Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Finding Absolution
SERIES: Miracle #11
AUTHOR: Shea Balik
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 145 Pages
RELEASE DATE: August 12, 2019
BLURB:
In a world where everyone was against them, they needed a Miracle. What no one had expected was to find their salvation in an abandoned town that was ready to collapse. Yet, that is exactly what happened when they moved to the town of Miracle, Oregon.
There were some sins that could never be forgiven and Gawain York had more than his share burdening his soul. It was for that reason he wasn’t surprised when someone hunted him down to make him pay for his crimes. What he didn’t expect was for that person to be his mate.
Koen Dirks was stunned when the man he’d come to kill ended up being his mate. What had he done in his life for fate to allow this to happen? Mate or not, he wasn’t going to change his mind about Gawain after all the man had done to ruin the lives of so many shifters.
Can Gawain’s past ever be forgiven? Does Koen even want to, or is he willing to lose the one man fate had made just for him? Can Miracle pull off its usual magic and have these men Finding Absolution?
REVIEW:
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I have a weakness for these lengthy shifter series that seem to include every one of those well-loved stereotypes that tend to embody this sub-genre. The Miracle series by Shea Balik is responsible for the most recent feeding of my addiction, but this series also includes some kickass characters that aren’t always what you’d expect. Finding Absolution wasn’t the story I was expecting next, in fact these characters pretty much came out of nowhere, in a town that has an abundance of gay shifters to choose from. But this book delivered the man who is possibly my favourite character of the series, if only because he didn’t fit any main character stereotype, and he took me completely by surprise.
Gawain York is one of the bad guys. Right back in book…five maybe?…when the good guys of Miracle managed to overthrow the evil and psychotic Council, Gawain was one of the former councilors who chose to run instead of fight to the death for his position. While Gawain had never physically participated in the slaughter of gay shifters, prey shifters, and whatever other shifters the Council ordered murdered, he was complicit in the deaths of hundreds. If not thousands. Every time the Council held a mockery of a vote to decide the fate of whole groups of shifters, Gawain would vote for their deaths. For no other reason than that he was afraid, because to vote against the rest of the Council would mean his death. The author made no attempt to excuse his behavior, the bad guys were not threatening his family or anything like that, he was simply scared for his own life so he let hundreds of others be killed instead. So while I really didn’t have any respect for Gawain and his cowardice, I absolutely loved that the author shocked me by giving him a story. At best I pitied Gawain by the end of the book, and I pitied Koen for getting stuck with a mate that he struggled to forgive. Cause Koen was pretty awesome. But despite my rather confused feelings about this book, it just really worked. Now I’m left wondering what this series will bring u next.
This series is written with a new couple each book, and they could probably be read as standalones. However, I’d definitely recommend reading them in order so you can appreciate the over arching series plot.
RATING: 
BUY LINK: