REVIEWED by Jen B.
TITLE: Mated
AUTHOR: Tricia Owens
PUBLISHER: Tricia Owens
LENGTH: 492 Pages
RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2019
BLURB:
As the brother of the pack alpha, Wren knows his place, even if that place occasionally brings him to harm. It’s simply pack rules. But when a handsome new alpha and his pack come to town, challenging the status quo, Wren finds himself torn between the old wolf shifter attitude and a new one.
Gideon is the alpha of the Corwin pack. Though he moved into the territory to take advantage of business opportunities, the moment he encounters the young black wolf with the blue eyes, he find his priorities changing. Wren is obedient as a good beta should be, but Gideon is banking on him having a rebellious streak. The only way to find out is to gamble: by forcing a marriage between their packs. But it’s a step that unleashes homophobia, deadly danger, and the discovery of a dark secret that was never meant to surface. And it may involve Gideon losing his heart.
REVIEW:
Ms. Owens gives us yet another solid story in this shifter book. It contains various elements, such as pack dynamics and history (old school v. modern mentality), family issues, power dynamics, mystery and intrigue and also love and smexy times. It didn’t take long to grab and keep my interest.
Wren is a sweetheart, beta to a jerk of a brother who rules the pack with old school, outdated theory of following the lead of the wolf side, a more animalistic way of living that doesn’t have much in the way of compassion or common decency. On top of that, or with that as an excuse, Wren often endures general physical and mental abuse from not only his brother, the alpha, but the rest of the pack as well. When Gideon comes on the scene, Wren is a bit torn between the brother/pack he has always known, or the sexy new alpha he is undeniably attracted to.
Gideon moves his pack around fairly often, and he has settled into the area next to Wren’s pack land. He took over the previous pack and seems to have his sights set on the land of Wren’s pack, although he claims he has no interest in taking over the pack. As you can imagine, Wren’s brother does not see eye to eye about much of anything with Gideon. It is clear that Gideon has the best interests of his pack in mind, whereas Wren’s brother definitely doesn’t. Thinking it will appeal to the old school ways, Gideon proposes a mating between the packs – his top beta for theirs, who happens to be Wren.
Wren has his eyes opened as he learns how different a pack can be when it is ruled not by fear and violence, but an actual family who all looks out for each other. I loved Wren’s arranged mate, a tough female who, just as Gideon was hoping, would find a friend in Wren. Wren’s brother was holding some pretty heavy stuff over his head and put him in the middle or in a bad position more than once. Wren went along and did his best, as was his MO, to keep the peace and violence to a minimum. He was tough when it counted though, and I fell for him pretty quickly.
The mystery surrounds Gideon’s intentions, why he brought his pack there, why he brought Wren into his pack yet won’t claim him for himself, etc. In turn, there are questions and mystery surrounding Wren as well. Throughout this is the underlying attraction between Gideon and Wren which neither is able to fully ignore and they seem powerless to stop. It takes a good portion of the story before things become more clear and questions are answered as secrets are revealed. As that all unfolds, I was quickly turning pages to get to the bottom of things and see Wren and Gideon free to explore their relationship.
All in all, this was an interesting and entertaining shifter story with a nice mix of folklore, old and new, mystery, love and redemption. Ms. Owens is an auto-read for me, and I have yet to be disappointed. Definitely recommend this in addition to any of her other series if you are looking for something a little more involved.
RATING:
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