4 out of 5 stars
E-book. Kindle Unlimited. 307 pages. Published December 15th 2020
Blurb:
His so-called mate thinks it’s fate. Toby has other ideas.
When Toby Sanders shows up to interview for a teaching job at a mysterious estate, he’s not expecting his world to flip upside down and backward.
Shifters are real… and the hottest, most protective wolf of all is claiming him as a mate.
Toby can’t deny that Brooks is everything he ever wanted and never thought he could have—loving, strong, drop-dead gorgeous—or that the two little girls Brooks wants to adopt give Toby a glimpse of the family he’s always dreamed of…
But how the heck is he supposed to believe in this mating magic stuff when life has taught him that the only person he can count on is himself?
As dangers from multiple sources threaten everything he’s come to care about, Toby learns that being part of a pack isn’t just about accepting his fate, it’s about choice: choosing to trust Brooks, choosing to believe in himself, and choosing to fight for the life and love he deserves, even if he has to cross the entire fae realm to do it.
Likes:
- Toby and Brooks, together and separately.
- Toby’s hang-ups with sex.
- How Brooks was willing to take it slow.
- Toby was a good teacher.
- The side characters, especially Ollie and Jeremy.
- Toby added a lot to the pack.
Dislikes:
- Not as good as All Kidding Aside.
- A lot of extra non-romance things added in to stretch the length.
- Some issues not resolved at the end.
- The statement at the end about Zachary and Toby becoming good friends.
- Daisy and Marigold weren’t central to the story.
- Toby was only introduced to one other human who learned about the supernatural world.
I read this book right after finishing All Kidding Aside, and I have to admit that it’s not as good. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. I liked Toby and Brooks, and their romance was sweet. But their romance wasn’t enough to fill up the book, which meant that other, unconnected issues were brough up to take up space. I wouldn’t exactly call it filler, because it is important to the pack’s overall story. But it definitely wasn’t related to Brooks or Toby.
Stop Kidding Around might be the second book in the Magical Mates series, but it’s the 15th in the Chosen Universe series. Which made it an unusual choice to have Toby be a human with no knowledge of anything supernatural. The Magical Mates series is deeply tied to all the books that came before, but I guess people might come into the series without reading the earlier books. Then why not have Toby be the main character of the first book? I guess I always assume that characters who are introduced to a new magical/supernatural world are there to also introduce the world to the readers, and Toby doesn’t fulfill that purpose.
Despite that, I liked Toby. He was passionate about teaching and good with the kids, especially Jeremy. As an outsider, Toby added a new perspective to the pack meetings, and Nick and the others listened to him. Toby did need time to adjust to the new world he found himself in, and thankfully did so without any major freak-outs. I wish he’d been able to sit down and talk with some of the other humans who’ve learned about the supernatural world. He briefly met Shelly, but I would have liked him to meet Cody. I think they could have become friends.
Brooks was a good guy, but is definitely less developed than Toby. He’s a member of the Jerrick pack, and wants to adopt two little girls who Nick rescued. Being single, he doubts he’d be considered a good pick. Throughout the book, his main focus is on wooing Toby. Besides that, he doesn’t really have much else going on.
The little girls, Daisy and Marigold, are also less developed than I expected. Since Gus was such a cutie in All Kidding Aside, the girls felt bland. They’re there, and Brooks and Toby dote on them, but personality wise they were lacking. On the plus side, they weren’t annoying.
Jeremy made much more of an impact on me than the girls. I liked Jeremy, and the way Toby saw himself in the boy and made sure to include him. It was nice to see Jeremy get a happy ending as well.
Brooks recognized Toby as his mate right from their first meeting, which was both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because I was annoyed at how long it took Riggs and Victor to realize they were mates in the last book. Bad because the romance wasn’t enough to carry the book on its own. Yes, Toby needed a lot of time to get used to all the new things in his life. Plus, Toby had hang-ups about sex. And I loved that Brooks was willing to take things slow for him. But the romance could only be stretched so far, which led to the other, unrelated plot points being added in.
Jeremy’s story was one such extra plot point. As was the entire trip into the fae, and how they couldn’t just go back once the danger was over. Seriously, the whole ‘you can’t leave until the Lady says so’ thing was super heavy handed and definitely added to the page length despite not having any bearing on Toby’s life.
I do wish the issue of Toby and Brooks belonging to different packs had been cleared up. It wasn’t even addressed, and it left me with questions like where they’ll live and what pack the girls will belong to. I also didn’t appreciate being told that Toby and Ollie became besties with Zachary when Toby never interacts with Zachary on page at all.
I am curious about Zachary and Rowan, and am glad they’ll be getting a novella eventually. I also hope Ollie gets a story one day. He was the standout character of the book. Ollie is as cute as an adult as he was in the first book of the series, and it was nice to see him and Toby be friends.
There’s no word yet on when the next book will come out, which is a little strange as Blake seems to have been putting out three books a year and it’s been six months since the last book. Still, I’m hoping the next book will be worth the wait.
Be sure to check out the rest of the series – Sweet Nothings (The Chosen One #0.5), The Trouble with Love (The Chosen One #0.75), Santa Trouble (The Chosen One #0.76), All or Nothing (The Chosen One #1), Nothing Ventured (The Chosen One #2), Hell on Earth (Hellhound Champions #1), Double or Nothing (The Chosen One #2.5), Next to Nothing (The Chosen One #3), Give Him Hell (Hellhound Champions #3), Nothing Gained (The Chosen One #4), Stop at Nothing (The Chosen One #5), Sweet Spot (Paranormal Sugar Daddy #1), All Kidding Aside (Magical Mates #1)
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