Book Review

Willing Prey by Allie Oleander

Genre: Erotica

This book takes romp through the woods literally.

What happens?

The main character Claire is newly divorced from her ex-husband Keith. At a work Christmas party a few years prior to their divorce, Kieth inappropriately shares details of their sex life in front of Shane, Keith’s boss.

Intrigued by the couple’s alternative sexual interests, Shane begins to explore the world of primal play with previous partners until learning Claire and Keith have separated.

Shane offers Claire a job: sign a contract and allow Shane to hunt her throughout his property for 30 pleasure-filled days. No feelings, no attachment, just sex. Claire agrees and loves every minute of the time spent living in Shane’s house. 

This book is filled with rough, kinky, and wild sex, but it isn’t just a string of erotic encounters. It contains character development in the form of a (albeit predictable) growing affection and love between the two main characters and a well established plot that introduces a good amount of conflict that keeps you engaged.

Willing Prey is as violent as it is playful, and our main man is as sexy and sinister as he is endearing and lovable. Claire claws, scratches, and bites to escape from Shane but despite her credible attempts to resist him, he captures her heart all the same.

It’ll have you redownloading your dating apps or promoting your partner to research the nearest locations to go enjoy some wild camping of your own.

Some parts of the novel bothered me slightly. Some errors were missed in the copy editing and proofreading phases: a missing capital ‘M’ at the start of a sentence (page 196 for the paperback readers).

The second glaring error is found on page 233 where an extra word should have been deleted. The sentence goes “Gretchen’s here for another week, and there’s a chance Claire mentioned told her where she was going.”

This book seemed painfully American to me at first. It almost made me put it down after the first page. Trucks and leggings and flannel shirts… 

However, just a couple chapters on these details were forgotten: the wild and erotic energy of the novel truly begins when the first hunt ensues and Claire is so adamant to escape Shane that she clambers up on the roof of his house. 

At that moment I knew Claire’s character was going to interest me. A strong, sexy woman in her thirties making money by jabbing elbows and headbutting a man in the face while he chases her through the forest? I need the sequel immediately.

The chase scenes build anticipation and are well-written enough that you know the sex scenes, when he finally gets his hands on her, will be fantastic.

This book dives headfirst into primal fantasies. It embraces nature, kink, and all the messy, messy intensity that comes with the intersection of emotional and physical desire.

It highlights the importance of aftercare, explores power dynamics, and even subverts traditional gender roles - Claire ends up holding power over Shane toward the end, which is refreshing for anyone tired of the heteronormative gender dynamics often found in erotic fiction.

A note on the publication.

Willing Prey was published by Evermore, a new romance imprint from Penguin Random House. The cover design consists of a silhouette of a woman running through the woods, clothes discarded in her path. It is a simple design of varying shades of pink, black, and white. It is discreet enough to disguise the contents, but clear enough to lovers of romance and erotica to recognise it on the shelves.

It does feel pertinent to say that this book was found lost amongst the shelves of general fiction after a thorough browsing session in Waterstones, highlighting the importance of representation of the romance genre in its own section in bookstores, and not just featured on the ‘popular on TikTok’ table. 

For those with knowledge of the publishing industry, being able to identify the logos of imprints that publish spicier material is a good way to bypass the hours you may need to spend searching for a book of this nature. However, in my opinion bookshops should embrace the romance and erotic genres by giving it more visibility in the first place.

My verdict?

Oleander writes criminally good sex scenes, mixing tension, play, and eroticism leaving you on edge and excited for the chase. 

Sink your teeth into this one.

If you enjoy Willing Prey, the sequel Prey for Me will be released September 2026, and personally, I cannot wait.