loved Me (Westfield Wolves #5) by Lydia Dare
Paranormal Romance
April 1, 2012
Sourcebooks Casablanca

Reviewed by Tori

Favorite Quote: “When I close my eyes, I dream of you. When I open my eyes, I see you beside me. When I reach out, I can touch you. It’s all I ever dreamed of. “

I am a huge fan of Lydia Dare (the writing team of Tammy Falkner and Jodie Pearson) and their sexy wolves so when I was approached to review The Wolf Who Loved Me, I squeeed like a fan-girl and pounced on it. I do so love the very bad and very sexy Westfield brothers. In here we meet the Hadley brothers, related to Dash Thrope, the hero in installment four-The Taming Of The Wolf. We first meet them in Lydia Dare’s spin off series, Gentlemen Vampires. Our hero, Weston Hadley, has loved Lady Madeline Hayburn for years but knows she is expected to make a much more brilliant match then a penniless, wild Hadley. When she accidentally comes upon him transforming into a lycan, Wes can’t risk her revealing his and his family’s secret so he kidnaps her and spirits her away to Greta Green. His reasoning? If he marries her, his secrets become hers. As Wes and Madeline get closer to Scotland and the alter, they learn more about themselves and each other. But can two strangers learn to love one another?

I was disappointed with this latest installment. The previous installments not only had spirited, engaging characters but intriguing plot lines and a swoon worthy romance. In here I found sometimes engaging characters surrounded by lackluster plots and a romance that needed more development. Some witty and humorous dialogue helps the story along but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to compensate for the over flat story.

Both our hero and heroine are trying with their unreasonable expectations and shifting emotions. Wes Hadley is the youngest Hadley and a twin. He is wild. He drinks, gambles, and lives his life to his own leisure. He’s not an rake though. He isn’t jaded or a womanizer; just young and single. When Madeline all but falls in his lap, he takes a gamble and grabs for his once thought unattainable dream. As they travel with them to get married, I found Wes’s attitude to be strange. He has loved Madeline for years and knows she doesn’t love him yet finds himself being rude and obnoxious to her on the way to Greta Green because she isn’t jumping for joy that he has kidnapped her and forcing her to marry him. I didn’t like his little digs at her upbringing. He makes fun of her for not knowing certain things and being prim & proer yet in the same breathe acknowledges that she really wouldn’t considering she is the pampered daughter of a duke.

There is even a scene where he tells Madeline of the mating ritual for wolves and she, quite honestly, tells him that she’s not sure about all that. He instantly jumps to the conclusion that their relationship is wrong, she doesn’t love him, she’d be better off without him, ect… not thinking that maybe, just maybe, she’s a little overwhelmed considering as of two days ago she didn’t even know werewolves existed.

Madeline, on the other hand, has her good moments, but frequently sinks in to a self entitlement attitude that is very unattractive and borders on stupidity.

Say what? She makes unreasonable demands, knowing Wes has neither the time nor money to spare for them. She jumps to conclusions through out the story, causing trouble when asking a simple, “why,” or confronting the problem would have solved a great deal of misconceptions. I found myself liking the hero and heroine more when they weren’t together.

There are multiple subplots scattered through out the main storyline. One involves a friend of Madeline’s and sets up a future storyline. While I enjoyed Madeline’ energetic and vibrant friend, I was disappointed in the lack of respect shown to this friend through out the story. Madeline watches as household members and even her suitors treat her friend terribly and while expressing outrage, says nothing to the offenders. In fact, no one who sees or hears of this treatment does anything. Only one time does Madeleine say something and it’s rather limp in it’s delivery. It really lowered my expectations of the whole cast of characters. It was if all the spirit, fun, and goodness in the previous installments skipped this book. They were all so….respectable, yet crueler. Grrrr. In fact, the only two characters who were remotely appealing were the Duchess and Dash Thrope. Even the “villains” of the piece are more ridiculous and juvenile then dangerous and one good slap would have solved a lot of problems.

The ending was completely unbelievable and left me feeling dirty and angry. The hero acted like the spoiled child he accused heroine of being and the heroine had to humiliate herself to prove her love to the dunderhead. Though I loved the first four installments and may read the next one, I would skip this one or merely read the scenes that show us our next hero and heroine. And honestly, that hero doesn’t look like a winner either.

Overall rating: D

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