Declaration of Courtship

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Synopsis

Cooper is a dominant wolf and the head of the SnowDancer pack's San Gabriel den. Shy engineer Grace has recently come to live and work there, sending Cooper's desire into overdrive. But given that she's one of the most submissive wolves in the pack, he knows he'll have to tread lightly in order to show her that they could be a great match. Grace isn't so certain, though. While Cooper may star in all her sexy fantasies, she's skeptical that both wolf and woman could ever accept a big, bad dominant like him. But when Cooper pulls out all the stops to court her in the most spectacular way, she can't help but be charmed. But will him holding back the dark nightmares of his parents' deaths from her ruin the trust building between them?

Review

Declaration of Courtship is a short novella that falls between Play of Passion and Kiss of Snow in the Psy-Changeling series chronology. In this one, we have dominant wolf Cooper, who is a SnowDancer lieutenant and who I'm pretty sure has been seen in previous books of the series, paired with Grace, an engineer and submissive wolf, who I don't recall being mentioned before. Cooper is in charge of the SnowDancer's San Gabriel den. Ever since Grace came to work there, he's wanted to pursue her, but as a dominant, he knows he'll have to tread lightly in order to win over a woman as submissive as Grace is. For her part, Grace has been deeply attracted to Cooper, too, but she believes a relationship with him would never work because she doubts that her wolf would accept him. Cooper isn't inclined to let that deter him, though, so he pulls out all the stops, courting her with a slow sensual seduction. However, Cooper has been having terrifying nightmares about his parents' deaths that happened years ago and has been stoically holding back this information from Grace, which could derail all the hard work he's been putting into convincing her that they belong together.

Although being a submissive wolf doesn't necessarily mean that she's a pushover, Grace is very sweet, while also being a wicked smart engineer. I like that she was brave enough to give a relationship with Cooper a shot, and I love how supportive she was of him, wanting him to let her into every part of his life, no matter how dark or frightening. Cooper is a yummy dominant wolf, who definitely knows how to romance a girl. Once Grace agrees to give it a try, he goes out of his way to make her feel special with all his little gifts and overtures. Determined to find a way to balance out their temperaments to make it work, he's also extremely patient with her and her wolf, giving them all the time they need to adjust. He does rather stubbornly hold back his fears over his nightmares from her, making me wish a couple of times that he'd allow himself to be more vulnerable. But it all worked out in the end and when he finally does reveal the truth it was a lovely moment. Because this is a slow-burn romance, there are only a couple of love scenes near the end, but they were every bit as steamy as I've come to expect from this author. Everything taken together, Declaration of Courtship ended up being another winner in the Psy-Changeling series for me and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.

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Nalini Singh

Themes

Geniuses, Scholars & Scientists aka Geeks - Heroines
Physically Imperfect Heroes
Tortured Heroes