Fated Mates Anthology by various authors

TITLE: ⟫ Fated Mates Anthology

AUTHOR: ⟫ Louisa Masters, Nikole Knight, Michelle Frost, Kelex

RATING: ⟫ 2.5 - 4.5/5

BLURB: ⟫ Fated Mates is a Paranormal Romance Charity Anthology from some of your favorite MM authors!

It features new, exclusive stories from Kiki Clark, Mia Monroe, Louisa Masters, Kelly Fox, Sheena Jolie, Jennifer Cody, Nikole Knight, Vinni George, Chloe Archer, Meghan Maslow, Lee Colgin, Kelex, H.L Day, Grae Bryan, AJ Sherwood, Michele Notaro, Lisa Oliver, Ariana Nash, Michelle Frost, and JP Sayle.

All royalties will be donated to the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and the ACLU's Drag Defense Fund.

REVIEWS: ⟫ I received an ARC of four of the stories contained in this anthology.

Aether and the Elements by Louisa Masters

3/5 – I wasn’t a huge fan of this one to be honest. Aether confused/annoyed me simply because so many of his actions didn’t make sense. If he had been through this so many times before, why was he so confused by his mate’s actions/reactions? This felt like it should have been a full length novel rather than the length it was in order for the full back story and climax to be fully realised.

How to Survive a Summoning by Nikole Knight

4.5/5 – This made me giggle so much. I loved Lyn – who wouldn’t fall in love with Lyn? And Jamie was such an absolute sweetheart. I enjoyed the running gags throughout the piece, the hints of further, deeper lore, and the back characters were entertaining and made me want to learn more.

A Werewolf Called Ammon by Michelle Frost

2.5/5 – this didn’t work for me at all. To be fair, I should have known this would be the case after realising it was in the Hellhound called Derek verse, another book that just didn’t work for me. I felt no chemistry between the leads whatsoever, the premise was paper thin and it felt very much like not a lot happened and then it was finished. The weakest story for me.

A Squirrel Gets His Nut by Kelex

3/5 – having just recently read ‘Only Skin Deep’ which is the story following on from this one, I was interested to see how Luca and Ash got together. The idea of ‘wearing’ your mate like a tattoo was intriguing and I wanted to enjoy this far more than I did. Unfortunately, Luca’s feelings about police/authority seemed overblown and although I could kinda understand it, it felt like a bit much. I was also really confused by Luca’s mother and felt like there was much more to that story that we didn’t get to find out. Kudos for the title though!

I received an ARC from GRR but all opinions are my own.

Only Skin Deep by Kelex

TITLE: ⟫ Only Skin Deep

AUTHOR: ⟫ Kelex

RATING: ⟫ 3/5

BLURB: ⟫ Welcome to the world of Enchanted Ink! For a price, master tattooists can place a beautiful spell directly onto your skin. Want to be wealthy? Beautiful? Loved? You’ve come to the right place. Just make sure the price you’ll pay is worth it as the cost isn’t always in gold.

****

Luca Galioto can tattoo just about any spell, but he specializes in healing tattoos. He’ll need to create his masterpiece after his mate, and Salem PD detective, Ash Montgomery brings in a human suffering a curse to end all curses. Luca uses every ounce of strength to save the man—because they both sense he’s their third.

Colby Kennedy doesn’t believe in witches, demons, fated mates, and the things that go bump in the night. Yet he struggles to ignore the deep-seated lust he feels every time he looks at Luca and Ash. No matter his need, he has his brother to care for and a business to run. He doesn’t have time for nonsense.

The demons don’t stop coming, putting everything he holds dear in jeopardy. Luca and Ash, and the coven at Enchanted Ink, are the only things keeping him and his brother from losing everything.

But can he accept their world and his place in it before it’s too late?

REVIEW: ⟫ Oh I wanted to love this one! Fated mates who just happen to be thirds, tattoos with magic imbued in them, demons and a coven in trouble – it just sounded like it would be a breakneck-paced romance with masses of passion and lust, with protectiveness thrown in and magic being thrown around to protect people. Phew!

Yeah, no – this wasn’t that. For a story that involves a third being nearly killed by a tattoo, with demons threatening to destroy much needed/desired third parties, this story lacked passion for me – which is a surprise as in order to recharge, Luca and Ash go at it quite a bit. I felt like the story got a bit lost in the people – not a lot actually happened apart from hints of another pairing, Daniel turning out to be more than just a little magical, and Colby falling under the spell of two good looking men who insisted he was sent to complete them.

We didn’t find out the underlying reason for what the demons were doing, there was no big battle, and even getting Colby to accept his new reality was nowhere near as difficult as I thought it might be. It all just felt a bit – flat? Or maybe too ‘normal’ for a story that was so heavily steeped in the paranormal.

The writing was solid, some of the characters were better written than others, and the world building/premise behind the mate-mark were really intriguing but this story just didn’t fill in enough of the blanks that I wanted to read. Perhaps further through the series, we will learn more about the background of the coven, why the demons might choose to attack the way they have and how everyone fits into this world, but at the moment I don’t think this was a satisfactory introduction to a new series and I’m not sure I’ll read any further.

I received an ARC from GRR.