Review: Not the Worse, But Not the Best
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 29, 2013
I've read several of Glenn's books over several series. Before reading this volume, I had read every other volume of this series (except the newest 1, vol. 7; it had not been published when I finished reading the other 5). I had not read this one, because I didn't think the books needed to be read in sequence and the summary for this one just didn't interest me enough to want to read it. Since I thought 7 costs more than what I wanted to pay, and I'd been waiting for several months, a year at least I think, for her to finish the series, because vol. 6 actually ended with a cliff hanger - I decided to just go ahead and read this volume for the sake of completion, in the mean time while waiting for the price of vol. 7 to lower, if it lowers.Well after reading vol. 1, I wish that I hadn't, but I'd been curious about how Jake and Lucas got together with Leyland, because all the others manage to refer to their relationship and the 'incident' that they had with Leyland where he almost died, at least once. Since the first vol. of the series, that I did read, explained the issue with the tri-omegas having to find their 2nd mate, once they found the first, I could deduce why or how it was the Leyland nearly died from being grounded to his room for several days. Therefore, I didn't think that the actual circumstances that led to the grounding, but just what nearly happened as a result of the grounding, was pertinent to the plots of the other volumes. In conclusion, I didn't need to read it to fully understand any of the vols. that I did read, if I didn't want to.I tried to like Secret Desires, after one read, but I just couldn't, not enough to want to keep it or suggest it to anyone else. I liked it from the very beginning, when no one other than Leyland had been introduced. I found it amusing, but then Jake was introduced, but not Lucas. And I started to wonder why Jake greeted Leyland alone without Lucas. I knew that Jake and Lucas had been together 10 years for the summary. I assumed that the summary meant mated. It didn't. And when I figured that out, I got rather disappointed with the story. I couldn't understand how Jake and Lucas after being in love with and sleeping with one another and sharing a bedroom for TEN YEARS, didn't realize that one another was mates, despite the fact that they really, really didn't believe two men could be mated, if after seeing - not touching or actually meeting - but just seeing Leyland ONCE, only once, Jake knew without a doubt that Leyland was definitely his mate, since Leyland was ALSO A MAN. I'm not sure how the author didn't see that glaring contradiction in her own work. A good friend of mine, suggested that it's probably due to not having an editor, because that's the sort of things editors catch and bring to the author's attention, before she publishes a work.The three of them Jake, Luc and Ley got things sorted rather quickly and that was good.The gaping contradiction, was just too hard for me to ignore, and that's the not so good part. Now if you have read any of the others, like vol. 2 and 3 which have the same contradiction and 4, which is the exact opposite, where the two regular wolves are mated before they meet the tri-omega and then one of them recognized the tri-omega as his mate upon the first time he met him, but the other didn't. (The 2nd one was drunk, and furious due to major jealously at the time, plus tired and sleepy, so maybe that was his excuse. Can't say, because the author never explains.) I was able to let it slide in the 2 and 3, because, in those cases, the tri-omegas 2 mates had not met and been involved before meeting him. Instead, one met the tri-omega first and got involved and then the two of them both met the third and pretty much the same time and together. So it was easier to ignore.I just couldn't get over how Jake could drop the love of his life for 10 years, for someone he'd never actually met, and then have sex with the guy - Leyland - on the way back to the house that he shared with said long-time lover. Really?!! And then when Jake and Leyland get to the house, and Lucas realizes that Leyland is his mate too, Jake immediately doesn't want to share. So first, he breaks up with Lucas, taking himself as a lover from Luc and two, when he learns that Luc actually has a fated mate, same as he does, because it just happens to be his also, he doesn't want Luc to claim the guy right away, like he just did, until HE can figure things out. So while Jake has everything including something he's always dreamed of, but never thought would happen - his fated mate,Leyland, plus Luc pining over him, poor Luc, on the other hand, has NO ONE and nothing, just immense, nearly unbearable pain and suffering, while 'Jake' figures things out. And to add insult to injury, Jake gets to have his mate 'while' he figures thing out and Luc gets to live in the same house and watch and listen to the man that he loves 'and' his mate, be with one another while he's alone and can't be with either, nor even claim his mate, Leyland, whom he has just as much right to as Jake dose - while 'Jake' figures things out.  I liked Jake; he seemed to be a good guy for the most part, but I thought in his excitement of having a mate and his rush to claim him, Jake's behavior toward Luc, the man he'd loved for 10 years, was greedy, selfish and insensitive. I don't think finding his fated mate, was a good enough reason for him to just go off and claim the guy in the way that he did, with the sex, before giving poor Luc any chance to even try to adjust. Haven't they heard of dating!! He could have just tried to get to know Leyland first, for awhile without him even being at the house or living there at least, without claiming him, while giving Luc some time to try and wrap his mind around the whole thing. But no, after only being broke up for only a few weeks, not even a month, he moves another man - fated mate or not - into the room that he had shared with Luc while Luc is still living in the same house! Really?! That was awful!!!! In my opinion it was. Fate or not, there is a right way and a wrong way to do a thing. And that was not right way. To me the author comes across saying that their love for anyone else, means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, when compared to being with their fated mate. Yes, everything worked out in the end, but neither Jake and especially not Luc knew that.Jake gets his mate, great and wonderful, and Luc just gets shafted and not in the good way. And Jake couldn't find a way to be more sensitive about it. I don't see that a fated mate allows them to just disregard someone that hey are currently involved with.I had wondered what one of them, a shifter, would do in a situation like that where, he/she met their mate, but was already in loving monogomous relationship with someone, that he/she had been with for a long time, at the time.  When I finally read an example, though, - I really didn't like it! Well sometimes, that's how it is.Yeah, I know it's fantasy, but I take love very seriously. So I don't like it, when a character in a story, is supposed to be the good-guy or the protagonist, and just treats someone they love horribly for any reason, other than to save a person's life or to like save the world (family, town, country, universe, space and time and we know it) or something of that nature.