Review: 3.5 stars
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 28, 2013
3.5 starsREVIEW: THE AWAKENING: Aidan is a contemporary paranormal, shifter romance storyline that builds upon the various emotional and physical states of shifters when the male is rejected by his female mate. Although this particular installment focuses on Aidan ( a cougar shifter) and Jaylin, much of the story's premise is driven by a mass of world building and, the emotional and psychological breakdown of Aidan's friend Liam when his mate rejects him after she has been marked.The story follows Aidan as he is desperate to find help for his best friend and `brother' Liam, who six months after rejection, is bordering on permanent withdrawal and suicide. Much of the novel's focus is dependent on world building with an influx of terminology for each of the various stages of finding one's mate, bonding and rejection. As an introductory storyline, The Awakening: Aidan is awash in plenty of background information and psychological description, courtesy of Aidan's future mate Jaylin Avgar-a half shifter who wants nothing to do with shifters in both her personal and professional life. As you can imagine, Jaylin's rejection of Aidan sets into motion another shifter spiral into the depths of despair and despondency over the potential loss of one's mate.The character building is fairly fluid, but Jaylin's personality and need to prove her rejection of everything shifter got to be a little too much at times. She was annoying and difficult to like especially when at every opportunity she gave mixed signals to the shifter who wanted nothing more than to claim and bond with his mate. It was even more frustrating watching the hurt from Jaylin when she realized that Aidan was no longer going to play her games and walk away. What did the woman expect when she continued to reject and deny her mate! Jaylin knew that Aidan was her mate but after watching so many shifters go through life despondent and depressed, she refused to put herself into the position where the death or loss of a mate, meant death for the other. But it will take another shifter, one who survived the death of his beloved, to prove to Jaylin, that life does go on, even in death one's happiness is not always dependent on another.THE AWAKENING: AIDAN is an interesting storyline, with a bit of a twist on the shifter-bonding premise. Abby Niles's world building is detailed but will pull you into the storyline with the continued use and application of the various psychological stages of shifter mating so that by the end of the book, hopefully everyone is on the same page-so to speak.see all of my reviews at : thereadingcafe(dot)com