Review: Mate Claimed by Jennifer Ashley

Title: Mate Claimed
Series: Shifters Unbound, #4
Author: Jennifer Ashley
Published: October 2, 2012
Pages: 336
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: Edelweiss
Publisher: Penguin
Rating: B-
Reviewed by: Marq

Favorite quote: "Never try to out-alpha an alpha, sweetheart. You'll lose."

summary from Goodreads
Eric Warden knows that half-Shifter wildcat Iona is passing for human, living without a Collar in the human world. He also knows that if she does not acknowledge her Shifter nature and her mating hunger, it could kill her. Iona finds the mysterious and dangerous Eric, a wildcat and leader of his Shiftertown, haunting her dreams, but she vows never to "come out" and take the Collar, fearing backlash against her mother and sister for hiding the fact that she's Shifter. But Eric is a compelling Shifter male, and Iona's hunger calls to him.

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Marq's thoughts:
The Shifter Unbound series continues to get better and better with each book. The last two installments, Hard Mated and Mate Claimed, have been my favorite of the series thus far.

Eric Warden was introduced in book 2, Primal Bonds and he and Iona meet in book 3, Wild Cat. Iona is a half-shifter living as a human. No one knows that she's a shifter until Eric, leader of the Las Vegas Shiftertown, meets her at a bar in Shiftertown. Eric is determined to protect Iona by forcing her to move to Shiftertown. Iona is in heat and it's getting more difficult to control her shifter urges. Iona doesn't want to be outted as a shifter but the longer she's denies her shifter half, the greater the chance that her secret will be discovered.

The sexual tension between Eric and Iona was off the charts. I loved how even though Iona was in heat and wanted nothing but sex, Eric did not take advantage. He let her partly fulfill her urges without completely crossing that line. Eric and Iona didn't immediately jump into bed and when they finally did after so much build up, it was explosive and definitely worth the wait.

It was so frustrating that Iona was trying to deny her shifter half. It was obvious that it was becoming more dominate and since she doesn't wear a collar, her selfishness could have hurt a lot of people. I understood that her family could get into trouble by hiding her identity from the government, but Iona failed to see the bigger picture.

While dealing with Iona and keeping her safe, Eric is also dealing with Lupines moving into his Shiftertown. Eric is dealing with moving his people to accommodate the extra shifters and well as dealing with their alpha, Graham. I didn't like Graham at first, but by the end, I loved him. I hope to see him in future books or possibly have his own novella.

We learn more about the politics surrounding the government and the Shifters. The government thinks they have the Shifters under their thumb but we learn that that is not the case. The government is doing some shady stuff and I was hoping that the Shifters, once they uncovered it, tore the people involved into pieces. But they didn't. I guess they didn't want to prove what people say about them - that they are nothing but wild animals.

I really liked Mate Claimed and can't wait to read more. I am waiting for the day where the Shifters will take off their collars and kick some ass! Although they can still kick ass, they just have terrible side-effects from it. The next book is about the Tiger shifter that was introduced in the second half of the book. I think his book is gonna be really intense and I can't wait to read it!

Another favorite quote:
"Whatever. We need to find some clothes to cover that semitruck between his legs."