Bitter Disenchantment is a prequel to Coveted, which is the first book in the series. In the first book we meet the redheaded Aggie McClure after she had already fled her father and her pack. Bitter Disenchantment focuses on Aggie's background as the former alpha female heir to the McClure pack.

From the outside it would seem that Aggie's life was going reasonably well. Aggie, being the only daughter of Desmond McClure, lives in luxury and even had a great job at her father's company. Her largest worry is what will happen to her mother now that her father has chosen to discard her mother in hopes of getting a male heir. Though Aggie is very dominant, the patriarchal nature of werewolves means that she can never ever lead. Desmond actually tells Aggie, " If only you'd been born a man, you would've made a fine pack leader."

Things take a turn for the worst when Aggie's father announces that he intends to marry her off to Victor, thus breaking his promise to allow her to choose her own mate. Aggie is quite resistant to Victor until he courts her with food, her life long weakness. After Victor decides to romance Aggie with her life long weakness food and they marry, Aggie thinks that things just might work out. Unfortunately for Aggie things take a turn for the worst when Aggie realises that Victor has no feelings for her whatsoever and intends to turn her into a brooding mare for pups, Aggie knows that has no choice but to flee. The problems escalate when Aggie learns that her fathers new wife intends to have her mother killed.

Having read all of the books in the Coveted series before, there was no doubt that Aggie would be successful in her escape. That fact however did not interrupt my pleasure in reading this novella. I have always been curious about Aggie, and Bitter Disenchantment gave us some great insight into her life and what lead to her compulsive eating. It's so easy to understand that with Desmond's cruelty and her inability to have much control over her life why Aggie over eats. This is actually a nice change of pace because over eating in books involving supernaturals is always presented as normal and necessary because of a high metabolism. My only issue is that though Aggie quips about clogging her arteries, there are no real consequences for her over eating. Whenever an addiction becomes the topic of conversation, there needs to be some sort of consequence for it to be taken seriously. The message needs to be conveyed that addiction hurts.

In many books, the controlling nature of male werewolves is something that is heavily romanticized (yes, I'm looking at you Adam Hauptman from the Mercy Thompson series) It is excused as part of their wolf nature and women are expected to cower, or at the very least alter their behaviour to avoid upsetting them. Part of what made me enjoy this short story so much, is that even though Aggie was far from perfect, she was determined to lead her own life and make her own choices at all cost. At no time did Madison make it appear that Victor forcing Aggie to remain in her apartment, and restricting her diet to produce offspring was the least bit acceptable.

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Please note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an HONEST review. I really hate when I'm given free reads & then I don't feel like I'm giving as good a review as the publisher probably wanted, but hey - the key is HONESTY.

Bitter Disenchantment, by Shawntelle Madison, is marketed as an Urban Fantasy on her website. I know about her website simply because after I finished this novella I felt like I needed to do a bit of research about the book. I guess I either don't like this genre or I may just be too "Mom" to "get" the genre - but I just didn't like it. The writing style was fine and the editing was fine; but when I close a book & think, "WHAT THE F WAS THAT?!!!????" it's obviously not something I'm going to go back to look for more.

Aggie is a werewolf who has been mated against her wishes by her Alpha - her father. The marriage goes south pretty darn quick; the father ends up being an ass who has obviously entrenched some real issues into his child; and then the book just REALLY goes topsy-turvy after that. It's a 0.4 (Really? 0.4?? That's a new one!) entry to the Coveted series, followed by a 0.5 novella about Natalya and then a full novel about Natalya. All it does is create a lot more questions than I really feel that I care about finding an answer for right now. There's a lot of what is an obvious backstory being created regarding weres and mages and an upcoming epic battle; along with an almost callous disregard for friends' lives. If you were hoping the next story tells you what / why Aggie is so important in the overall scheme of things, I don't think we're going to get that answer since the next novella & book revolve around her friend Natalya.

Needless to say, I was very disenchanted. If you want to get started on the Coveted series, I would HIGHLY recommend that you have the books regarding Natalya right there to read behind Bitter Disenchantment. Maybe you'll find out some answers that I'm too disenchanted to discover. ( )

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

I wasn’t a big fan of Aggie’s character in Coveted but my opinion of her completely changed after finishing Bitter Disenchantment. I’m so happy that Shawntelle Madison gave her a second chance to make an impression on me! Originally I thought she was a bossy, opportunistic, spoiled brat but now I see her in a whole new light. It’s amazing how drastically your opinion of a character can change once you learn more about what makes them tick. Aggie really is an alpha female through and through.

At the start of this novella, things seem to be going smoothly for Agatha; well, that is, despite the arranged marriage thing. Victor appeared to be a decent guy and even though their relationship wasn’t founded on true love I had hope that they’d get there eventually. I actually thought that this story might be kind of boring just because it started out so perfectly. However, if reading Urban Fantasy has taught me anything it’s to expect the unexpected! Things quickly escalate and instead of having the perfect life she envisioned Aggie’s now stuck in her own personal version of hell. Her father was grooming her to be the next pack alpha but now that there’s a new man in the picture her role has been reduced to that of a breed mare. Talk about a harsh demotion!

Everyone around Agatha is struggling to understand why she can’t just be content with her lot in life. I mean, is being a rich, kept wolf really the worst thing in the world? So what if she has to pop out a few babies; the servants will take care of them, right? I admired Aggie for refusing to accept her fate and for choosing the more difficult path even if it could ultimately result in her death. In Coveted I never really understood why Aggie ran away but now that I do, I have a new found respect for her. I’m with her, I’d rather face-off against raging wood nymphs and backstabbing brownies too rather than become a baby making machine!

Bitter Disenchantment is a great addition to the Coveted series! ( )