7.Jul.2009 at 7 | jspeyton
Coyote’s Mate: A Review
On recurring characters, genetically engineered humans, and surprisingly likeable coyas:
Way back yonder, I used to read Christine Feehans’ Dark series. It had everything I wanted in a romance series: romance, passion, shape-shifters, supernatural action, and mystery. Unfortunately, after the first eight or nine books they all started to seem pretty much the same. The same alpha males, the same angelically good women; the same arguments, the same denouement were the male almost loses his battle with an evil vampire.
Which is when I stopped reading Feehan’s Dark series, and discovered Lora Leigh’s Breed series. In the world of Leigh’s Breed series a few hundred men and women are genetically-engineered with animal DNA to make them the perfect soldiers. After being horribly abused for most of their lives by their creators – the Council and their scientists – most of the Breeds break out of their “training facilities” and form an uneasy existence in America where they are loved by some, and hated by many.
Of all of the Breeds – lion, bengal, wolf, and many more – coyotes are the most hated since most of them still work for the Council, hunting, recapturing, and killing their own kind. However, as we learn in one other book and then in this one, coyote’s have hearts too. In Coyote’s Mate, Del-Rey Delgado, the alpha of the only pack of coyotes to break free from the Council, goes on a mission to rescue some Breeds from a facility in Russia. For six years, he works with a woman on the inside, Anya, who promises to help him only under the condition that he doesn’t hurt her father, one of the scientists. On the day that Delgado finally attacks the facility he breaks that promise. Unfortunately, it is the same day he learns that Anya is his mate, the one and only woman he can truly love. Trouble ensues.
Although this wasn’t my favorite Breed novel, I liked it. I liked the two previous books, Mercury’s War and Dawn’s Awakening more, but Coyote’s Mate turned out to be better than I expected, mostly because in Leigh’s series, coyote women are said to be the most difficult and “fierce” so I expected a lot of unnecessary arguing. I don’t mind arguing in romance novels because sometimes that’s the best way for the characters to work out their differences. Plus, I suspect that if I were in a relationship with a man as domineering and arrogant as some of the male breeds, I’d be doing a lot of arguing too. Yet, in an attempt to make the female characters just as forceful as their alpha male mates, Leigh often has her female characters engage in pointless arguments with a lot of unnecessary yelling thrown in, which only makes the women seem more silly than strong. It also really grates on my nerves.
So, it was with a cautious hand that I picked up Coyote’s Mate. Thankfully, the silly arguments were kept to a minimum. Anya turned out to be a smart yet strong coya without being over the top, and Delgado, though arrogant (when are the male breeds not?), wasn’t stupid with it. I thought their “problem” towards the end was a little contrived, but then, I’ve read worse. I also enjoyed the trio of Breed women who are assigned to protect Anya. I liked how they were incredibly dangerous yet girlie. When one of the women threatens to cut a man because hitting him would break one of her nails I wasn’t sure if she was serious or kidding. She was probably serious.
In any case, this was a decent addition to Leigh’s Breed series. I haven’t tired of this series yet, and with a few characters whose stories I’m really looking forward to (Jonas’s story early next year! Can. Not. Wait.), I don’t think I will any time soon.
Excerpt:
Anya was where she was supposed to be but things weren’t going as they had been planned. Nothing had gone as planned. When she returned to labs that evening, within hours the attack came.
Coyote’s Mate by Lora Leigh
Berkley / Feb. 2009
$7.99 / 358 pgs.
Popularity: 24% [?]
