Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Adrian
SERIES: Whitedell Pride #8
AUTHOR: Catherine Lievens
PUBLISHER: Extasy Books
LENGTH: 116 Pages
BLURB:
Sometimes you have to sacrifice everything for family.
Adrian is a geneticist for the Glass Research Company. He’s the one who has been turning humans in shifters, but he did it only to save his brother, even if he knew it was a horrible thing to do. The company kidnapped him, and Adrian hasn’t seen him in nearly two years. Thinking Gabriel is probably dead, Adrian decides to run away from the company and turns to the only people who can help him—the Whitedell Pride.
Joshua has known Adrian was his mate for months, but he doesn’t want to mate someone who experimented on humans and shifters alike, not after what happened to his sister thirty years earlier. Still, when Adrian is in danger, Joshua knows he’ll help him.
What will Joshua do when another shifter steps in and decides he wants Adrian? Will he let Soren have his mate, or will he finally realize that Adrian is his?
REVIEW:
Adrian (the book, not the character) is written in the theme of earlier Whitedell Pride books, in that it focuses on the shifter experiments rather than the Council. I had to force myself to look past my disappointment, because this obviously was the next story that needed to be told. Like I previously mentioned, I don’t think all of the books need to feature the Council but I think that that is where my interest lies at the moment. However, this couple’s situation is another that was set up a couple of books ago and I was looking forward to seeing how the author was going to sort their shit out.
Adrian was willing to do anything to try to save his kidnapped brother, even experiment on human subjects, though he was told that they were all volunteers. The Glass Research Company has no idea that Adrian has perfected the technique of turning humans into shifters and Adrian doesn’t want them to know. After years of separation from his brother he’s came to the realization that the company has likely killed Gabriel by now and he has no intention of providing them with the serum they’re after. He knows that the safest place for himself is with the pride so he sabotages what he can and takes off for Whitedell. But the plan doesn’t exactly go the way he envisioned and Adrian finds himself injected with his own serum. Before he becomes something small, cute and fluffy he manages to make a call to the mate who rejected him, Joshua.
Thirty years ago Joshua’s sister died, quickly followed by his mother and father, after she was captured and experimented on by human scientists. There is no way that he’s going to accept a scientist as a mate despite the fact that he understands why Adrian did what he did. When Adrian calls and needs the pride’s help, Joshua rushes to his aid, but he still has no intention of claiming his mate. So if his friend Soren wants to date Adrian, Joshua shouldn’t have a problem with that, right?
So, bluntly, Joshua was a bit of an ass. I get where he was coming from, but still, an ass. I was hoping that getting his story would change my mind about him but while he redeemed himself to some extent I can’t say that I ever fully warmed to him. On the other hand I loved Adrian so I was glad when the two men finally managed to claim each other.
My favourite character in this book though wasn’t either of the main characters. It was Troy, who finally discovers just what the scientists spliced his genes with. Dare I hope that this part of the story is setting up the series for an m-preg book?
I really can’t wait to see where the Whitedell Pride series takes us next. I’ll be honest, I first started reading this series after the author requested a review from the blog. My initial impression was that it was good enough, but I could take it or leave it. But these characters really grow on you. The pride really grows on you. The carried over storylines seriously hook you and now here I am, at book number eight and each month I hang out for the next installment, needing my monthly Whitedell fix.
And, once again, don’t attempt to read these books out of order.
RATING: 
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