Story Rating: 3.75 stars
Audio Rating: 5 stars
Narrator: Gary Furlong
Length: 9 hours, 21 minutes
Audiobook Buy Links: Amazon/Audible | iBooks
Book Buy Links: Amazon | iBooks
Wade had a rough start to his life. Enslaved and made to fight for the amusement of cruel vampiric masters, he was rescued by Patrick and Jono, who not only took down a god, they saved Wade in every way that mattered. They have given Wade not only their love and protection, they also made certain he had therapy, an education, and a sense of self. For all that he’s a dragon, one of the most powerful beings in the world, Patrick and Jono made sure he had a curfew, did his homework, and kept his apartment clean. Thanks to them, Wade has made it to his twenties with his humor and his humanity (dragon-ity?) intact.
This time, though, he’s on his own, with a mission for his pack. He’s going to find a missing god pack alpha, save a handsome selkie’s sister, conquer his fear of vampires, and eat his way through Boston. Donuts, pizza, waffles, clam chowder, fae fruit, you name it, he’ll eat it. Hell, he’ll even eat a demon if he has to — he doesn’t want to, mind you, because they taste awful — and he’s going to do it all without Patrick needing to save him!
What Wade doesn’t count on is falling in love. After the life he’s lived, love is something he gets from his pack; sex is … well, that’’s what therapy is for. With Riordan, though, it’s different. The man smells good, like the ocean, and more than that, he needs Wade’s help. And Wade would love to help him.
Riordan is a selkie, hundreds of years old and with a vast experience in the world. What he hasn’t ever seen before, though, is someone like Wade, who can eat and eat and eat … and never get full. Someone who can fill a room with his presence and a looming sense of power one minute, and feel like just a kid in the next. Wade’s charming, he’s friendly, he’s determined to help everyone, and he smells amazing. He smells, in short, like Riordan’s destined mate. But the young man has had a troubled past and Riordan is determined to not rush things. That, and it’s not a great time to start a romance when Riordan may yet have to sell himself away to save his people.
Secondhand Skin is the newest entry Hailey Turner’s Soulbound universe, and it’s all about Wade, everyone’s favorite fledgling. This book is best read in connection with the main Soulbound series, which takes you through Wade’s rescue and semi-adoption by Patrick and Jono, and the ways he has grown from a frightened young man to one of the heroes who helped save the world. Honestly, reading this book without reading the previous books takes away all the triumph and all the delight in watching Wade strut his stuff.
Wade is a young twenty-something who endured years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and is still coming to terms with it all. Riordan is a 600-year old adult — and I have to say, I was very much not a fan of the he’s mature for his age-esque comment Riordan gave when questioned about their romance. Insta-love, fated mates, those things can work (and have worked) for me with this author … but not in this book, not with both how Wade has been established and with how the romance comes together.
This is Wade’s first romance, his first willing sexual experience. And it’s wham-bam-thank you man and on to the plot we go. It’s too fast and too perfunctory. And, again, the maturity disparity and power imbalance between the two is not to my taste. I understand wanting to give Wade a happily ever after, because he deserves it, and I think this story might have worked more for me if more time had been given to developing the romance between the two, rather than it being “you smell good, I love you ” and “you smell good, I love you back.”
All that said, I did really enjoy so much of this book. Early on, while attending a fae wedding, Wade makes certain to squeeze between Patrick and a friend, much as he does on the couch at Patrick and Jono’s house, sprawled at Patrick’s side. It’s Patrick his thoughts turn to, again and again, when he’s in trouble. How would Pat do this, what would Pat say? And, most tellingly, it’s Patrick’s calls he avoids because Patrick is perhaps the only person who can make Wade obey him. Jono, yes, sure, but Jono’s the “good” parent. The nice one. Patrick’s the one who has gone to hell and back to save Wade … and who is willing to go through that again just in order to ground him. Even though Patrick and Jono don’t appear all that much in this book, their presence is all over Wade. It’s in Wade’s ability to trust himself, his desire to stand up for other people, his understanding of right and wrong, all the lessons they taught him through example. And when Wade meets Carmen and Lucien again, it’s not Jono’s book he takes a leaf from, it’s pure Patrick, both his treatment of them and his trust in them.
I also loved that, at the end, when Patrick finally does show up, there’s no shovel talk. Patrick isn’t there for Riordan, he’s there for Wade. He will always be there for Wade. He doesn’t judge, doesn’t critique (well, maybe a little), he simply expects that Wade did the job he was supposed to do and did it well. It’s a lovely meeting full of all the rapport and trust and love that those two have built up over the series. And while a big deal is made of Wade sharing his food with Riordan — which is, I’ll admit, sweet — Patrick is the only person who can just grab a bite off Wade’s plate and get away with it.
It’s a joy reading this book and seeing how Wade has grown, seeing him stand taller with the idea of being trusted, and how he is able to ask for help. If the romance hadn’t been so fast and heavy handed, I would have liked this more. As it is, while it’s a nice conclusion to Wade’s story, it’s not the one I wanted or one I’m altogether comfortable with. If you’ve read the Soulbound series and loved it, you’ll enjoy this book. If you haven’t read the series and this is your first introduction, I hope you take the time to go back and read the other books in this series because they’re just that good.
As ever, narrator Gary Furlong does an absolutely amazing job with the different accents; Wade’s constant eating; the different levels of mortal and god, vampire, shifter, and fae; and makes them all distinct. This is one of the few series where I enjoy the audio version just as much (if not more, in some cases) as the ebook itself.
