Darkest Mate

Rejected Fate, Book 1

By: Alexis Calder

Narrated by: Amy Kennedy

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Weakness means death. Or worse.

After I was abandoned as a child, I was taken in by the Shadow Pack, a group of ruthless, lawless, shifters who have only one rule: never let anyone see your weakness.

In exchange for them keeping me alive, I owe them. The leader of the Shadows is as handsome as he is ruthless. And he’s offered to wipe my debt in exchange for marriage. He’d offer protection, but it would cost me my freedom.

Survival in the Shadows depends on back alley deals and shady alliances. It’s become a way of life that I stopped questioning years ago. When a routine burglary goes wrong, I find myself captured by the one family I never should have crossed.

The Umbra family owns this city. They make us Shadow wolves look like the good guys. They should have killed me for my crimes, but there’s a tiny problem. It turns out Madoc Umbra is my fated mate.

Instead of killing me, I’m a prisoner. The rest of the family doesn’t know of our bond, and I intend to keep it that way. Madoc’s brothers want to end my life and break the bond. I just want to get the heck out.

As long as I don’t let them see any weakness, I might have a chance of making it out of here alive.
Darkest Mate is a full-length paranormal romance. 17+ for dark content, steamy scenes, and language. This is the first audiobook in a trilogy and is not a standalone. Mind the cliff.

Listening Order:
Darkest Mate
Forbidden Sin
Feral Queen

©2021 Alexis Calder (P)2023 Alexis Calder

like the story

I like the story, the narrator is okay not great. why I say this is because why, there is a handful of people who talk in an American accent then everyone else is either generic foreigner or British. the inconsistency is a little weird but not overall unlistenable.

It’s okay

It’s a very slow build to get to the real plot of the book. The FML is pretty dumb which I hate and seems to have fallen for the wrong guy which could be okay if it’s a story of her growing/wisening up. The reaction to violence/lack of PTSD in this character to her supposed life of being bullied is off-putting and odd. Could have been done better.
The steamy scenes are hot.
The narrator isn’t great, makes all the characters seem dumber than even written with the way she reads the dialogue.
All that said, will get book 2 because I want to know who FML really is…but have given up on a believable HEA…

Amazing Book!

I absolutely loved this book and finished it within a day! I can't wait to be able to listen to the next book in the series! The only reason it isn't five stars across the board is because of the narration. A lot of the voices the narrator does for some minor characters sound a lot like some of the major characters which gets a little confusing. But overall, it's definitely worth listening to!

Pronunciation!!

I love this story and the narrators voice but her pronunciation of the world WOLF drove me nuts. She says it without the L and it sounds like woof 🫠

Great Series!

I love the book, it's thriling and keeps you on your toes. I don't like the way its read, I if it were reread with different tones and inflections it would do much better.