Review: Unique Shifter Angle
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 29, 2013
Aidan O'Connell is still learning to deal with his roommate, his friend Liam. Liam is nursing a broken heart after his human mate rejected him and his shifter ways. This rejection has caused serious problems with Liam and the only way to help him if for Aiden to call a half-shifter psychiatrist named Jaylin Avgar. As soon as she stepped on the porch, Aiden's inner beast knew she was "The One."Dr. Jaylin Avgar hasn't treated a shifter in months, having completely removed them from her practice.  The horrendous consequences of their eternal mating has Jaylin completed jaded to the point that she will never mate with a shifter.  Being eternally linked to a shifter with the potential of having to live life without her mate, or her mate having to live without her, in case of an early death doesn't sit well.  Jaylin is only going to seek out human companionship because she thinks it will be safer for her heart.When Aidan and Jaylin meet, there is a definite change in the air.  They both know when Aidan's beast symbolically marks Jaylin as Aiden's mate.  Jaylin fights the attraction tooth and nail, rejecting Aidan before even giving their relationship a go.  Seeing that she's going to be difficult, Aidan falls back to the guy he used to be in order to persuade Jaylin.  Aidan even goes so far as to fake a psychiatric case to get her on a plane to the tropics.  Will Aidan be able to convince Jaylin that all she feels about the mating instinct is false and that they truly do belong together?The shifter aspect was a bit different than the norm which gave this book an edge.  I almost wasn't sure about this story at first, though.  The beginning is heavily devoted to Liam and the rejection by his mate, Ava, so I wasn't quite sure who the book was supposed to be about.  Especially so, since the book description clearly spoke about Aidan and Jaylin as being the main characters.  The information, however, is detrimental to the plot and is a great set up for not only Aidan and Jaylin's story but Book 2, The Awakening: Liam (which I started immediately after finishing The Awakening: Aidan).The author wrote Jaylin pretty well and brought out her emotions, paranoia, and feelings with intensity.  Aidan was a strong male character but he also had emotional depth.  These two were not superficial nor 2-dimensional; they were very much full of life, regardless of the emotions they were feeling at the time.  Jaylin really felt that she had a handle on her life, the ways of shifters, and how to avoid the unhappiness that mating would cause.  She was woman enough to admit her inaccuracies and fully realize what mating means.  Aidan tried and tried to get her to understand that the patients she's seen in the past were not part of the normal shifter population.  His patience began to wear pretty thin toward the end and a situation arose that forced Jaylin to rectify the issues she had and accept who she was and what her relationship with Aidan meant ~ although, it may have been too late (you'll have to read the book to figure it out).I enjoyed this story very much.Review Copy Courtesy Of:  Entangled Publishing, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.