Chloe is still recovering from the attack that would have killed her if not for Julian's ability to heal, but some damage just cannot be undone. But she is trying to adjust to her disability and move on without the mate that has rejected her time and again simply because he can't get past the age difference.

When he shows up wanting to talk to her, she just walks a way; she is done listening to his reasons for rejecting her. She understood his rejection before he was attacked and changed into a wolf but now he has no excuse and she can't deal with another rejection.

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[b:Figure of Speech|23624944|Figure of Speech (Halle Shifters, #4)|Dana Marie Bell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1417101684s/23624944.jpg|43230493] is the 4th book in Dana Marie Bell’s Halle Shifter’s series.

Fox shifter, Chloe, has been pining after Jim Woods for four years. After nothing but constant rejection, Jim is finally ready to admit to the bond he shares with Chloe. There's nothing standing in their way now, except a barrage of hunters and mercenaries targeting Chloe.

Dana Marie Bell is great at getting you invested in the side characters who populate her stories. So, after seeing all of Jim and Chloe’s angst in the previous books, I was pretty excited about reading their story. Unfortunately, I was a little let down by the direction their book took.

Prior to this, Jim had been adamantly against a relationship with Chloe, due to their age difference. This created a lot of drama between the two given their “fated mate” connection. At the very start of Figure of Speech, this is resolved, via Jim now being a wolf shifter and recognizing the bond. I was a little uncomfortable with this solution. It seemed too easy and convenient of a way to solve a conflict that had been built-up over the course of several novels. I had a hard time believing that Jim would just dive into the relationship because he's now a shifter. On top of this, Jim's past actions were excused away as misunderstandings or given noble explanations. It all added up to me feeling a little cheated. I wish that Bell had given the same weight to Jim’s reluctance and past deeds that she had in previous novels, instead of pushing it aside to concentrate on action plot.

Other than that, I thought this was a fairly good installment to the series. I’ll be curious to read about several side characters in the future (especially Barney). If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll find something to enjoy here.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )