The Mating

DNF @ 7%

Werewolves. They're werewolves. And the Big Bad Alpha Dad is such a coward, he complains about his daughter running in the wild in wolf form because oh no what if humans hurt her. I just... No. Nope. Not gonna do it. I want my werewolves to be mighty beasts, not whiny and spineless cowards afraid of a few humans with guns. Or fecking hypocrites who worry about the what if of poachers but don't give half a shit about their own daughter's happiness and future.

Did I mention the main character's assigned mate apologizes to her and they both act like somehow they have no autonomy in this? Because that's a thing. They're too stupid to use their brain cells and decide to just... not do the thing. No, no, the almighty Elders say it should happen, so screw what they may or may not want.

In fact, there's one part where the main character laments that she might be exiled if she decides to disagree to the forced mating, as if that's somehow a worse fate. Oh, no, she might end up homeless if she runs away, and that'd be oh-so-horrible; better just accept this nonsense. She allegedly loves her desired mate so much, yet she can't even imagine running away from a lifetime of being forced to mate, breed, and live with a complete stranger instead of him.

Nope, pity poor her, it'd just be so horrible to flee to freedom and have her life changed/ruined forever. Better to just... take an unwanted mate and have her life changed/ruined forever.



Seriously, though. Let that sink in. She has a male she already wants to mate. He loves her, too. And instead of her going “fuck this shit, I'm out” and grabbing her beau to start a pack together somewhere far away, she just lets this happen. She never once even considers running away together.

No, instead of even giving her beloved the basic respect and courtesy of informing him of what's happening and how she's decided not to flee, she just doesn't even approach him at all. In fact, she decides to whine about how it hurts her to see his agonized looks when he's at the mating ceremony. Waaah, poor her, or whatever.

Talk about a character who's too stupid to live!



I'm not about to invest my time in a story with characters this dense and willingly helpless. No amount of erotica and/or paranormal romance is worth enduring this level of frustration at poor plotting and terrible characterization.

And I do mean terrible characterization. There's an argument that could be made for learned helplessness in a misogynistic society or attachment to her family, but this author handles that so poorly, such things just feel like flimsy excuses made for plot convenience. How am I supposed to believe she's scared of defying the Elders when really what I'm told is that she's afraid of being alone - again, no mention of running away with her boyfriend - because boohoo werewolves are social creatures? As if she couldn't just form her own pack with the guy she loves and find other werewolves (or humans, when she's not in wolf shape) to befriend.

On top of the absolute nonsense that is the thin veneer of worldbuilding, the writing style is too detached and boring to hold my interest. Somehow, it took the main character experiencing misogynistic bullshit at the hands of her own father and turned it from what should've been a tense, anger-inducing scene into just plain boring drivel. And before that, it made a snippet of her laying in bed with the mate she was forced to give herself to, crying over the guy she really wanted, feel about as uninteresting as a gradeschool textbook.

I tried to keep reading, but I just don't care. I have better things to do with my life than consume mediocre Kindle freebies.

Are there any good books available for free on the Kindle? My track record so far says no!