Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: Right Side Up
SERIES: Saint Lakes Series #3
AUTHOR: April Kelley
PUBLISHER: Hard Rose Publishing
LENGTH: 226 Pages
RELEASE DATE: September 30, 2016
BLURB:
A human with a knack for getting into trouble. A wolf shifter who doesn’t want a fated mate. Fated mates have never been so difficult.
Shawn knows a secret. His best friend is a witch. A whole vampire coven knows it too and they come after Shawn to get to the person they really want. When a wolf shifter rescues him fro them brink of death, he’s not sure if he’s safe or in even more danger than before.
Gabriel is a defective wolf shifter. Or he thinks he is. He’d hurt someone he was supposed to love when he was a child. He’s afraid of hurting others too, so he keeps his distance. Especially from the little human with enough sass to anger an entire coven.
Some lessons are hard to learn. Especially for a human who’s far more capable than he’s ever given himself credit for and a wolf shifter who has a heart of gold.
Right Side Up is the sensual third novel in the MM Paranormal Romance Saint Lakes series. If you like little men who can bring down big wolf shifters with his wit and wolf shifters who will do anything for their fated mates, then you’ll love this romantic story.
REVIEW:
Shawn was thrown into a dungeon when he failed to escape the vampires. He was then rescued by Gabriel, his fated mate, who didn’t want a mate. But the situation is complicated. With rejection and fears ruling the day, both men are hurtful to each other. Can they get through the baggage to see what they have?
Right Side Up is book three of the Saint Lakes series. Initially, the overlaying arc seems to eventually lead to a war between vampires and shifters, but this story is twofold. There is the potential relationship between Shawn and Gabriel. With them as fated mates, their journey is one of sorting out their past and present to give them a future. The other part of the story is the arc development that spans the series, which has some potential revelations.
The story is told in the third person from Shawn’s viewpoint. Worldbuilding is relatively detailed, and with each book comes an additional part to the overall picture. This includes the physical and clan dynamics. At the beginning of the book, the timeline is almost reset to when the vampire coven was raided in book one. After the raid, Gabriel investigates the intentions of the vampire coven.
Shawn hides his insecurities behind a smart mouth. He’d grown up in a heartbreaking world of rejection, whereas Gabriel is a fearful soul, mindful of his heritage. The two have instant physical reactions to each other, but they must negotiate their past before building something meaningful for their future. To this end, the reformed vampire, Angel, is the voice of reason.
As for the broader story, the clan dynamics and sub-relationships are developing, of the friends and partners in crime sense, and other emotions born of limited communication.
I found Right Side Up a delightful story. Yeah, there are tooth-aching sweet moments, but that’s fated mates for you. Anyhoo, love is visible in significant quantities. Then the tale contains a little bit of everything else. There’s drama, heart-melting moments, revelations, and heat. Most of all, I enjoyed how the family of non-blood brothers and sisters are developing into a cohesive unit. Judging by the number of books left in the series, there are a few holes yet to fill, but I look forward to seeing where the eventual story goes.
RATING: 
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