Craving His Virgin Mate by Sam Crescent is the second book of the Poison Wolves MC series that revolves around Agatha, a human, and Bayon a member of the Poison Wolves MC. Even without reading the first book, I still got a sense of what happened there since the author made sure to reference back and make short explanations. Although it does not erase the fact that I wish I had read the first book first. Seems like a lot happened in that story!
In comparison, Craving His Virgin Mate by Sam Crescent appears tamer. (I cannot give you 100% assurance on that since I haven’t read the first book yet.) There is no big bad but there was still a mystery that needed to be solved.
Agatha is a solitary creature. Growing up she mostly kept to herself, did not make any friends, and spent most of her time with her adoptive parents or taking long walks in the forest. When her adoptive parents died she decided to uproot and travel with no particular direction or place in mind. She found herself in a town called Poison.
For whatever reason, the people of Poison seemed to hate her, they were not at all welcoming, not even a little bit! Despite that, something about Poison made her want to stay. Poison felt like home.
Poison is actually a pack of werewolves. Boyan is a member of the Poison Wolves MC that protects Poison. The Poison Wolves MC is made up of men who are all technically Alphas but decided to band together instead. Their club president is called Alpha. I don’t know if that is his club name or his designation as the leader. He seeks out Agatha to find out why she seems adamant about staying despite being mostly ignored or rudely spoken to by the pack members.
And then he discovers that she is his mate. This is problematic because of events that happened in Book 1 where they discover that humans cannot become werewolves so a mating between a werewolf and a human is likely not feasible. Despite this, Boyan could not help seek her out, in the guise of finding out more.
But there really is something mysterious about Agatha. Aside from her not wanting to leave, her scent also disappears into the pack! How is that even possible? Is she a regular human or was she one of those that was experimented on by Dr. Milton? Curiouser and curiouser!
The way Agatha and Boyan are with each other is hot, to say the least. From the title, you can tell that Agatha starts the book with her virginity intact so part of me was curious to see how the author would have them jump that little hurdle. In my personal opinion, it was perfect! I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Craving His Virgin Mate by Sam Crescent could be classified as quick and light reading. There is enough going on to keep me engaged and enough chapters to give me something to sink my teeth into. Since it was written so well, I couldn’t help but look for the first book, Hard For You, just so I can get the complete story firsthand.
I recommend this book, definitely! But better if you read the first book also. You can get a copy of Craving His Virgin Mate by Sam Crescent on Amazon. The Kindle version is $3.99.
I’ve reviewed a story by Caroline Above Story before and I enjoyed the book (which is still ongoing) so I thought I would give another one of her stories a shot. I scanned through her books on Goodnovel and stopped on My Professor Is My Alpha Mate by Caroline Above Story. “Taboo” romances are often interesting if written properly and I was curious to see just how taboo this story would be.
The book begins with Lila turning 18 soon but already in college/university (yep, a smart egg) and an art student. When she catches her boyfriend in a liplock with another woman, she turns to the nearest male and kisses him, not realizing that the person she kissed was a teacher. Oh, boy!
Enzo is the youngest Alpha (in his early 20s) and was tasked by the council to teach combat in the shifter school. When Lila kissed him randomly in the corridor, he didn’t react or kiss her back. His expression remained stoic but inside he was shocked.
Lila decides to switch classes to one her cheating boyfriend is not a part of and discovers that she kissed the professor. Talk about embarrassing! It isn’t until a few days later when she turns 18 that they discover they are mates. Enzo has a lot of things going on and while he acknowledged the mate bond he was not willing to claim her. Interestingly, he was not rejecting her either! Poor Lila. I honestly wished at first that she would just reject him.
But things are not as simple as that. There are so many things that are getting in the way … pack issues, uncontrolled powers, friends with issues to resolve, “mortal enemies”, and thirsty she-wolves lusting after Enzo.
Their romance is frustrating as it is a slow burn but I still feel compelled to read the new chapters as they come out, lol! Are there spelling and grammar issues? A few, such as not always remembering how things are spelled (is it MONRO or MONSTRO?) which is frustrating but I choose to just read it however I want to and move forward as there are more interesting things happening anyway.
So far, I am enjoying My Professor Is My Alpha Mate by Caroline Above Story. Classification: light reading, slow burn.
You can add Mated to the Bully Stepbrothers by Qeemahhh (aka Enitan Abdulazeez) to the list of books that don’t make a lot of sense. From the title alone I automatically assumed this is a shifter romance since “mates” were mentioned. However, aside from the mention of Arielle being an Omega, her wolf’s name being Talia (in the first two chapters), the “mates” thing, and the reference to quicker healing, there is no other indicator that any of the characters are werewolves at all. That could have been taken out completely and made them all human and it would not have affected the story. They don’t even have a mind link which is common lore for werewolf stories with characters that are related or part of the same pack.
Just for context, this is the (unedited) blurb of the book, for your reference:
She has spent most of her life at the expense of others, bullied at school, working shifts and also tons of suffering but Arielle did not mind. Arielle has believed that clocking 18 would be the game-changer for her because she’ll find her mate and live an exotic life. Before her parents left her and her sister to the cruel world, a witch has told them she’ll be mated to a powerful creature and she’ll live a good life. What Arielle didn’t expect was to be mated to the three sons of the alpha of the pack, and also step brothers.
Would Arielle get the beautiful life she has always wanted or would it be a series of new torture? Would she be able to bring the three creatures together?
What would happen when the brothers learn that Arielle is not a normal omega and possesses a strong power? Will the power take either Arielle or the three brothers? Find out in this thrilling story.
The story begins with Arielle living in a hovel with rats eating her food as she doesn’t even have a fridge and her sister working for the Luna. The story even goes on to say that her sister lives at the packhouse and has no things at her place as she lives alone. Then as soon as the story introduces Derek, Enzo, and Aiden as her mates, she suddenly lives in a low-cost apartment complete with appliances and furnishings. She still wears “rags” but now she doesn’t live in a hovel.
Second point, the title says that the men are “stepbrothers” however they indicate that they have the same dad but different moms … that makes them half-brothers since they are all still related by blood. We don’t know if they belong to the same pack Arielle does. We don’t know if they are ranked wolves. What we do know is that they are wealthy.
Third, the book cover says “her” instead of “the” but Arielle is an orphan so they could not be her step anything.
Fourth, I have read up to chapter 40 now (yes, 40!) and she is bullied in every chapter by everyone except her sister. I think everyone is aware that bullying is bad, right? So how is it acceptable as a romance story arc for the main character to be bullied for (so far) the whole story, including by her supposed mates? We’re not even talking about just verbal abuse. Arielle is abused verbally, physically, psychologically, AND cyberbullied. Yes, her so-called “mates” are part of that whole twisted party. They don’t even want people to know that they are mates. She is their dirty little secret … nothing more than a sex slave.
Fifth, they just mark her (as in just bit her neck with no warning) on the day they discover they are mates at her apartment. She never marks them back.
Sixth, it takes the brothers more than 30 chapters to realize what douchebags they are, and then with the flip of a switch, they are suddenly nice to her, protective, and declaring to everyone that she is their mate. JUST. LIKE. THAT. No epiphany, no transitionary paragraphs, they are just suddenly nice. IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!
Don’t even get me started on the grammar and word usage! For example, every time the says “phantom” she actually means fathom. In an effort to self-edit, some words have asterisks in place of letters. That’s fine and all if it made sense. For example, if she says “c–k” when referring to the male genitalia, that makes sense. But when she says “c–ked” referring to “tilting the head” then the asterisks are just ridiculous! There are so much more but those are the ones that stood out the most as I was reading. Note: I’ve replaced the * with – for this post because the page is not translating the way I want it to.
To be honest, I don’t even know why Arielle is still alive. I also don’t understand how the entire school bullies her and no person of authority has a clue. With everything that has happened to Arielle, I would have had her murdered or committing suicide (by jumping off a cliff or drowning in the river, for example) much earlier in the book where (assuming this is still a shifter story) the Moon Goddess intercedes, gives her a second chance at life somewhere else or as somewhere else. I would LOVE for this to be a rebirth story, rather than spending so much time on the bullying.
If the author really wants her to end up with the three, there has to be something that triggers the change in them, and we should see it. At the moment, I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop. They tricked her like that before, humiliating her in front of everyone, what is to stop them from doing it again? I think the author needs to figure out what she really wants to happen and where this story is supposed to go because right now it just seems like she enjoys making Arielle suffer. Is there such a thing as fictional character bullying?
If you are curious and want to check out Mated to the Bully Stepbrothers by Qeemahhh (aka Enitan Abdulazeez) for yourself to form your own opinion you can find it on Dreame. It is an ongoing story so who knows where the story will go.
I have read my share of stories with confusing titles and premises but I must admit, Mated to the Gay Alpha by Blessing Ezekiel, so far is the most confusing of them all. The main character is Catherine (or Cathy), a human girl. At the beginning of the story, we see her leaving her home to visit her sick aunt. The author goes out of his way to say that Cathy is a nurse so I assumed she was going there to take care of her sick aunt. Instead, she is tasked to help her aunt by assisting her in the mansion as a line cook. What a waste of her talent! It would have made more sense if the author said she was a chef.
Then we have the identical Alpha twins, Darin and Darwin, who are gay and fully mated to Elliot, their Beta’s nephew. A twist in the plot, Derick, Darwin’s wolf, scents the air and discovers that Cathy is his second mate and for some reason, while he isn’t repelled by Elliot, he also isn’t attracted to him anymore. Darin, on the other hand, finds himself quite attracted to Cathy, despite his wolf, Eric, having no feelings for her and constantly reminding him that Elliot is his mate.
Darwin thinks his wolf is bespelled and accuses Cathy of witchcraft. Cathy has no idea what is happening. And Darin is fascinated by her. Darin decides to interact with Cathy by impersonating Darwin, partly to get information that he wouldn’t be privy to otherwise, but later because he just couldn’t help himself.
Things get complicated when they succumb to their physical attraction with him still pretending to be Darwin. Then Darwin also succumbs and unintentionally Cathy ends up involved with both thinking they were the same person. To put it simply, our characters are confused and we are confused. Are they gay? What is wrong with Elliot? He’s been hostile towards Cathy from the get-go. Is he truly their mate or was their witchcraft involved? Is Cathy actually mates to both of them? What about Lucas?
The story has potential, that much I can assure you, but it also needs a lot of work. The author keeps interchanging names, gets pronouns wrong, and is fond of using idiomatic expressions but uses the wrong one almost all the time. sigh In addition, the way the erotic scenes are written is not really as steamy as I thought they would be, especially the M2M scenes that came with a trigger warning. The way they were written was actually quite juvenile which leads me to believe the author is young and has little or no experience. That being said, experience is gained through practice so do research and keep writing.
This is currently an ongoing story and has 41 chapters to date. I’m on chapter 41 so you know I haven’t given up on it. I am still waiting for clarity and crossing my fingers that it will happen. You can find Mated to the Gay Alpha by Blessing Ezekiel on Goodnovel.
I tried. I really tried to give Pregnant My Alpha Bully’s Baby by Ariel Liza a chance. I even got as far as 10 so you know I really tried. Unfortunately, I spent every moment gnashing my teeth in frustration as almost every single line (no exaggeration) is grammatically incorrect!
I think it is safe to assume this book was initially not in English and that the author lazily just used Google translate or some such app to convert it to English and then … without proofreading it, just published it … verbatim.
For starters, the title alone is lacking in punctuation which makes it difficult to read at first glance and then my brain goes “Ah! There should be a comma after ‘pregnant’.”
That being said, I found the story flow confusing from the get-go. The main characters, Claire and Ethan, are in high school. Claire is being bullied daily by Ethan and his girlfriend Mia, not just verbally but physically as well. Claire has a boyfriend named Jake who is handsome and athletic. He protects her whenever he can but he cannot be around all the time to protect her as he has to attend his classes, too.
Claire goes home and her mom tells her to get dressed as she is expecting special guests who turn out to be her boyfriend Mason and his son Ethan (surprise!) and they announce that they are getting married TOMORROW. Mom just drops the bomb, just like that. In the meantime, Ethan seemed to have developed an unusual attraction to Claire that he never displayed before.
After the wedding, mom tells Claire that she and Mason are leaving for a month for their honeymoon in Italy, leaving Claire and Ethan alone together at the mansion. Can you guess what happens next? There are talks of “deeper skin” and “secret place” and “you/I just got it”. Got what? And what happens to sexy boyfriend Jake now?
Is Claire human? Is Ethan an Alpha wolf? How about Jake? Is he an Alpha wolf, too? It is just messy.
If you can get passed the multitude of grammatical errors (which is almost the entire story, it seems) then give this a shot. I am willing to give Pregnant My Alpha Bully’s Baby by Ariel Liza maybe 5 to 10 chapters more and if the story does not improve, I am dropping this. I am praying it gets better … also that the author decides to get a copy editor, stat!
In comparison, Craving His Virgin Mate by Sam Crescent appears tamer. (I cannot give you 100% assurance on that since I haven’t read the first book yet.) There is no big bad but there was still a mystery that needed to be solved.
The book begins with Lila turning 18 soon but already in college/university (yep, a smart egg) and an art student. When she catches her boyfriend in a liplock with another woman, she turns to the nearest male and kisses him, not realizing that the person she kissed was a teacher. Oh, boy!
Just for context, this is the (unedited) blurb of the book, for your reference:
I have read my share of stories with confusing titles and premises but I must admit, Mated to the Gay Alpha by Blessing Ezekiel, so far is the most confusing of them all. The main character is Catherine (or Cathy), a human girl. At the beginning of the story, we see her leaving her home to visit her sick aunt. The author goes out of his way to say that Cathy is a nurse so I assumed she was going there to take care of her sick aunt. Instead, she is tasked to help her aunt by assisting her in the mansion as a line cook. What a waste of her talent! It would have made more sense if the author said she was a chef.
I tried. I really tried to give Pregnant My Alpha Bully’s Baby by Ariel Liza a chance. I even got as far as 10 so you know I really tried. Unfortunately, I spent every moment gnashing my teeth in frustration as almost every single line (no exaggeration) is grammatically incorrect!
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