Determined Mate (Holland Brothers #2)

Title: Determined Mate (Holland Brothers #2)
Author: Toni Griffin and Dominic M. McCartney (Narrator)
Publisher: Mischief Corner Books
Release Date: March 18th 2016
Genre(s): M/M Paranormal
Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

Jason Matthews had been through hell. After being drugged and attacked, being disowned by his parents was just the icing on the cake. All Jason wanted, was to see his best friend again and a place where he could heal. What he didn’t expect to find was a tall, tattooed, muscle bound god who claimed to be his mate.

Alex Holland, Alpha of the Leyburn shifter pack, couldn’t believe his luck. The sexy little sprite standing at his door is his mate. It soon becomes apparent though that not everything is as it should be.

Alex must learn to curve his Alpha instincts to immediately claim the man as his own. Alex must take things slowly or risk losing his mate forever.

Can Jason learn to trust and love his mate or will the past catch up with them and ruin any chance they have at a future together?

I enjoyed reading the first of the series, Unexpected Mate, enough to pick up Alex’s story.

Alex Holland is the Alpha of the Leyburn shifter pack so when his brother’s mate Brian’s best friend, Jason Matthews, calls and asks to come to Brian’s home he’s granted sanctuary. From the moment Alex hears Jason’s voice he’s almost sure Jason is his mate. When Jason shows up at the house, his senses are confirmed. Alex is overjoyed at the sexy, beautiful man, but quickly notices something wrong: mainly Jason freaking out entirely upon seeing Alex and his brother.

Jason’s been kicked out of his pack, and come to his best friend Brian for comfort while he heals. However, instead of being happy to have found his fated mate, Jason is horrified. Having just been through a traumatic experience only a couple of weeks before, he is now shattered and cannot stand to be around big men. Which is unfortunate being that all the Holland men are super-huge.

But Alex is patient and works with Brian to make Jason as comfortable as possible, giving Jason the time to heal so Alex may finally claim his mate.

Though I really enjoyed the hurt/comfort aspect of the story, unfortunately that enjoyment was dampened by the author using the plot device of teasing the “traumatic event” that has hurt one of the main characters so deeply, but not letting the reader know what the event was for more than half the story.

Now, I will admit this is a personal pet peeve of mine and not shared by everyone. I just hate it when that’s done, I mean it drives me absolutely nuts! And, because it’s a trigger situation (and because I hate it) I will post it as a spoiler. So don’t click on the link unless you really want it spoiled.

Spoiler

Jason makes up his mind to leave his pack (knowing how much his pack despises gays) and go to Brian’s new pack. The night before Jason is going to leave he decides to go to a club and let off some steam. It’s a popular nightclub that’s gay friendly so Jason’s comfortable going alone. Just as he’s about to leave, a bigger man who had been pursuing Jason all night (and getting shot down) drugs Jason. He takes him away and proceeds to rape him repeatedly and beat him within an inch of his life.

I enjoyed Dominic McCartney’s narration of the story, his tone and character voices were good and overall he made listening to the story fun.

In the end I enjoyed the story enough to want to pick up the next book in the series, and see how it goes.

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