Review: Howling for their Mate by Jane Jamison

Title: Howling for their Mate
Series: Wolf Packs of Fate, 1
Author: Jane Jamison
.
Genre: Paranormal, shifters, wolves
Content: MFMM
Stand Alone: YES
Re-issued /Re-edited: NO
Date published: January 2016
Published by: Siren BookStrand
Publisher bookstore: LINK
ISBN:
Word count: 43, 358

.

.
Jane Jamison has always liked “weird stuff” as her mother called it. From an early age she was fascinated with stories about werewolves, vampires, space, aliens and whatever was hiding in her bedroom closet. (To this day, she still swears she can hear growls and moans whenever the lights are out.)

 Born under the sign of Scorpio meant Jane was destined to be very sensual. Some would say she was (and remains) downright sexual. Then one day she put her two favorite things together on paper and found her life’s true ambition: to be an erotica paranormal romance author.

 Jane spends at least six days a week locked in her office surrounded by the characters she loves. Every day a new character will knock on the door of her imagination. Her plans include taking care of her loving husband, traveling, and writing at least twelve books a year.

.

Raven Reynolds is an ex-con. She was set up by her ex-boyfriend to take the fall in a robbery. Years later, she moves to Fate, Georgia hoping for a home and friends in a place where no one will ever know about her past.

Werewolf brothers, Drake, Dugan, and Harrin Hardwick have watched the pretty Raven for a while and have decided that she’s perfect for them. Still, they can’t shake the feeling that she has a secret. Yet they know her secret can’t be half as shocking as theirs.

When Raven’s ex shows up, the Hardwick men try to back off, but her sleazy ex isn’t listening to Raven’s demands that he get the hell out of Fate. A wolf’s got to do what a wolf’s got to do and with three wolves involved, that’s even truer. The world explodes as the pack takes on the ex in a fight for not only Raven’s heart, but her life.

.

.

Today is the day. Why? Because I know this author, Jane Jamison, for years and I never reviewed one of her 62 menage romances. Yes, you read right… 62!

I am not 100% sure but I think she wrote mostly werewolves menages. So no surprise about her newest release: Howling for their Mate.

The first thing I have in mind about this author is that she is a sure thing. If you love one of her book, you will become a big fan.

I like this author. However, I think the author has a hard time to renew her plots and characters. The last book I read from her was a year ago, and the comments I have today are pretty much the same for both stories. But to be honest, those comments stand for few menage authors.

First, the male characters are nice but they are stuck by the hips. Unfortunately, this is a very common thing I read in 95% of the menages I read, not especially this author. It seems that the males, no matter if the menage is about two or three, they do not have a proper separate life and a distinct love story with the heroine. Second, I wonder if for some authors they take the easy way by using shifters to justify and sanctify menage relationships. It is “OK” to be kinky if it is paranormal because paranormal does not exist so everything is allowed. I am saying that because the shifting is “used” once when they kill the villain. Just a thought to ponder here, not a generality or certainty.

I must admit that in this story, the author used the characters in both form, human and wolf, not only to kill the villain. I always admire heroines who are intrigued and not afraid of huge wolves appearing at their door step all of a sudden. Being a city girl, if I ever saw an animal bigger than a normal size dog, I would scream bloody murder and shut the doors, windows and curtains, running inside the house like a maniac and call 911.

Teasing.

Not.

Jane Jamison, in Howling for their Mate, and in general I must say, describe the trio of males as first alpha, alpha and potential alpha. Well not really in this words but you get my meaning. So we have the big bad boy in charge, generally with a SEAL or cops background, generally the full package, brain and muscles, very dominant inside and outside the bedroom, then we have the bad boy who is generally the muscles or the good doctor with the brain and we have the potential almost alpha who is generally the youngest, funniest and/or the sweetest.

Nothing wrong with that so far but definitely a déjà-vu hundred of times.

In Howling for their Mate, each male character got a paragraph explaining who they were and everything was sealed and done. In few lines, I did not know to read further about them and could have jump to the epilogue because I knew nothing more individually and that is a pity.

The heroine was nice with a terrible past she was ashamed of, THE nasty villain ex who decided to show up for revenge. Of course her new knights in fur who decided without knowing her that well that she was going to be their mate, came to her rescue and killed the mean mean guy.

As I said, déjà-vu.

I am not saying this book is bad, far from it. I am saying that this insta-love, same plot, same characters is not really exciting to read. But the writing is great, the plot is perfectly developed from introduction, to romance, to action, sex scenes and conclusion. Everything is there, no question about it.

So what, in my opinion, was missing for me?

I would have loved to be surprised. I did not want to know from the start her past. I would have like to discover it later. I would have liked to know how the villain found her in this tiny town and build the tension in the process. I would have enjoyed to know the males individually and understand why they fell in love with the heroine and not only because she had nice boobs. I would have appreciated more conflicts between the siblings maybe and saw them struggling a bit and fall hard later instead of the insta-love at the first chapter.

The element of surprise. This is what I missed in this story.

Do not get me wrong, Jane Jamison is a great author and Howling for their Mate is a good story that I recommend. Because I wished the characters and plot a bit different, it does not mean that it is a bad story. I guess I am just too picky.

.