Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Unlocked and Unlost
AUTHOR: Gabbi Grey
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 135 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2025
BLURB:
Kingston
I love being a locksmith. My job is to help people fix their lives when things go awry. A badly sprained ankle has me laid up, but I dislike being idle. A friend suggests I hire an assistant. Little do I know how truly chaotic my life is about to become. I think he’s cute, but never does it occur to me how important he might just become in my life.
Ethan
I’ve held a series of jobs since graduating from business college, but none has captured my attention. Assisting a grouchy locksmith proves to be one of the more interesting challenges. Only when I discover something truly astounding about him, my entire world view changes.
Unlocked and Unlost is an opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine, age gap, paranormal shifter gay romance with a stodgy raccoon shifter and the glorious squirrel shifter fated mate he didn’t see coming.
REVIEW:
This was a fun little book by a new-to-me author that I’m thrilled I took a chance on.
Kingston is a locksmith like his father and his grandfather were before him. Being a raccoon shifter probably means it’s in his blood to be able to get onto locks easily. That and he’s been doing it all his life. And not only is he very good at his job, he also is trustworthy and confidential. But when one of his clients, Academy Award-winning actor and action star Peter Erickson’s, daughter Skyler pushes her tricycle right in Kingston path injury is unavoidable. So Peter springs into action and hires his husband’s once-in-awhile assistant to help Kingston while he’s laid up on crutches from the serious ankle sprain. But when a young man shows up in a “riot of red” to help him through his locksmith jobs life suddenly becomes very interesting. Can a bright, bouncy and sunny younger squirrel shifter and and a bit older, crusty and established raccoon shifter locksmith really be fated mates? What was Mother Nature thinking???
I have grown quite fond of paranormal books about shifters. But I don’t think I have ever read ones where the shifters were squirrels or raccoons. And definitely not fated mates. But these two really worked for me. Ethan’s youthful joy and ready smile was a great contrast to Kingston’s more gruff exterior. Kingston may have been a bit exasperated in the beginning but warmed to the young man that was naturally a nurturer. They simply worked but that is to be expected in fated mates. Mother Nature doesn’t get fated mates wrong. She may not make it always easy to find yours but when you do it’s worth the wait.
I loved that Kingston’s family had a tradition of passing the locksmith business on to the next one in the generation and that Kingston was well aware of this. This book does not feature MPREG but surrogates seem to be common for same sex couples in these books to expand their families with their own genetics. Therefore being able to pass on the family tradition can be solved relatively easily with the right surrogate.
As I stated earlier, I’m thrilled to have found a new-to-me Pacific Northwest author and have literally gone down a rabbit hole looking for more of her delightful books! This is a quick read that will leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy feelings inside.
RATING: 
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