Review: A Bad Date turns into a Lifetime Commitment with Wolf Bites, history lessons and not-Thrones
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 8, 2011
First book in "Vulfen Cadre" series. No further books available on Amazon at the time of this review.Plot:If Ellie becomes Rylek's mate, not only will she be hunted by humans, but also those Vulfen (werewolves) who don't think she's good enough for their Alpha. She'll show them how good a Queen a human can be.Comments:- A paranormal shifter spicy romance - some explicit bedroom scenes, wolf shifters (Vulfen) and some other paranormal references (eg references to the existence of vampires).- 2814 kindle locations, 33701 words- Sex is all m/f, generous, caring, varied.- Ellie is a pretty "normal" woman, until she met Rylek. She's "curvy", intelligent, opinionated, but also accepting of change, open to other's feelings and beliefs.Opinion:An earlier reviewer made the comment "Unexpectedly great..." and I agree. I wasn't expecting that much from "Vulfen Alpha's Mate". I have read Kenney's other books (the DIG security series) and found them enjoyable. Yet I guess I expected "Vulfen Alpha's Mate" to be fairly ordinary, more of the same. The description suggests a Mating-Lust-Imperative coupled with Alpha male, wussy female and a little tension from a "traitor in the midst". Surely I've read it before. And the title didn't fill me with hope. But it wasn't like that. Well, it was, but it was written in such a way that it didn't feel like it. Rylek and Ellie are interesting, well-developed characters. We like them. We understand them. The sex is loving and steamy. The emotions are real and the plot is sufficiently complex to keep us reading. This is an excellent addition to the Shifter genre. I liked it and I recommend it. I am keeping an eye out for Book 2.Aside:World Definition. "Vulfen Alpha's Mate" is the first (and so far only) book in a new series by Laina Kenney. A lot of work has gone into setting up this World, and it has been done really well. We aren't inundated with exposition, but rather Ellie asks questions, and Rylek answers them. As an intelligent woman, Ellie asks questions about she has gotten herself into. She thinks. She wants to know. And Rylek explains. Kenney allows that to direct the telling of the World, and we learn as Ellie does. It isn't an overly original Shifter World - there isn't (yet) anything particularly extraordinary. But there doesn't need to be (any more than we expect it from a Regency or Wild West World). This is how a Shifter World works and this is what we need to know.-CR-