Review: Highly recommended shifter story!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 14, 2014
Cardeno C continues the Mating series with a third great shifter story. Samuel, son of the pack Alpha, is a werewolf scholar. If pack hierarchy were designated other than in Greek letters he would be the pack Rabbi. He has studied the history, traditions, and laws of werewolf culture and knows it backwards and forwards. To his dismay he discovers that other wolf shifters have paid little attention to the historical documents and seem to be making up pack rules as they go along. Korban, son of the neighboring pack’s Alpha has been smitten with Samuel for many years, a fact to which Samuel is ignorant. Could Samuel and Korban be that rare occurance, True Mates, fated to be bonded mystically, and even more unusual, gay True Mates? Samuel has a personal problem, which becomes a pack problem when his father is challenged for the position of Alpha. We get to hear more about the MCs from the first two Matings books, which I always like in a series. There is some homophobia as well as political power play that are dealt with in various ways, and with wolves that can be violent. The good guys don’t always win but there is an HEA in the end. That isn’t a spoiler; this is an erotic romance after all is said and done.One of the things I particularly like about Cardeno’s writings is the way heritage is embedded in Cardeno’s writing. In this case, the characters’ names are either direct or derivations from Biblical names, without making the stories about any particular religion or ethnicity. Pack names are also ethnic, rather than geographical. It’s a small thing but it personalizes the stories and makes them unique and memorable.I have always enjoyed Cardeno C’s work and this newest release does not disappoint. Excellent writing, world building, character development, and story flow. I highly recommend it.