Mate by Ali Hazelwood Review

 

Book Link 🔗 

Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4xQ9XU9

Goodreads: Mate

Not read bride? Check out my review here first:

Blurb 

A Human hybrid and an Alpha Were claw against the bonds of fate in the highly anticipated companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Bride.

Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey to the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left—if he’ll have her.

As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn’t matter if Serena doesn’t reciprocate his feelings, nothing will stop him from keeping her safe.

But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her—and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation…

 

Review 

I absolutely loved Bride and wasn’t ready to let go of the characters or their snarky banter, so I jumped straight into Mate. Both books were such a refreshing palette cleanser. Compared to the heavy dark romances I’ve been reading lately, this story was light, fun, and engaging—even with the fighting, kidnapping, and crazy cults mixed in!

I really appreciated the author's world-building choices. Instead of describing characters top-to-toe, she leaves room for your imagination to fill in the blanks.

The overarching plot of Serena discovering her past while she and Kown navigate their relationship kept me completely hooked, as did the snippets of character thoughts at the start of each chapter—they added great context to the whole "refusing the mate bond" storyline.

The closest comparison I can draw is the Twilight saga (and don't shoot me, I loved those books when they came out, sparkles and all!). But as a former Team Jacob fan, Mate was definitely my favorite of the two. It was packed with plot twists that kept me glued to the pages, though I won't spoil any of them here.

If I had one complaint, it was the spice. I understood the "knot" concept from Bride, but the explicit scenes here felt a bit too focused on the wolf side of things at the expense of genuine romance.

Still, I smiled, laughed, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. As a wise author friend (thanks, Aimie!) once told me: "Sometimes you just have to read what your bookworm heart wants, before the ones you should be reading."

If the author writes more in this world, I’ll definitely be picking it up!