ARC Review: Willing Prey by Allie Oleander

An exhilarating, primal summer fling in the woods leads to an intensely sexy, edgy romance, where anything goes—just remember your safe word.

Divorced and buried in student loan debt, Claire Collins eagerly enters a spicy business agreement with an acquaintance who wants to explore his primal desires. The deal is simple: thirty days as his sexual prey, $30,000 in her bank account. All she has to do is give Shane Underwood the hunt of his life.

Claire’s a physical education teacher and perfectly happy to spend her summer having wild, kinky sex instead of working her usual serving job. But once they cross the tree line, she realizes how little she knows about the corporate lawyer paying her to be his prey.

Shane is different in the woods. Brutal. Devastating. Feral.

That’s okay with Claire—she is, too. And she’s sinking her teeth a little deeper into Shane’s heart every time he catches her.

Title: Willing Prey

Author: Allie Oleander

Publisher:

Expected Publication Date: October 7, 2025

Review:

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for supplying me with a copy of this title to read and review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I'll be honest, I was hemming and hawing on this one. I had it on my potential request book list but was worried I would not like it. Then it popped up as a read now and I could not resist. And I'm so very glad I gave it a chance because I really enjoyed it.

Disclaimer if you are not into dark/rough spice, this one will not be fore you. There are quite a number of spicy scenes throughout and since the FMC is prey, it's pretty rough. I don't have any triggers but if you do, please do not jump into this one without checking them before you read it! The author does a great job with her note before the book starts and I highly recommend everyone give it a read.

Claire Collins, divorced and broke, signs a contract to become the prey of Shane Underwood, her ex-husband's coworker. She's desperate to pay off her loans and get her head above water. Plus, she's tried some prey chasing in the past and enjoyed it. I really enjoyed this character. She's smart and sassy and knows how to play by the rules. And she's competitive which makes the prey/predator chase throughout the book so much more fun. She's not afraid to use her voice and explore her kinks. Shane was intense. Man, I wasn't sure what to expect but he was quite a character. He starts the book off as cold and heartless to be the point of being feral but as he moves forward in his exploration with Claire, he changes. You can see him become a bit softer, though he is very territorial over Claire. I loved his background and the glimpse into his mind. I truly appreciated the exploration these two did of their base needs and understanding that different does not necessarily mean depraved.

Not only did these two characters have great chemistry, but they had some banter going on and that really made this story fun to read.

I really appreciated the dual POV in this book. It was very necessary to understand both characters well and to see why and how they grew and developed.

While this book is full of spice and some pretty tense scenes, there is also a ton of romance to be had.

I've read a few dark romances so I knew what to expect but this one was definitely tense. What made it great was the actual plot that existed. While the spice was integral to the characters, there is also a story going throughout the book. I really appreciated the joining of the two.

I'm definitely interested to see what this author comes up with next and I'm so glad I took a chance on this story!

Author:

Allie writes romance with kink exploration and characters ages thirty-five and up. When she's not writing, she's in the woods, trying to arrange a meet-cute with Bigfoot.