Reviewed for Blackravens Reviews
Publisher: Siren-Bookstrand Publishing
Genre: GLBT, Paranormal, M/M
Image courtesy of Siren Publishing
Word Count: 26,548
Stars: [rating=3]
Blurb
Yuri Кугуар knows he has been truly blessed by fate when he gets his first sight of his forever mate. The shy little redhead is breathtaking. He also turns out to be sweet and adorable and in need of a strong shifter mate that can protect him from the evils in the world. Yuri truly believes he is the man for the job. He just doesn’t expect to have that tested so soon after meeting Liam.
Liam O’Conner is pretty sure he has died and gone to heaven when the most handsome man in the bar comes to sit down next to him. Yuri seems to hang on his every word, and if the hungry glint in the man’s eyes is anything to go by, Liam just might get lucky.
But fate has a funny way of making a person work for what they want, and the mating between Yuri and Liam is no different. As much as the two men just want to be left alone to get to know each other better, outside forces seem intent on ending their mating before it barely begins. Only with the help of their friends and family will they have a chance to find out if they can be happy as forever mates.
Book Review
Stormy Glenn’s Forever Mates: Yuri and Liam is an installment in the Forever Mates series. This book tells the story of tiger shifter, Yuri meeting his forever mate, Liam. The story is sweet, but rushed. This is definitely a story of instant love. After meeting briefly in a local bar, the four shifter brothers are certain the four men who just walked into the bar are their mates. In this world, shifters are publicly out. People are aware that they share their communities with paranormal creatures. This does not appear to cause tremendous strife, still being gay, particularly late at night in a local bar, has its hazards. When Liam and his three friends, Jace, Rue and Bay come face-to-face with Yuri and his brothers, Mikhail, Zus, and Stefan the sparks fly all over the place. There are a series of quickies with most of the attention on Yuri and Liam.
The four pairs of men come together, each pair in their own distinct way. They all appear to be forever mates, instantly bonded to each other. While the sex is sexy, everything seems a little too rushed. One of the romance plot mechanisms that I like best is the build up in the relationship between the main characters. The tension of new attraction is missing here. The only real tension in the novel is the feud going on within the cat shifter pride between Yuri’s family and wannabe pride leader, Ezra Craigen and his family. Craigen wants to prevent the Кугуар brothers from uniting with their forever mates, since having their mates will only make the brothers that much stronger.
The language is snappy:
“Honey, I hate to break this to you but we’re not anyone else.” A burst of laughter fell from Bay’s lips. “We’re loud, flaming, flamboyant queens.” Bay pointed. “Hell, the eyeliner on Rue’s face alone could get our asses kicked.”
The give and take of the friends is entertaining and I did laugh during some of the scenes, such as the one featuring Liam and a golf club. Still if you’re looking for romantic drama, Forever Mates: Yuri and Liam won’t fill the bill. I give it 3 stars. It’s a nice, warm cuddle and despite the lack of fire, I liked it.