All Kidding Aside: Magical Mates Book 1, Macy Blake

Jumping back into the world of The Chosen One and the Hellhounds gives us all the after, all the children, and all the crazy that follows every single individual.  There are happy surprises, interesting discoveries, an alpha lion who never met a four-letter word he didn't like, and a murderous fae who nearly ruins everything.  If you're looking for a crazy world, adorable shifter children, and a pair of mates who need a miracle to get on the same page then look no further.

Victor is a prickly griffin with a big job to do.  And when a cute little red panda cub sets his sights on him his life is instantly changed.  No white shirts will survive, but neither will his heart; it now belongs in the little grubby hands  that have just as tight of a grip on his vintage Hermes tie.  But it's when the giant bear shifter enters his life that everything makes sense...and scares him beyond imagining.  I liked Victor, even his little escape fits him to a T and is actually quite tolerable because aside from distance, he doesn't do idiotic things to truly ruin everything as one might expect from many other stories with characters like him.

Riggs is baffled by the beautifully fractious Victor and their attraction is definitely present.  My favorite moment between them was definitely the half-asleep kitchen shuffle that started everything steamy between them.  It was adorable and spicy all at the same time and endeared me to him more than nearly every other moment in the story.

Both men coming together for the project of housing everyone showed a pretty competent team and then when they worked together to care for and about Gus I was sold.  That's not to say they were perfect or awesome, they didn't truly meet those descriptors.  They were pretty simplistic characters, good ones, but not especially deep or compelling.  It was how everything worked together as a whole family unit within a rambunctious pack that made it all fit.  This was definitely a fitting story to add to the Chosen One Universe and I'm absolutely coming back to it to see more magical mate pairings because I can't seem to get enough of their world and the children that need so very much.

*$4.99 on Amazon

Building houses for a pack of orphans might lead one griffin to find his heart’s home.

Victor Eastaughffe knows three things for a fact:
-He does not have a mate.
-He does not like children.
-His duty is to his griffin clan.

When Victor meets Orsen Riggs, a scruffy bear shifter, and little Gus, an orphaned red panda cub, his orderly, structured world becomes messy and chaotic. All the things he once held true suddenly don’t make sense.

Asked to help the Smith pack navigate the difficult world of shifter politics, Victor realizes he might not know himself as well as he thought. Magic is in the air, and it’s making him long for things he never wanted before. But duty comes before all else, even at a price Victor no longer wants to pay.