Mate Claimed by Jennifer Ashley (Shifters Unbound #4)
Paranormal Romance
Released: October 2, 2012
Berkley
Reviewed by May
Favorite quote: His cock rose with delighted memory, and Eric gave it a calming stroke.
Iona is a half shifter living without a collar that is reaching her maturity, aka the time when she’s in heat and is going to want to find a guy to nonstop mate with. Eric is the alpha of the local shifter town, he can smell the heat on her, and he’d like to get on that. Iona has to come to terms with what she needs to do to secure her future, work on her new project with the shifters, and come to realize the life she’s lived pretending to be a full human is coming to an end.
At a bachelorette party, things really heat up and the book takes off:
The fireman leaned in and tried to kiss her. Iona forced a laugh, though she wanted to bite his face off. She whirled so hard she untangled from the hose and was halfway across the room before he could stop her.
She nearly ran away from him, but two of the other girls instantly took her place, and the fireman turned to them, not minding. Breathing hard, Iona slipped out of the room into the back hall, seeking peace in the relative coolness and darkness.
Two strong arms folded around her from behind. Iona found herself trapped back against a hard male chest, while a grating voice said in her ear, “No, Iona. You belong to me.”
In this series shifters have been outed, they allow humans to collar them with a device that is fay made and that controls their ability to do violence. They are also forced to live in shifter towns in houses just a few steps above shacks, can only work menial jobs, and like to breed young. Because they live so long and have such power though, Shifters secretly have stashes of riches and can support themselves just fine. They just pretend to be under control and living poor for the human’s benefit.
Perhaps the world building would work better for me if I’d read the whole series, but somehow I don’t think so. I simply dislike the shifter world rules and set-up, yet I found myself enjoying this book in a guilty pleasure kind of way. It really wasn’t that sexy, funny, or action packed either. There is just something about this author’s story telling that had me turning the pages instead of declaring it a do not finish read.
The plotline is really centered around Iona’s sexual need and Eric’s willingness to be her sex toy and maybe more. I found no reason to believe in them as a true love couple, or see any reason they’d be so interested in a long term relationship either. From page one he smells that she’s coming into mating heat, and she is hitting her maturity so her hormones are looking for a good ride. True romance was nowhere to be found here for me, yet it wasn’t an overly erotic book either. There were moments that made me snicker (see my fave quote at the top!) and the fast paced story kept me entertained.
There is actually a surprising amount of plot development with the villain of this story as well as set up for a future installment. We get to know some characters I’d really like to read more about. I ended up not being invested in the main couple, but this is a world of interesting characters and I was very interested to see how a supporting character’s romantic interest turned out. There is also a new character revealed in a very dramatic way towards the end. I won’t give it away – but let us just say that I really want to read the next installment in this series now.
Grade: C+
Recent Reviews:
All Things Urban Fantasy – 4/5
Ramblings from a Chaotic Mind – 4/5
All About Romance – C+
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Author’s Website l Series Listing
Just finished this one and I loved it, but then again I read all the books and novellas that came before it. There’s actually a little set up of Eric and Iona’s relationship in the prior book and that made me really READY for these two to get together in this one.
I think this was definitely more of a lust-based relationship, but I rather like that about these books. I think Ashley does a really wonderful job melding the human and animal natures of her shifter characters.