Review of Pride Mates

Pride Mates
Jennifer Ashley
Dorchester Publishing
304 pages
Jennifer Ashley begins a new paranormal era with her new exciting series Shifters Unbound.
For years Shifters have been in decline, starvation, women dying in childbirth so twenty years ago they ceded to the humans and accepted the collars that would control their natural instincts and become more assimilated to the human way of life. Instead they were shunned by society, were blatantly discriminated against and were relegated to form ghettos in places the humans no longer wanted. Liam has lived this way since the collars went on and although not totally for it he sees the benefits, his community is growing and not only surviving but thriving. Kim Fraser has become a DA to help the underdog and she’s set her sights on helping Brian a Shifter that has been, she’s sure unjustly, accused of murdering his human girlfriend. Together Liam and Kim search for truths not just for Brian because there's something fishy in Shiftertown and while they investigate they must also admit to their attraction to each other. Will they fight what they know has no future, or will they build a new future, together.
“A girl walks into a bar…
No. A human girl walks into a bar” This is the first line of the novel and she had me from there, and with a smile on my face I delved into the lives she created and the stage she put them on. Now this is just one of many paranormal series that have exploded from the publishing world lately and they seem to appeal to us, so why you ask should you try this one. Well that’s my job, to tell you why. Jennifer has created a unique society where the Were community isn’t the alpha, they are the Jews exodus from Israel, the Natives being ousted from their homes by the US government, the civil rights movement. This is a society where they are the enslaved. And she brings this society to us with dialogue where you feel their longing for freedom, their despair, their fear and anger and more importantly their hope for a better tomorrow. She brings it to us with wonderful characters who’s lives you want to know better, you want to help make better. Complex characters, characters she knows well, well enough to make us know them too. Her hero Liam and heroine Kim become your familiars, your friends and your heart hurts for them, but better it beats for them and feels their triumphs. Her villains are never cut and dried because she makes you see their point of view, to experience their demons with them. Her love story between Liam and Kim is touching, heartbreaking and heartwarming. Her love scenes are physical, sensual, intimate and will sizzle on the page.
So come to Shiftertown and meet all the players, good and bad. Try to figure out which is which. Immerse yourself in a fresh new series with a great story to tell and exciting characters to tell it.