A Prideful Mate by Amber Kell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I usually consider Amber Kell to be popcorn reading. It’s not necessarily well written but the sex scenes are hot and the situations interesting enough for the short story. There are always editing problems but this has gotten better over time. Unfortunately this new shifter series is so rushed there is nothing tangible to the stories. The second book has a couple of sex scenes, a psycho human that hates shifter, a new insta-romance/love, and even pride dynamics thrown in. There is so much that nothing is given any credibility or weight and the entire story is pretty silly.
The plot leaps from one issue to the next without much resolution or point. The story starts with Kevin, a werelion that signs up on an online dating site to find his mate. After looking at a handful of pictures he finds his one true love/mate and is off to meet Payce. They instantly fall in love, have sex immediately and are mates for life. The next day Payce heads off to work and someone tries to kill him so Kevin whisks Payce away to his mansion. Pride dynamics ensue, the killer tries again, and the group even goes to find a missing coyote.
The plot is linear after a fashion but has so many holes and leaps there is nothing really cohesive offered. There’s no need to add all of those various and dispirate elements into the short story (only 60 pages) and so each one suffers. There are no real resolutions or satisfying reasons to any of the actions and the story just skips from one problem to the next without worrying about developing or resolving an issue first before moving on.
This is especially relevant when Payce and Kevin get together. They have sex and are immediately deeply in love and mated. When Payce mentions he’s not immediately, instantly ready to call Kevin’s mansion his home, Kevin whines about how lost and hurt he is and wants to go off to lick his wounds. Considering these two met maybe 5 minutes ago, there is absolutely no depth to their relationship, no development, no real tangible feeling of romance and emotion.
There is no characterization to support the characters but what will stand out for fans is the light, easy, and mostly entertaining read. This is not a story you’ll remember or ever read again but it takes all of a few minutes to read, the characters are cute, the sex is hot and once the short interlude is over you’ll forget it entirely. For an empty, easy read this one is ok. It’s about average for Kell’s backlist, though she’s definitely done better books. Just don’t expect much.
three am 
This is reminding me of the alphabet wolf series. I haven’t read this but I may someday. I’ll know exactly what I’m getting and if the editing is getting better that’s a big thing. Some were really brutal.
I actually enjoy the alphabet were series (a for whatever, b , c , etc). They’re easy to read, pretty hot and mostly satisfying. The best thing about -that- series is it didn’t try too hard. The main focus was sex with a tiny, tiny bit of politics and plot.
This tried to do everything with 3 different plot lines and frankly.. Amber Kell shouldn’t try too much plot. It ruins the strengths.