Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: With Kid Gloves
SERIES: Magical Mates, Book Four
AUTHOR: Macy Blake
NARRATOR: Michael Dean
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 7 hours and 57 minutes
RELEASE DATE: December 2, 2023
BLURB:
A grumpy tiger thinks he can be a lonely drifter? Not on Ollie Jerrick self-proclaimed Happiness Champion’s watch.
Ollie Jerrick has a hero complex. As a wolf shifter, he’s been surrounded by real-life heroes since his dads rescued him from an evil witch when he was six. He’s the son of a doctor wolf shifter, his boss is a billionaire griffin, and his big brother…well, he’s a super-powered mage mated to the mythical Chosen One. Not convinced yet? The hellhounds, guardians of the human realm…they’re Ollie’s adopted uncles. So when a mysterious tiger arrives, Ollie decides to save him from his miserable, lonely life. It’s not like it’ll be hard…right?
Bayu prefers the solitude being a tiger provides, but tragedy leads him to Nick Smith and the menagerie of kids he rescued. He accepts the role as a pack guard on one condition: the lion shifter will use his powerful connections to help Bayu find the answers he seeks. He has zero intentions of staying on a permanent basis. Some pack members seem to have other ideas, though. Especially Ollie, a young, gorgeous wolf who seems to enjoy nothing more than talking Bayu’s ears off while coaxing him into leaving his isolated existence behind.
Bayu and Ollie find themselves brought together in ways neither of them could have anticipated. When tragedy strikes again, this time it’s Bayu who has to decide if he’s hero enough to save Ollie from himself, especially when the cost will be nothing less than Bayu’s heart.
REVIEW:
With Kid Gloves, the fourth book in Macy Blake’s Magical Mates series, finally gives Ollie Jerrick his HEA. If you’ve read the previous books in Blake’s Chosen One universe, you’ll remember meeting Ollie for the first time all the way back in the prequel novella Sweet Nothings. You could say that Ollie is the catalyst for everything that follows – he’s the six-year-old shifter child who shows up on Sam Baker’s doorstep desperate for help finding Alpha Vaughn Jerrick. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Ollie has always been a favorite whenever he’s appeared in the books across the Chosen One universe. We’ve seen him grow from that precocious, sweet, adorable six-year-old wolf pup shifter to an adult wolf shifter who is an integral part of three different packs (including his family pack, led by his two dads Alpha Vaughn Jerrick and Sam) who now longs for a family of his own. Ollie is a fixer with a heart of gold – a nosy gossip with the best of intentions. He’s charisma personified and his “Ollie-babble” is indeed his secret weapon because it’s disarming, distracting, and endearing.
Because of Ollie’s deep entrenchment in the events across the extensive fictional universe, the storyline of With Kid Gloves pulls threads of all of the stories that have gone before. We get mentions of characters and events from every book in the universe and appearances from many of the characters. Blake lays enough groundwork that you might be able to read this story as a standalone, but I think it’s a tall order. There’s just too much history, too many characters, and too much context that you need in order for this story to hit you the way it’s intended to.
Ollie the fixer is finally brought to his knees and someone else, his mate Bayu, becomes Ollie’s fixer. Bayu is a new character, but Ollie is an origin character and I personally don’t see how you can really get their dynamic, and Ollie’s larger dynamic with myriad characters, without reading at least the previous Magical Mates stories first. Ideally, start at the beginning of the universe and read them all in order (yes, it will take a while but they are all terrific stories). Your best bet is to follow Blake’s recommended reading order on her website for the comprehensive experience of events that play out in her Chosen One universe.
Given Ollie’s distinctive personality, his glass-half-full, sunshiney exuberance for life, and his often crazy antics, I found the sedate tone of this book disconcerting. Blake sensitively handles the events that play out, but the sadness that pushes against Ollie’s natural joy and light is not what I expected. That being said, Blake’s set-up showcases to great effect how beloved Ollie is by just everyone he meets. It also really shines in the fated mates aspect – couples unexpectedly finding their true mates and creating families all within the magical confines of Alpha Nick Smith’s compound of shifters.
Michael Dean continues his excellent narration on the audiobook. Dean is deeply connected with this universe and its characters and you can hear it in his narration. His pacing is slow which is exactly how it should be in this story. His vocal performance is intuitive and engaged. If I have any complaint, it’s rooted back in the storyline itself, because Dean does his job well, amplifying the angsty grief and devastation that just feels so wrong sitting like a yoke on Ollie’s shoulders.
Overall, I enjoyed With Kid Gloves, although, admittedly, I expected and hoped for a story more in keeping with Ollie’s character. That being said, Blake’s worldbuilding is phenomenal and she leans heavily on all of the gorgeous, detailed landscapes and intriguing characters we’ve come to love. She tugs hard at the heartstrings here, but Ollie and Bayu ultimately get a well-established, well-deserved HEA.
RATING: 
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