Reviewed by Jen
TITLE: An Impossible Mate
SERIES: Strength of the Pack #1
AUTHOR: Joy Lynn Fielding
PUBLISHER: Independent
LENGTH: 256 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 29, 2026
BLURB:
The line between order and chaos, heartbreak and happily ever after, has never been thinner… or more tempting to cross.
Alpha shifter Matt Urban is always in control. He has to be. Keeping his territory, his pack, and himself tightly leashed is the only way to protect his precarious peace. So when a defiant, smart-mouthed lone wolf stumbles into his territory, Matt’s first instinct is to drive him out. His second instinct? Quite the opposite, unfortunately…
Jesse Turner learned a long time ago that his safety depends on never belonging to anyone. No packs. No family. And definitely no bossy, overbearing, disturbingly hot alphas. Which means he should stay as far away from Matt as possible. Too bad doing what he should has suddenly lost all appeal…
It’s not long before Matt will have to decide how far he’s willing to go to protect the mate he never wanted, and Jesse will need to decide if running from Matt is survival, or the biggest mistake of his life.
Easy, right?
Try impossible…
REVIEW:
This was a really nice start to an interesting shifter story where Matt, having run from his past, ends up the alpha of a small pack of random wolves who all seem to have needed a place to land. He has turned his life into focusing on keeping his pack safe and making a nice life for them all. That is thrown for a loop when Jesse turns up wounded in their territory.
Jesse has been pretty much a loner on the run for most of his life. He has very little knowledge of what being a shifter entails and has no intention of letting anyone close, let alone a pack alpha, when everything he knows about them is not good, and he has no intention of being controlled by one.
There are a number of things going on here though. First is the issue of Jesse’s lack of shifter knowledge, next is Matt’s belief that they might be mates, followed by figuring out who is after Jesse in the first place and why. This leads to what Jess actually is, making him understand and believe it and what it all means to Matt and the pack, especially with Matt accepting that they actually are mates.
So, Matt must juggle a few things with the attacks of those after Jesse, keeping Jesse from running and making him see, understand and accept their mating status. The attraction and chemistry doesn’t take long, but the rest takes a bit of convincing.
This pack has a number of interesting characters. I love the close-knit found family vibe here and felt it was a really great start to a series. I wish there had been a bit more fleshed out about Jesse’s lineage and how this will affect him/Matt/the pack in the future. And while the bad guys were knocked down a peg, they aren’t out of the game completely, so this seems more like a HFN than a HEA. There isn’t a cliffhanger, per se, but there are still a number of things still up in the air. I’m looking forward to continuing this story to see how it all plays out.
RATING: 
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