5 out of 5 stars
E-book. Kindle Unlimited. 380 pages. Published February 17th 2019
Blurb:
Spitfire Disgrace Matthieu Boudreaux has one wish: to age out of the Pedigree he despises, then destroy it. With one year left before he achieves the first step of his goal, Matthieu finally has some hope for an independent future… until a surly Amethyst dragon by the name of Geoffrey Drake and his entourage show up at Matthieu’s cloister and inform him he’s been selected to be part of an ‘experiment.’
Geoffrey Drake, proud and stuffy legal counsel for the Amethyst clan, has been charged with ruining his own life. His mission? Deliver a potential mate to the son of the Amethyst clan’s most despised enemy—and the man he’s loved in secret for the last hundred years—Topaz dragon Ian Brand. Refusal is impossible. Dragons don’t consort with dragons, and should Geoffrey decline, he risks exposing them both.
Ian Brand, charming black sheep of the Topaz clan, is trapped between his forbidden love for an Amethyst dragon centuries his senior and his duty to his family. Chosen by his unhinged father to be the Topaz candidate for the mating experiment, Ian is faced with a terrible choice: run away with the man he loves and face the deadly consequences, or accept his fate with a broken heart.
But dragon magic, as Matthieu, Geoffrey, and Ian soon discover, works in mysterious ways. When an unforeseeable circumstance draws them all together and puts their futures at risk, they have no choice but to set their differences aside and work together to prove a new, startling truth…
What the dragon world knows about mates has been wrong all along, and it will be up to the three of them to prove it.
Mate is a 103,000 word steamy omegaverse mpreg-ish romance that will leave you in stitches. It contains an experiment gone awry, five eccentric peacocks, an unusually large number of whelps, an ancient Viking Daddy dragon, and science! For maximum enjoyment, Mate is best read following the events of Clutch and Bond.
Likes:
- Matthieu, Geoffrey, and Ian, together and separately.
- Matthieu’s plans for the future.
- The angst Ian and Geoffrey feel.
- Hooked me fast.
- Kept me hooked.
- Geoffrey isn’t as much of a stick in the mud as he appears.
- Open, honest conversation.
- Snorre and his family.
- The peacocks.
- Very satisfying ending.
- Good smut.
Dislikes:
- Sigric.
- Dragon society’s stupid rules.
- Not all the French was explained.
- Didn’t seem like the Disgraces got a choice whether to take part in the experiment.
After reading Bond, I was eager to see how Harry’s experiments would turn out. I expected things to go smoothly. There was never any doubt in my mind that Harry was correct.
I didn’t expect the emotional pain and angst that would be caused by the experiment. But I loved it. Geoffrey and Ian’s relationship wasn’t typical, by dragon standards. Alpha/alpha romances aren’t accepted by society, which I think is just as dumb as they way omegas and Disgraces are treated. There’s a very strong machismo to the dragon society, demanding they be dominant and proud while also rigidly adhering to a specific type of behavior.
In a way, I’m glad that Ian and Geoffrey had been together for a century by the time the book started. Not only is their love solid, they’re both comfortable with their roles. I’m not sure I’d call it a D/s dynamic, though Ian is the top and Geoffrey the bottom. The men themselves don’t think of it as BDSM.
There were brief flashbacks to the beginning of their relationship, which were helpful to see how they got together. There’s a definite Romeo and Juliet vibe to their relationship. Their respective clans are adversarial, and their relationship is taboo not just because they’re both alphas but because of their family rivalries.
As I hoped, Geoffrey wasn’t as much of a stick in the mud as he seemed from the glimpses of him we’ve gotten in the previous book. The angst he went through, expecting Ian to bond with Mattheu and abandon him, made he ache for him. Geoffrey also didn’t think he had a real bond with Ian.
Ian was just as shaken by the prospect of loosing Geoffrey because of the experiment. At the same time, he couldn’t say no to being part of it. His father was a true villain, cruel and scheming. I really felt for Ian on that account. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Mattheu was also easy to like. He had a solid plan for his future, and was understandably upset when he was chosen for the experiment. It didn’t seem like he was given a choice about participating, which is definitely a con of the experiment. But Mattheu didn’t let that get in his way. He was the one who came up with the plan for how the three of them would proceed.
I’m really glad at the amount of open, honest conversation between the men. It’s definitely part of why they achieved their happy ending. There were only a few times when Ian and Geoffrey tried to mask their emotions, and Mattheu quickly put a stop to it. Luckily, Ian and Geoffrey understood French, since that was Mattheu’s first language, and he reverted to it when angry. Most of it was translated for the reader, but not all, which was a little annoying.
I’ve only read a few romances featuring three people, but in all of them, each person brings something unique to the romance. Mattheu fit well into the dynamic between Geoffrey and Ian. He was versatile, which added a lot to their sex life. More than that, he changed the way the alphas thought of their future. Without Mattheu in their lives, they wouldn’t have sought out Snorre and his family.
I was hooked all the way through the book. There was always some new development or threat to their happiness. All three men went through big personal changes by the end, all for the better. They also changed dragon society for the better. Out of all three books so far, this one had the most satisfying ending. While Harry is still my favorite character, I like this book better than Bond.
Be sure to check out the other books in the series – Clutch (Forbidden Desires #1), Bond (Forbidden Desires #2)
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