Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Shad
SERIES: Whitedell Pride #15
AUTHOR: Catherine Lievens
PUBLISHER: Extasy Books
LENGTH: 115 Pages
BLURB:
Shad is sick, and he knows he has very little possibility of getting better. He would have to get his hands on the pills Glass used to give him for the information Shad had on the pride, but Glass isn’t there anymore. There is someone else, though, and Shad has to decide whether to betray his brother, his mate, and his pride again, or let his illness slowly kill him.
Gabriel has been isolating himself ever since he got to Whitedell. He hates the tiger parts he sports since his time in the company’s lab, but he’s decided he’s had enough. He wants to feel like himself again, and that means coming out of the attic.
Shad and Gabriel have known they’re mates for months, but circumstances had made them decide to keep their distance. What will happen when Gabriel decides he doesn’t want that anymore? And will Shad make the right choice when his life is at risk?
REVIEW:
Sugar Glider shifter twins, Shad and Darin, were brought into the series in the earlier Whitedell Pride books. They had been rescued from the labs and brought to the pride as a place they could recover and be safe, but Shad was suffering from an illness that couldn’t be identified. I liked the twins from the start, and I remembered wondering what could possibly be wrong with Shad, and when would Jarred, the Pride doctor figure it out. But with the high character count, and the twists that this series took, I kind of forgot about poor old Shad and somehow missed him recovering his health. With this book we finally get some insights into to the “whats” and “whys” of Shad’s problems. We discover that he has been under the thumb of Glass from before he even left the labs and now that Glass is locked up in the shifter’s prison, Shad is getting sick again. He’s resigned himself to death, not acknowledging his mate because he thinks it’s the kindest thing to do. But when another mysterious “bad guy” turns up offering Shad the pills he needs to survive in exchange for information on the pride and the shifter council, Shad has to decide if he’s prepared to betray his friends again in order to live.
Meanwhile, the afore mentioned mate enters the scene, and I was so excited to find out that it would be Gabriel, the half human/half tiger brother of scientist, Adrian (Whitedell Pride #8). Gabriel is a very interesting character who is basically a mash up of human parts and tiger parts…above and below the belt… He has been hiding himself away in the attic of the pride house for months as he struggles to come to terms with his altered physicality but when his mate needs him he pushes through his own fears and emerges from his self-imposed isolation.
From the beginning of this series it’s been kind of the “thing” with these stubborn ass shifters that they push each other away and find reasons not to mate. Luckily Keenan and Nysys have now teamed up to put an end to stupidity like that, but I must admit that for once I wasn’t itching to bang the main characters heads together and scream at them to sort their shit out. I actually accepted their reasoning to delay mating. However, I loved the way they were written to still support and provide strength for each other while not completing the mating. What I appreciated most about this book was actually the fact that Shad didn’t really make excuses for betraying the pride. Yes, he acknowledges that Glass threatened his brother but he also admits that he probably would have done it anyway, just to stop the pain and have a chance to live. And he also admits that he would likely do it again. I guess I just respect that much more than selfless declarations. The ending left me eager to get into the next book as soon as possible, so I can’t wait till next month!
Shad is the fifteenth book in the Whitedell Pride series and should not be attempted as a standalone story.
RATING: 
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