First of all, I would like to thank the publisher and the author for this opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book (e-ARC).

Tamed is the second book in the overarching series Off the Grid by Dr. Rebecca Sharp, and my first ever book by her. It is what I fully believed an equal balance of contemporary mystery thriller romance that took care in handling nuances about themes and topics that were not the author's personal experience.

I appreciate the research done regarding the Native American people of the Great Plains and incorporating the Arapaho indigenous language accurately--at least, the words that were used. It is also rare to read a book with all the citations and the resources, even the inspirations included and to me, that is something I don't think I've seen frequently in fiction. I really liked that. Another thing I liked about this book was Creed's family, and Savanna's family. Very different dynamics but made me nostalgic of my own family.

The book was well written and the characters have distinct voices from each other and were well rounded: a jaded ex-military with previous trauma heals with a magnificent, courageous, strong and driven indigenous woman tribal cop with a missing cousin. Together they investigate and find the root of not just the disappearances of Native American women but also the tangled web that they discovered while in their search. This book showed how the missing white woman syndrome affected not just the family but the people in Officer Savanna Jade's hometown.

Even though it was not the author's story to tell, I feel like the research done was sufficient enough to produce such authenticity to what Savanna was experiencing as a Native American, as far as a contemporary romance suspense novel goes. The focus of the book is first and foremost the romance and the dynamic between the leads, Creed and Savanna. I believe that the topics the author chose to put into spotlight were treated with care and respect. But thinking about it now, including or mentioning other minorities would have been a wonderful thing as well but I understand that the focus is the Native American women so it's alright.

While I really loved the consent between the two main characters, especially with the primal play and the nature of their physical relationship whenever they got intimate, I felt like their relationship progressed quite fast. It was love at first sight or insta-love/insta-lust. I wished that before Creed expressed deep emotions towards Savanna and vice versa, that they had slowly built up trust and gotten to know each other. To me, it read like they were attracted to each other first physically and were intrigued by each other, fell in love, and then that was the reason why they had gotten close enough to share their baggage to one another and reveal their secrets. Then they learned to let each other in and accepted being together.

I also felt like there was just too much going on with Creed's lore. He's experienced two traumas and I do not believe each were given enough focus for Creed to work on and heal from instead of just telling them to Savanna and then automatically being okay with them. The healing part was sweet because they did it together, but there's only so much you can consider and include in a smutty romance novel especially when the other genre involves a subplot of missing women, possible murder, and other twists and turns. All of those and the attempt to keep everything balanced out with the gravity of the missing white woman syndrome that affects the minorities. There was just a lot that's in there that I don't believe were executed well because yes, all of these things could be happening and could be true in the book but it only works and reads smoothly if it's done properly. Better.

The suspense/thriller was quite okay, but most often overshadowed by the steamy and emotional scenes between the main characters. And this is not to toot my own horn but perhaps I've read my fair share or too many mysteries that I've read this book and the case with keener eyes than I usually would've reading other books, but I've theorized who the perpetrator was not even 25% in the book. It was too early, it was too obvious to me. And as I read chapter by chapter and more and more scenes that insinuate who the big bad was, I kept praying that the revelation at the end would at least be huge or unexpected so it would still surprise me even though I've already known. But the end revelation was a let down for me because yes the theory was correct and the way the scene was executed was also as obvious as the breadcrumbs/hints/foreshadowing laid throughout the book.

All in all, I had a fun time reading this book and am looking forward to reading the first book as well as the sequel.