Protected Promise

ARC Shifters Series, Book 7

By: Julie Trettel

Narrated by: Joe Hempel, Carly Robins

Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Everyone has secrets. Mine's just worse than most.

For the four years Kaitlyn has been at Archibald Reynolds College, she has been watched over and cared for without question by each and every member of Delta Omega Gamma. Most don't even know why and they never ask.

Now, she's about to graduate and leave the safe haven they've created for her. She can't go back home. She's not sure she can survive on her own in the human world. But it's time she stands on her own two feet.

Scared and alone, Kaitlyn must face her life head on if she is ever going to rise above the demons of her past. Finding her one true mate threatens her new journey of healing, but also offers a new protection to hide behind.

For Kaitlyn to truly find love, she must first learn to love herself, but in doing so, she risks losing her one chance at true love.

Contains mature themes.

©2021 Julie Trettel (P)2022 Tantor

Love it

Love how the writer made love overcome a childhood fear, some people carry and turns the fear into a strength.

The struggle to overcome a troubled past and find the strength to stand on her own.

Not sure of what the future will bring, she worries about where to go and what to do, now that she is graduating from college. She struggles to realize she has met her true mate while finding a way to overcome her troubled past and find the strength to stand on her own. Loved this story so very much.

from a bad childhood she rose up and became good pack mother given the fact she didn't have training in that

what I dislike is that I'm a huge fan of Julie Trettel and I wish audible kept us more up to date on when her other books will be coming out on audible and I wish they would do that for all authors that the have bought the rights to the audio form of the book wish they would do a system that would tell us what stage of the process for each book shown that they have the rights to produce but a audiobook isn't available yet for.

Not for me

I had high hopes for this book. Even before I knew this book existed, I was rooting for the FMC and the MMC to find their true mates. I liked them from previous books in the series - especially the MMC. Unfortunately, this story has let me down. It seems like both the FMC and the MMC are acting out of character. Apart from some backstory / life facts, I feel like I know less about them now than I knew before listening to this audiobook. Personality-wise, they both feel like blank slates now. Generic "good people".

This story is different from the others in the series. There is effectively no "falling in love with each other". They just meet and are effectively almost immediately together. Then they discuss some dark things that aren't enjoyable to listen to. Then there is some preachiness. Then there is a friendly interaction with a corporate CEO's son that strains suspension of disbelief (plus they discuss shifter secrets in that guy's apartment without checking for listening devices, and they have sex there; and yes, we know that voices can be heard through that door). When they finally arrive home, they are greeted by 7 nasty women who want to fight over a man. I have zero interest in a wolfy cat fight. I am debating if I want to subject myself to the final two hours of this story. I think it'll mostly involve one or more toxic women trying to attack the FMC for a chance to be the MMC's mate. Ugh. (Update: I ended up skimming through the rest of the audiobook and my suspicions about the ending were largely correct. I'm glad I didn't waste a full 2 hours on that depressing storyline.)

I also am becoming increasingly irritated by how the women in this audiobook series tend not to respect boundaries when they want to talk to someone - especially when they want to talk to a female friend. Unlike what several of the important characters seem to believe, people ARE allowed to say "No" to social interactions. If you walk into a couple's apartment where they are about to have sex, you apologize and walk away!! You don't butt your head in and insist that your worries about that couple's problems are more important than what that couple wants to be doing in their private home right then!! I guess the males in this story can be similarly obnoxious at times, but mostly it seems like it's the women who are overbearing and annoying like that. The women in this audiobook series seem to think that their female friends owe them all their secrets, and there are several scenes of women becoming very entitled and upset when they believe they are being kept in the dark about a friend's private life. Yuck.

Boring and disappointed….

This entire series was just boring. I had to force myself to through it hoping that the story would kick it up a notch. I’m disappointed.