Rating: 3 Stars

Publisher:  Cecilia Lane

Genre: Fantasy Romance

Tags: Fantasy, Dragon Shifters, Fae, Fated Mates, M/F Romance, Wolf Shifters, Series

Length: 138 Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Amazon.com

Blurb –

Darkness rises and darkness comes.
With it, the House of Conri falls. 

Brokenhearted, non-shifter Rory Conri returns home to the Wolfden enclave. There’s only one thing she knows will help take her mind off of her ex: the annual Summer Solstice Ball. But those plans are shattered when her parents, the Wolf King and his Consort, forbid her from attending. Their refusal stems from the fear of her curse—a ruinous birthright that prophesized the downfall of the Conri line the day Rory takes a mate. 

Determined, Rory sneaks into the ball anyway. There’s no reason for them to worry. Conris only mate wolves, and no one would ever want a non-shifter without a wolf inside. But when a tall and ripped masked stranger claims that she’s his mate, Rory questions the life of solitude that her parents have thrust upon her. 

Adrien Bloodwing hates suits and masks, and he especially hates balls. Forced to attend by his dragon clan leader, Adrien dreads every second he’s at the Summer Solstice Ball until the fleeting scent of his mate catches his attention. He is immediately drawn in by her sultry curves and shocked when she tells him about some silly curse she carries. It’s a lie. At least he believed it was before she practically dropped dead in his arms after an innocent kiss. 

With Rory whisked away, Adrien is determined to save and protect his mate while also clearing his name of murder. But things only darken as the pair begin to unravel the lies of Rory’s past. Together, the two will have to face an evil that has haunted her entire life or forever be torn apart. 

~~~ 
Step into the world of Shifting Destinies, where the men and women you meet might just be a little more than human. Their towns are protected by magic, and their hearts are open and ready for love. But watch your step – more than darkness lurks in the shadows.

Review –

This is a nice enough novella but I ended it feeling like I had missed most of the story. Everything happens WAY too fast.

Rory is cursed. She’s a non-shifter in a royal wolf family. For that reason she’s kept hidden from society. Everyone knows she exists but they treat her as if she’s beneath them. She arrives home a day earlier than expected for a planned visit with the intention of attending her parents’ Summer Solstice Ball. Dear old Mom and Dad forbid her from attending. She goes anyway. When she’s spotted by her parents’ enforcers she runs right into a gorgeous man who claims to be her mate. Of course this confuses Rory as she’s been told her whole life that she has no wolf and wouldn’t be mated to anybody. And who would want a non-shifter anyway in a land of nothing but wolves?

That would be Adrien, and he’s definitely not a wolf.

Adrien is a dragon shifter and he scents his mate the minute he walks into the ballroom with his twin. When it looks like Rory is about to be caught by the enforcers he pulls her away and keeps her hidden. That is, until he kisses her at midnight and things go all kinds of wrong.

I liked Adrien right off. I liked Rory. I even liked Rory’s brother Finn (her parents’ golden child) even though he had a few moments. Rory’s mother and father are jerks, as are most of the other characters in the book. There’s a fae queen that had me more confused than anything else. I understood what the point of the fae queen was but it was all so rush, rush that I simply didn’t feel that part of the story.

Not a bad book. Just way too rushed. I wanted to know more about the characters. I feel that the little bit told about their backstories fell flat. I wanted more of Adrien. Perhaps there’s more in future stories in the series. Maybe I’ll check them out. I’m curious to see what happens with Finn.