Author: Ali Hazelwood
# of Pages: 457 (ebook)
Genre: Adult, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Synopsis: 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: Not as good as Bride, unfortunately. It has the same addictive quality, but not as much.
Bride already had its flaws, and Mate fixes some of these but introduces others. Serena and Koen actually spend more time together compared to Misery and Lowe (so the former's relationship feels more authentic).
At the same time, Koen is a problematic male protagonist that makes me not want to root in the Serena x Koen situationship. He seemed blunt and cocky, but his confidence and charisma was still likable in Bride. But in Mate, his sarcasm and attitude toward Serena was super off-putting. It felt like the only reason why he cared about her at all is because she's his mate (rather than caring about her as a person). There's also the big age difference, which sometimes could be a non-issue, but Koen's (unlike Lowe's) Alpha personality came off as infantilizing (especially when Serena is new to all things Were).
A lot of the problems the characters encounter come from character withholding information from each other. Pretty tired of this poor communication trope and made me frustrated with Serena especially.
This could have been a three star read like Bride, but since I didn't love the Serena and Koen relationship as much as Misery and Lowe, I'm deducting a star. I'd only recommend reading this is if you already loved Bride.
