Mated, Tricia Owens

Some truly interesting shifter concepts, beliefs, and practices were introduced in this book and coupled with a mystery that has greater significance for Wren than he could fathom, and you've got the makings of a really great story.  ...The makings of...what we got fell a bit short for me.  It opened with an emotionally fraught situation and something quite intriguing and ended with all kinds of heart and hope.  I just wish all the other parts supported the bookends.

I spent a lot of the book being incredibly uncomfortable and a bit confused with all the pushing and pulling.  Gideon has ulterior motives, secrets, and isn't forthcoming about anything until the end.  The surprise is truly the mother of all surprises and is absolutely heartbreaking but there's never any clue that it's for the benefit of anyone but himself up to the point it's all revealed.  Even during the reveal it feels more like a punishment and something vindictive rather than freeing and supportive.  I had a seriously hard time liking him as a character as well as getting behind pretty much anything he did.  Constantly I felt that he was using Wren and was a manipulator without a lot of altruistic motives despite his pack coming across as open, happy, and satisfied.

Wren intrigued me right from the start with his damage, his unwilling subservience, his heart.  But when Gideon came into the picture it threw Wren off big time and I don't know that I liked Wren's compulsion to be mated to Gideon.  The way he doggedly persisted made me feel more like he was a doormat than determinedly going after the one he knew should be his mate.  As the story progressed it felt more like Wren was falling apart piece by piece by taking everyone and everything on his shoulders since Gideon couldn't be fully trusted.  Until nearly the end.  When Wren finally managed to stand strong and take what was his it was great, but the lead up made it a pain to get to that point.

The ending was rushed and didn't do the climax justice.  While it was wonderful, the ramifications for all that was revealed almost being worth the wait, it really needed something to lighten it all up before we got there.  I was so drawn in by they synopsis and while so many others rave about the story, I just felt overwhelmingly uncomfortable for the majority of the read.  The ending was night and day different from the dark feeling the book began with so if you can make it through, you just might find it worth your time.

*$4.99 on Amazon

As the brother of the pack alpha, Wren knows his place, even if that place occasionally brings him to harm. It's simply pack rules. But when a handsome new alpha and his pack come to town, challenging the status quo, Wren finds himself torn between the old wolf shifter attitude and a new one.

Gideon is the alpha of the Corwin pack. Though he moved into the territory to take advantage of business opportunities, the moment he encounters the young black wolf with the blue eyes, he find his priorities changing. Wren is obedient as a good beta should be, but Gideon is banking on him having a rebellious streak. The only way to find out is to gamble: by forcing a marriage between their packs. But it's a step that unleashes homophobia, deadly danger, and the discovery of a dark secret that was never meant to surface. And it may involve Gideon losing his heart.