Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: Hard Rose Publishing

Genre: Gay Paranormal Romance

Tags: Contemporary, Age Gap (18 Years), Fated Mates, Insta-Love, Opposites Attract, Paranormal, Romance,  Not-So-Secret Relationship, Series, Shifters, Small Town, Urban Fantasy, Warlocks

Length: 189 Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Amazon

Blurb –

A forbidden fated mate. A string of murders. And a town that hides more than just magic.

All Riley wants is a fresh start. After the unexpected death of his mother, all he wants is to move to Fortune Falls, attend college, and get to know his estranged father. But Fortune Falls is more than it seems. It’s filled with secrets and a sexy sheriff’s deputy.

Who knew magic existed? Not Riley. But there it is at his fingertips.

Cass’s pack alpha wants him to mate with another wolf shifter. Not his best friend’s sweet, funny warlock of a son. He doesn’t expect his murder investigation to be tied to his pack or for their lives to be at stake.

It’s not just Riley’s dad who can’t know Cass is his fated mate. Cass’s pack can’t either.

If you like love with an age gap, knotting, a small town filled with secrets and a troubled wolf shifter pack, and a murder mystery where falling for your fated mate could make you the next victim, you’ll love this sensual romance.

Blurb –

Twenty-four year old Riley has just lost his mother. She was an alcoholic, and from what I gathered, her body simply gave out. He had been her only support for years, having to be the parent instead of the adult child. It was sad, really, and not just her death. He had no life at all outside of working hard simply to keep a roof over their heads. He has a father, Iven, who would go to the ends of the earth to help him, as would his brother Griffin, but Riley has always been stubborn. He never asked for help, nor did he accept it when offered.

Riley and Griffin had different mothers.

Iven and Griffin had no idea how bad things were. They live in Fortune Falls, a pretty good drive from where Riley lived with his mom.

It takes a welfare check, courtesy of a phone call from his sheriff father, to get Riley up and moving. He calls his dad and they make arrangements for Riley to come to Fortune Falls, and to start college there. Iven’s been trying to get him to move there for years, but Riley wouldn’t leave his mom.

What Riley doesn’t know is that Fortune Falls is a small town full of wolf shifters, warlocks, and other paranormal beings. He and Iven are warlocks, but poor Riley didn’t even know they existed.

On his way into town, Riley runs out of gas. Too proud to ask his dad for money, he’s now stuck in a desolate area surrounded by woods, and it’s freezing. Instead of calling his dad, he calls the sheriff’s department. His savior is Cass, Iven’s deputy and best friend.

Cass, forty-two, is a wolf shifter. Wolf shifters have fated mates. The moment he sees Riley stranded on the side of the road, he knows he’s met his mate. That’s both good and bad. Good because, hello! Fated mate. Bad because of Iven, and because Cass’ new alpha is completely against wolves mating with anybody other than their own kind. Doing so could put Riley in serious danger with the pack.

The alpha is another story altogether. It’s obvious from his first introduction that he’s super shady.

Cass is forced to tell Riley that’s he’s a shifter within seconds of them meeting. He has no choice, really, because of his reaction when he saw Riley/his mate the first time. We’re talking fangs and creepy eyes. 😉

Riley is able to finally spend time with his father and brother. Iven does everything he can for his son, and Griffin is the big brother everybody hopes to have. He’s hilarious.

“I intend to be the best parent I can be, but you must do one thing for me.”

“Which is?”

“Let me.”

But through the upcoming days, it’s obvious that something is going on between Iven’s son and best friend slash deputy. It was the worst kept secret in town because of how they acted with each other. Throw in a mark on Riley’s hand that shows the world he’s met his mate, and let’s just say they weren’t fooling anybody – even Iven, though Iven didn’t want to believe what was right in front of him. Cass also has a bad habit of calling Riley ‘baby’ without thinking.

Yeah, pretty obvious.

Riley swallowed. “That’s awful. I hope you catch whoever did it.”

“Me too, baby.” The endearment slipped out.

Griffin shook his head. “Yeah you don’t have to worry about me telling Dad. The two of you will fuck it up in no time at all.”

Then there’s a murder mystery happening in town that Iven and Cass are investigating. The town is small, so you’d think there would be a short list of suspects. Wrong. They learn that the killer is someone in Cass’ pack, and there are hundreds of members.

So not only has Riley reunited with his father and brother, but he’s also discovered that he’s a warlock, and that people and wolves are being murdered nearby.

The warlock thing is crucial later in the book, but I can’t say how.

If you’ve read my reviews over the years, you know I’m all about big age gaps. Unfortunately, Riley came across as much younger than twenty-four throughout the book. I get that he’d been sheltered because of his mother, but this was a bit much. Also, if they were trying to keep things secret from Iven and the pack – Griffin figures it out almost immediately – they were very careless about it. I also feel that they mated/did the mate bond much too quickly.

The mystery isn’t really much of a mystery, to be honest, but I didn’t mind that too much.

A couple of characters I loved are Gran (Cass’ grandmother) and Griffin’s mother.

I liked Iven a lot, and I didn’t mind his reaction to learning the truth too much. Like I said, he knew already. He just didn’t want to admit it.

As for Cass and Riley, I loved Cass. Riley was okay, I suppose, just immature.

The next book is Iven’s. I’ll be reading it, but the one I can’t wait for is Griffin’s. He’s blast.

A nice read, though there were quite a few editing issues throughout. Explode instead of explore, caring instead of carrying; that type of thing, along with quite a few spacing issues.

I think this is my first by this author.

My quickie review for Midnight Spells (#1.5) can be found here.