Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: In Your Eyes
SERIES: Mates #3
AUTHOR: Cardeno C.
PUBLISHER: The Romance Authors
LENGTH: 200 pages
BLURB:
Two very different men with a tumultuous history must overcome challenges from all sides and see past their society’s rules to realize they are destined for one another.
Raised to become Alpha of the Yafenack pack, Samuel Goodwin dedicates his life to studying shifter laws, strengthening his body, and learning from his father. But despite his best efforts, Samuel can’t relate to people, including those he’s supposed to lead.
When Samuel meets Korban Keller, the son of a neighboring pack’s Alpha, he reacts with emotion instead of intellect for the first time in his life. Resenting the other shifter for throwing him off-balance, Samuel first tries to intimidate Korban and then desperately avoids him. What he can’t do is forget Korban’s warm eyes, easy smile, and happy personality.
When a battle between their fathers ends tragically, Samuel struggles to lead his pack while Korban works to break through Samuel’s emotional barriers. Two very different men with a tumultuous history must overcome challenges from all sides and see past their society’s rules to realize they are destined for one another.
REVIEW:
It has been a while since I read any books in this series by Cardeno C.. But despite the fact that I don’t remember much about the past two books, I had no problem thoroughly enjoying this story. So if you just want to jump into this series at this point, I would say go right ahead.
One of the things I like best about this book is Samuel. He tries so hard to become the best Alpha he can be, and yet he can’t seem to connect with other wolves, even those he has known and cared about for his whole life. From the moment he meets Korban, the son and presumptive heir of a neighboring pack, Samuel is just downright confused. He doesn’t know why the older boy is hanging around him–in fact, he is quiet convinced that Korban might only be there to mess with him in a series of highly unlikely scenarios.
I really like Samuel for who he is at the beginning. I like the disconnect, probably because it mirror my own social ineptitude. His ‘flaws’ make him an interesting character and an unlikely Alpha–one that I really find myself cheering for.
We really don’t get to know Korban all that well. Which is probably because the story revolves around Samuel and his pack and his issues with the pack. With only short scenes, till almost the end of the book, with the older boy (and later man) we are left a bit puzzled as to why he let Samuel go so long without knowing exactly what was going on between them. I get why Samuel wouldn’t clue in, but not why Korban was so damn set on keeping it on the down-low.
As to the rest of the story…well, it is a bit obvious. Pretty much if you read the synopsis you can get a good idea of what is coming. The whole fight thing was a bit to cliche for me. I would have liked not being able to know exactly how that was going to play out from before even the fight began. But I did like what happened at the end, and how the whole thing ended up resolving itself.
There is also a couple bits of dubiously consented sex going on. I get why it happened and why they both feel the way they feel. And while Korban says one thing, I get why Samuel would see it the way he did. In the end, it didn’t really bug me all that much, but I thought I would mention it.
Overall, baring a few scenes, this was a pretty light read. But it was one that I enjoyed reading. This is a great way to start, end, or continue the series so I would recommend you pick it up if it strikes your fancy.
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