Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Isaiah
SERIES: Whitedell Pride #14
AUTHOR: Catherine Lievens
PUBLISHER: Extasy Books
LENGTH: 127 Pages
BLURB:
Does being mates really mean a guaranteed happy-ever-after?
Isaiah already has enough problems in his life without adding a new one—his mate. The man Fate chose for Isaiah isn’t just any man, no. It’s the man who kidnapped Jamie for the Glass Research Company, the man Dominic kept locked up for a year. And now he’s out and living with the pride, eating with them and sleeping in the room next to Isaiah’s.
John knows he’s lucky. Dominic could have killed him for what he did, but the lion shifter gives him a second chance instead, and John isn’t about to waste it. He’s not all that comfortable around shifters yet, but it’s not like he has to like them. Even if he finds out he’s a shifter’s mate.
As if things weren’t already difficult enough, Isaiah has to go home and leave John behind. Will John come and help when Isaiah’s house is attacked? Will Isaiah finally realize he can’t live his life for his mother? And even if he does, will John take him back?
REVIEW:
The last Whitedell Pride book, Nysys, pretty much brought to a close the original story arc of this series. The head of the Glass Research Company had been taken down and imprisoned and the shifters were being rescued from the labs that had experimented on them. There were only a few loose ends left to tie up, and one of those was mercenary John Smith, who for the last year had been held by the shifters after he kidnapped Jamie for the Company right back in the first book. John was desperate for money when he took the job to kidnap Jamie. He is a human who was taught that shifters were nothing but rabid beasts, however over the year that he was imprisoned by the Pride, imprisoned in a comfy cabin mind you, he got to meet plenty of shifters and discovered that there was nothing beast-like about them. Alpha Dominic has decided that it’s time to release John, who he believes is truly a good man.
Isaiah has suspected for the past year that the prisoner the Alpha had locked in the cabin was his mate, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. The man had kidnapped Jamie for that horrible company, and besides Isaiah couldn’t mate a man and stay at Whitedell even if he wanted to. He’s meant to be the next alpha of his fox skulk and his domineering mother already has his bride lined up. The most Isaiah can offer John is the chance to be fuckbuddies, though his fox is really not happy with that arrangement.
This book was almost filler between one story arc and the next, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t as good as the other stories in the series. We get some hints that tattooed hunters are going to play an important role in the continuation of the Whitedell books, though the author gives little away in this story. Isaiah (the book, not the fox) concentrates more on what’s happening with the characters within the pride house, rather than dealing too much with outside forces. John especially, is surprisingly endearing. I’ve liked him from the start but this book showed us his sweet side. The scene when he decorates Isaiah’s property before the fox leaves the pride was absolutely adorable. I assumed Isaiah, the cute little fox, would be the adorable character but instead it was the big, tough human.
Of course it wouldn’t be a Whitedell Pride story if Nysys and Keenan didn’t attempt to steal the show, and they certainly make their presence known here.
I’m excited to see where this new direction will take the series.
And of course…don’t try to read these books out of sequence.
RATING: 
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