Captive Mate

Mismatched Mates Series, Book 2

By: Eliot Grayson

Narrated by: Chris Chambers

Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Captured, imprisoned, and...falling in love?

Arik is many things. Shaman, necromancer, a little on the snarky side...no one could ever accuse him of being boring. But one thing he never intended to be was imprisoned by angry werewolves. Maybe casting that love spell on the sexy alpha pack leader wasn't such a great idea after all.

Matthew Armitage has a problem. Several of them, actually. And the biggest one is Arik. The shaman can't be trusted. He's dangerous enough to get the entire pack killed. Matthew knows that. But knowing doesn't make it any easier to keep his mind (and hands) off Arik. Surely everything he's feeling is a side effect of the spell...right?

It's not long before enemies of the pack start circling - including one intent on claiming Arik as his unwilling mate. If they have any hope of surviving, Arik and Matthew will need to work together. And if they want a shot at happily ever after...well, they'll just have to cross that bridge when they get to it.

If they get to it....

Contains mature themes.

©2020 Eliot Grayson (P)2021 Tantor

Mages, shifters, mayhem, oh my!

This book has a very interesting set of characters. Alpha Matthew, in the previous book, was ensorcelled into a magical ‘mate bond’ by Eric. Eric is a particularly prickly, out for himself, trodden on shifter mage who has had a terrible life. The book is told through his perspective. Eric keeps himself as safe as possible by bold face lying and causing mayhem. During the course of this book, I actually fell in love with this prickly character. It takes a special author to begin a book with such a ‘bad’ character and have him go through so much that in the end we view him as- well, maybe not ‘good’- but definitely trying to be good! I highly recommend this action packed, shifters at war, magic in the air, bitter enemies to lovers story!

Great story 👏

It's a different view on the supernatural world and the LGBT+ I just stumbled upon this series of books and I love it

Hard to finish

Arik acts the victim when you has done plenty of wrongs to the others

Arik’s spirit animal should’ve been a honey badger

I’m surprised how much I enjoyed this story considering it has two things I normally hate.

First, sexual abuse is a major part of the plot. Arik has repeatedly been a victim in the past and he is threatened with it at several points in the book. What got me through this trigger-trope is that no actual sexual abuse occurs during the book.

Second, Arik, because of his past victimization, sexual and otherwise, is beyond defensive. He lashes out constantly with cruel taunts and is quite the a— hole. Snark, I like; scorched earth is usually a turnoff.

I should maybe even add a third feature that normally bugs me in MM romance, which is when it feels like an author has written a MF book and then gone in and substituted a twink m for the girl role.
Perhaps that will change as the series continues, but this is two for two where the M is a beefy alpha werewolf who finds his mate in an effeminate, sassy m.

And yet, I had a great time with this book. The nooky buttered my popcorn. The angst never got too bad and the ‘you had me at Han Solo’s I know’ parts gave me all the feels. By the end, I loved both Matthew and Arik the ‘No F to give’ honey badger.

Best one so far

I love this little series. If Nate 2as my favorite before, Erik has now stolen my heart. Wish to know more about his background and childhood, though I can sense it was very sad in a way. What happened to his brother I wonder. Still. Love this universe.

It's okay

Not as good as the first book. Not much story. Not as much sex either. It's... "meh".