Pride Mates by Jennifer Ashley – a Review

Pride Mates by Jennifer Ashley, is the first book in her Shifters Unbound series.  This is a paranormal romance in a different futuristic world.  Shifters came out and announced themselves 20 years ago, but freedom was not what they expected.  The shifters were delegated to their own towns, not allowed to mingle in most human elements, such as flying on an airplane, certain restaurants, etc.  Worse, all shifters were given a special collar to wear, that was spelled by the Fae (whom we do not see much in this book, other then knowing they helped create this collar).  The collar controls their violent animalistic tendencies, thereby making humans feel safe around them.  But they are restricted. 

Kim Fraser, is a human attorney, who is defending a Shifter on a murder charge.  Kim goes to meet Liam Morrissey, who is the go between for his father, one of the leaders of the Austin Shifters. Liam works in a bar, and Kim is amazed how normal he seems to be.  In fact, as she walks through Shiftertown for the first time, she marvels how normal and happy the children and adults seem to be.  She is shocked how they all seemed to hug each other all the time. 

Liam is a feline Shifter, but we do get to meet other shifters, such as Lupines (wolves), Ursine (bears).  He is immediately enamored by Kim, who is determined to help her client, even if he is a Shifter.  She does not allow herself to be afraid, and stubbornly insists that she needs their help to find out more information.  Of course, the leaders do not want anyone to know anything about them.  The main leader of the Shifters is Fergus, whom we hear a lot about, but don’t see much of him until the later part of the book.  But you know early on that Fergus, is one of the bad guys.

Liam marks Kim early on, to protect her from other shifters.  But, when a feral shifter goes after Kim, the game changes.  Liam, with the help of his family (Dylan his father, Sean his brother, and Conner is nephew), protect Kim from the dangers of her becoming involved with the Shifters, as well as those who do not want her defending the shifter on trial.  They force her to stay with them in Shiftertown, and despite her stubbornness that she has work to do, Kim finds herself falling for Liam, who is not only a gorgeous sexy hunk, but he is truly  a charming nice guy, whom everyone likes.  Liam already knows that he wants Kim, as she is his mate. 

Ashley has done a wonderful job in bringing together this romance of a shifter and a human.  Watching both of them fight the attraction, and then give in to their lust, was fun to watch.  I enjoyed the banter between them and Liam’s family; especially Connor, who I adored, and I loved Sean. 

The last half of the book was very exciting, as first Liam and his family are threatened by Fergus, and Kim is the one who must bring them to face Fergus.  In order to save Kim from the bad guy, Liam comes to her rescue and claims her as his mate.  This is still early on in the first half, which leads to many reveals, and an exciting climatic ending.  This book had everything from an interesting storyline, leading us into future books of this series; a fabulous romantic couple in Liam and Kim; great steamy sex; wonderful secondary characters in Sean and Conner; a suspenseful tense and exciting fight at the end, and a terrific end.  Pride Mates was a great and fun read, and this series is just beginning. I have added this series to my automatic buy.

Reviewed by Barb