REVIEWED BY CINDY
TITLE: Brian’s Mate
AUTHOR: Hollis Shiloh
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 158 pages
Blurb:
Brian is the alpha of the least impressive pack of wolves at the whole Moon Ceremony. When a human is discovered uninvited in their midst, he bonds with the man to save his life.
Luke doesn’t know about all this wolf stuff, but he’s starting to develop feelings for the gentle man who rescued him. Both Brian and Luke expect to quietly dissolve the bond later. But feelings intervene, and some bonds are not so easy to cast aside.
Building a life together as alphas will take love and hard work—especially when new wolves keep inviting themselves into their lives.
Review: Everyone knows I love shifter stories best of all and I was excited to read this one. Having previously read Adrian’s Librarian by this author and finding it excellent, I had high hopes for this story.
Brian is sweet and unassuming, the lowest alpha with the smallest pack and he’s content to just go with the flow…until he sees Luke, a human who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time and finds himself in danger. Brian goes with his first instinct to save Luke and they end up mated.
It’s a great premise and it should have been an interesting journey, watching the two men from different worlds find their way together. But the first half of the novel comes across as rushed and it’s like trying to read on a bumpy road.
The immediate chemistry between them is almost too immediate, even for the usual “instinctual” bond between mates found in most shifter stories. I would have liked to have seen them struggle with their relationship a little more before moving on to the happily-ever-after part that seems to start half way through the book. There was very little angst involved once the mating ceremony was completed.
Every spot of angst was pretty much resolved within a page or two and I think that some of it could have used a little more time to fester before being fixed. Even a confrontation with another pack was just sort of blah and left me thinking that there should have been more to it than that.
I didn’t mind the lack of sex in this story. It was all done “behind closed doors” without any explicit details but it did let the good parts of the story shine through.
I liked how Luke grew and gained confidence once he became responsible for the care and safety of the other wolves that find their way to Brian’s house. I also like how his enthusiasm for having a big, happy family balanced out Brian’s natural wariness. It was nice to watch as Luke opened up Brian’s world just as much as Brian opened up his. It made them both better alpha’s to their growing pack.
If you like sweet and pretty much angst free, or if you are just looking for something nice to read then you will probably love this story. I like a little more anticipation and angst in the story lines I read and I think the pacing at the beginning could have used a little smoothing out.
Rating: 
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