If you missed my last KU review on Bittersweet Memories, you can find it here.
I am back again with another Kindle Unlimited offering, Destined Mate by Jen L. Grey. I find that I love reading her work. She writes shifter novels, and by now, you should know that I love me a shifter romance. When I was looking for a new read, Destined Mate came up for me, even though it wasn’t quite out yet. This book came out on September 12th this year, and I read through it in a night. I was excited that the second book was coming out on the 19th. I was bummed when I realized the second book, Eclipsed Heart comes out October 19th, not September 19th. Now, I am leaving to go out of town on the 19th. Thankfully, I am not driving, so I can download it before I go and read it while my nephew drives.
We meet Callie, and she is an adopted orphan of her pack as well as the weakest. She can’t shift or pack link, and no one knows why. While the women of her pack are treated poorly, Callie gets the worst of it. Even her adopted sister Pearl is abusive to her. Her sister Stevie, though, is a gem. Don’t get me wrong, the parents don’t mistreat her. In fact, they are as good to her as they can be, but she isn’t theirs, and it’s noticeable. Zeke, her alpha and an advisor to the king for the state of Oregon, is exceptionally harsh with her, but his son, Theo, has a soft spot for her. They consider each other their best friend, a fact that Zeke makes Callie pay for, especially when Theo advocates for her.
Right off the bat, Callie is attacked, and it is five wolves against one human, well, for all intents and purposes, human. Her sister Pearl was in the group, and her boyfriend was leading them. Callie only has a knife to defend herself from those five wolves but doesn’t want to use it because she will get punished worse for it because she is going to get in trouble anyway for whatever lie Charles makes up. Callie is a badass, though. She is forced to use the knife and holds her own, that’s for sure. She was hurt pretty badly when four more wolves showed up, but rather than attacking Callie, they took on the wolves attacking her. They walked her to their boat and wanted to make sure she was okay. She meets the wolves’ human side at the boat, Bodey, Jack, Miles, and Lucas. I love and want to strangle Jack in equal parts, and I think Callie and I are of one mind in that. The guys walk Callie back to back up her story, only to find her doing manual labor the next day with broken ribs and a janky shoulder as punishment.
The book is full of power struggles that center a lot around Callie. She refuses to submit to Zeke all the time. There are times that she does submit, but she gets punished often because she doesn’t know how to shut up. I can’t say a damn thing, though. I am the same way. Zeke covets power and gets pissy when he doesn’t have it. Theo is possessive of Callie and is threatened by Lucas, Jack, Miles, and Bodey being at the top of the list. Callie is constantly in a power struggle with those in her pack, especially Zeke, for her autonomy.
Callie is treated so horribly by her pack that when they guys show her basic human kindness, it is a foreign concept. So is more than one pack working together? Speaking of the guys, there is one I haven’t mentioned yet, Samuel. Prince Samuel. I love him, too. He is so sweet and very regal.
Ms. Grey is talented at world-building, and this is no exception. Her love of the supernatural and preternatural shines through as it always does in her work. The main character has struggles, but good things happen, too. I will say Jen is mean. The book ends on a cliffhanger. Ugh! On a positive note, though, there is plenty of story here. I dislike reading and having to dodge sex scenes to find the story.
If you can’t tell, I recommend this book. The next one, Eclipsed Heart, comes out on the 19th of this month. Read Destined Mate so you are ready for the next! Or have you already read it? Let me know in the comments below. Don’t forget, Book 2 comes out October 19th, 2023. Until next time, have fun storming the castle!
Just in case you are confused, like I was, with the supernatural/preternatural thing (I literally just looked it up) from the Oxford Language site~
Supernatural: Anything outside our natural, physical world, i.e., vampires or shifters.s
Preternatural: It could happen but not probable, i.e., witches (don’t get me started).
