Diana McKinley

2.50 stars

This book could have been three stars, but the epilogue by its lonesome was a gag worthy effort at best and took forever to get through. Ye gads, I had a hard time finishing this particular effort, especially after the 80% mark when Malic finally gets his heads in the right order and started actually treating Corwin with respect. You'd think I would be happy at this point after all the nonsense the idiot put his mate through, but all I really wanted to do was rush through this story and get it done and over with.

From the time they are very young wolves, Malic and Corwin, the MCs, share a mate bond and a destiny: to be the Alphas of the Alphas of the shifter clans. Malic is the Tyree Alpha and Corwin is the Tanamos Omega, a perfect blend of gifts, powers, and abilities, born to lead and protect. For Malic, this means he immediately feels trapped into a life not of his choosing or desire. All he can see is a life of servitude to a destiny he wants to avoid. Unfortunately, in his rebellion, starting at age 16, he drags Corwin, who's only 13 at the time, into a swirl of pain, desperation, and unhappiness. At this point in the narrative, I was really wanting these two characters to be several years older, especially Corwin. I admit that I think kids under 18 should not be having sex - Malic's actions and obvious immaturity only reinforce this thinking. I usually keep this thought to myself, but in this case, I really think it's the right response

I give the author kudos for exploring what a mate bond would be like for all involved, not just the two (or more) people who share the bond, but also their supporting network of family and friends. Of all the books I have read featuring a mate bond, this one really delves into how such a bond would affect people, from being a nebulous feeling when the mates are too young to understand, to the pain felt by both mates when one decides he's going to be a horse's hind end.

To be honest, I don't think Malic paid his dues at the end of this book. He gets off really lightly thanks to Corwin's too sweet nature. Malic should have suffered a lot for being a royal jerk and I really wanted someone, like maybe his father, to really give him several Dinozzos (smacks) up the back of his head and maybe Corwin's brothers taking him down in an all out smack down, even if he is an Alpha. I lost any respect for Malic, what little I had at the beginning of this journey, when, at the end of his Alpha Challenge (something like a spirit quest) he finds out that another Alpha male has been sniffing around Corwin and out comes the alpha-hole behavior, something which has often led me to DNF a book in the past.

I persevered, however, and kept reading, hoping for an improvement. The two do make up, Corwin forgives the idiot and they have a happy, happy day in which they exchange their love bites, etc. and so forth. And the narrative now revolves around how many times the author can work in a sex scene. I really started skimming after that because ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz. It got old fast. Also, all the "I love yous" the pair say to each other made me roll my eyes. They barely know each other on any level but the mate bond, especially in the beginning, especially since they did not spend much actual time in each others company. Annoying to read and not really believable in the least.

[Edited to add]: All the wedding stuff was actually more a drag on the story than exciting and I'll never understand why bother with a buildup of something if the exciting thing you get married for has already happened? (note my paragraph above).

I kept hoping that the author would move the narrative and plot forward, showing how the characters grew together over time, including settling into their respective roles, and starting their family ... but she jams all of that into the epilogue almost like it was an afterthought and not really part of the book. All those pages taken up by sex scenes could have been better put to what the epilogue had to do and it was not satisfying in any way. I also think Corwin's character would be better served if his narrative were in third person.

A kind person loaned me this book and I thank that person very much.… (más)