Mate Set (Mating Heat Book 1)

I really enjoyed this story and fell in love with these strong characters. I had a hard time putting it down once I started reading it an stayed up until 0500 on the first day of reading because i could not put it down. I will definately look forward to reading more of Laurann's books they are Hot!!

Laurann Dohner, author of the Mating Heat series has brought to life a unique world where humans and shifters coexist and shifters have a period of "mating heat" that they all go through (both male and female). An interesting spin on the world of shifters.

Damn, Laurann Dohner sure does know how to tell a story. Phew, it gets your emotions going. At least it did for me. I mean, I am not a shapeshifter kind of girl but I loved this story.

Mika while visiting her uncle is attacked by 4 men. She know's they're shifters and she's in deep doodoo. When she's rescued by a man who demands he repay her for saving her life. Not such a hardship since he's so gorgeous.

These are fairly unpredictable. You think the story is going one way and it doesn't ever end up going where you think it might. I enjoyed it so much. I could feel Mika's emotions. I felt them with her. I felt her frustrations, her anger, and her pain.

Honestly, it's really rare when I stay up until all hours finishing a book. I knew I had to get up at 6am and by 1:00am when it still wasn't over, I knew I couldn't sleep until I finished. Luckily, for me it wasn't much later.

I have a very small handful of books left to read by Dohner and I'm trying to space them out because she just can't write them fast enough! Keep them coming!

During werewolf mating season the driving, sexual lust of their beast is almost uncontrollable and Grady has been assigned to protect Mika from other males in this scorching paranormal romance.

Mika has always known about werewolves but she had no clue about mating season and walked right into trouble and the reader gets completely caught up in this extremely passionate and emotional romance when Grady has to control his mating heat around Mika 24/7. There is no problem with the chemistry between Mika and Grady, it burns hotter than the sun and the sex scenes burn even hotter but the relationship is a rollercoaster of turmoil as Grady is determined not to mate with a human which causes quite a few heated and emotionally turbulent clashes with some fiery sparks exploding throughout their romance. The strong captivating characters demand the reader’s attention throughout the story and the fast paced smooth flowing plot keeps passions high with suspense, turmoil and romance.

Expectation builds along with the driving lust as Grady fights the mating bond and tries to keep Mika safe while their volatile encounters builds lots of excitement. Well written scenes and details capture the imagination while the intriguing story draws you in and refuses to let go until burn right along with the characters.

This is one red hot werewolf romance, it’s full of passion and ignites lots of fantasies as well as envy when it comes to the sizzling sex drive and I have to hand it to Mika and Grady for surviving their explosive mating…hmmm I wonder if Grady’s brothers are as hot as he is….

I have been reading Ms. Dohner's books for several years, and have usually been able to like her female characters, but not Mika. She acts like a baby and whines through the whole story. She's a human adopted by a werewolf mother and human father. Her Uncle Omar, a were enforcer, loves her to death. She visits him each year for 2 weeks. This year she comes in the middle of mating heat for the weres. After she is almost gang raped by 4 weres, she is rescued by her equally shallow hero, Grady. Instead of Shannon being responsible for her own safety and well-being, she constantly whines about not knowing what is going on. Hey, ask Uncle Omar or at least pretend to listen to Aunt Minnie, Omar's girl friend, when she tries to explain everything to you! Please!!! And, as for Grady, it's mating heat time, so you know what he cares about! Even he whines the only time Mika takes a stand for herself-"I want things like they were before," meaning a willing bed partner with no regard for anything else. Hey, and he won't "mate" with her so what's the big deal? Instead of the tension between the characters moving the story forward, it just became tedious. Even the over the top, let's have sex every time the reader turns the page became boring. I skipped most of the last half of the book. So, why did I finish it? I kept hoping that Ms. Dohner would finally make the characters more appealing. Sadly, that did not happen. My advice, skip this book in the series and move on to the second book, His Purrfect Mate. The books do not have to be read in order.

MATE SET by Laurann Dohner.

STORY BRIEF:
Most humans are unaware that werewolves are living in their community. Mika is a human who was adopted by Omar's sister. She knows Omar is a werewolf and keeps the secret. She lives in California but visits Omar for a few weeks a year. Omar loves her and is protective of her. This year she unknowingly visits during werewolf mating season. Large numbers of werewolves visit the area and will rape her if they get the chance. Omar asks Grady to live with Mika for two weeks to protect her from the males. Grady is sexually drawn to Mika but won't touch her because of her uncle's threats. A rival clan member wants Mika and tells Grady he will take her unless she is marked by Grady. To avoid a werewolf war and save Mika, Grady is forced to mark her. Now that she is marked he must have frequent sex with her or go insane. She likes it.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
This was pretty good at the start. I liked the following conversation (at 380). Omar's girlfriend Minnie is talking. "I was mated when I was younger and it sucked. Being mated pretty much makes you a damn slave that a mated man thinks he owns lock, stock, and barrel. He orders you around and treats you like property because you are his. It's in their damn blood when they mate to take it to the extreme." I also liked a cute scene in which Omar is going to assign a guard to Mika based on which man looks at her body the least. Mika didn't want a guard so she dressed as sexy as possible. This caused some gaping expressions.

But as the story progressed I became more and more disappointed. The main conflicts between the two were based on inaccurate assumptions and vague communication. Mika was falling in love with Grady, but he didn't reciprocate. Mika felt rejected because she knew he wanted a werewolf for a mate. She was angry at Grady for various "assumed" reasons. The major conflict causing her to leave was based on hearing Grady talk about someone else and thinking he was talking about her. When Grady tried to explain she refused to listen. In fact she threatened him with something if he even talked to her. Thus he was forced to be quiet and not explain anything. This was such a cheap device to extend the conflict I was angry. It overshadowed the good writing from earlier in the book and I had to lower the stars. There was an odd scene near the end with Grady's brother wanting Mika. I wasn't sure if this was true or if he was trying to make Grady jealous. That felt thrown in and not developed enough by the author.

I would have preferred the author show how Grady's feelings change during the book. We don't see how or why he fell in love with Mika. We do know he didn't want her in the beginning - other than for sex.

The sex scenes were pretty good. There were a lot of them.

DATA:
Ebook story length: about 3 ½ hours. Kindle count story length: 3587 (309 KB). Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 15. Setting: current day city of Bartock. Copyright: 2010. Genre: paranormal romance.

This is my least favorite of the Laurann Dohner series. I was disappointed in it. I'm not sure if I didn't like the individual story or the series premise. I do know that I did NOT like the main female character Mika. In fact, I couldn't stand her. In the story they kept talking about what Grady kept doing wriong, but seemed to ignore all the things Mika was doing or the fact that her strong and irrational reactions were making things worse. Mika's hot and cold swings were really annoying too. The female character is annoying and stupid; she almost gets gang raped and then repeats the same behavior and can't understand why she shouldn't have. I did like Grady's brothers so I'm going to give the next book a chance.

I really love the world Laurann created with these books. I really loved the story as well. I do think her uncle should be horsewhipped. He never warned her about mating heat and how dangerous it would be for her to be there.
In later books they make it very clear that they protect females, so I am not sure why her uncle was so set on her not living there. He really seemed like a jerk to me.
Some blamed Grady for being the jerk here, but he was the one not wanting to lose his manhood for touching her. He was trying to do his job, which he did, and happily it gave them a happily ever after.

This author has a good sense of story telling. I have mostly enjoyed her Zorn Warrior series except for parts of one or two books in which her alien society has way too much disregard for the welfare of women. I have read a few of her cyborg series, but didn't like it so well, because the women were just too badly treated in most of the books. It went too far in trying for dramatic intensity. I really did enjoy her books that didn't have this flaw.

A small flaw to me in this book that is in about every one of the author's books, is that the heroine gets really stupid when jealousy sets in. In all these situations I understand why the heroine is angry and upset, but they always go too far. I like it when the heroine stands up for her rights, and it adds lots of interesting tension to the story. However, the level of angry reaction should be either justified by what the heroine reasonably perceives to be happening or else the author should let the reader know this overreaction is due to something besides stupidity. There were times when she had reasons to be hurt, upset, and angry, but sometimes she behaved like a drama queen. Other than this one fairly minor flaw the book was good. The story had humor and was very sexy and romantic. I thought the hero was lovable in spite of his blunders and seeming prejudice against the idea of a human wife. I gave the book five stars, because I enjoyed it very much.

I love my paranormal romances with werewolves and shifters, but this one has to be my upmost favorite. I love everything about this story from the plot to the characters and the basic characteristics of how werewolves lives in this story. Werewolves are so popular for paranormal romance novels that they start to resemble one another, but Mrs. Dohner definitely created a series that separates itself from the norm. I also read the second story in this series and I loved that one as well. Especially since both stories have the same characteristics that drew my attention in the first place, but are completely different in the plot. The only thing that makes me sad is there are just two stories in this series. I'm hoping for more in the future because Mrs. Dohner's stories are definitely my drug of choice! Can't get enough and always wanting more!! Haha. Happy Reading!!!!

Very new to this author I love her
Books!!!
Started the first book and finished it in a day
That's how good it was !!!
Can't wait to read the rest in the series
Also recommend her New Species series !!
Looking forward to reading the rest of her books!!

Mate Set completely blew me away. I love Paranormal Romance but keep getting burned on the lack of "realism" in some books. The timing of the relationship, how fast it goes always seems too rushed for me. Ms. Dohner was able to write a book that included the indecision any new relationship brings as well as outside conflict which is ultimately resolved. Grady and Mikas' chemistry was hot and sensual. I took a chance on a new-to-me author and it totally paid off.

A new series by Laurann Dohner and WOW, yet again I was hooked. I have yet to read a series of hers that I didn't completely swoon over. This is no exception. My hands were glued to my kindle my eyes were as big as quarters while I read everything with my tongue hanging out. Bibs aren't just for babies when you have something as drool worthy as this.

This is an unbelievable book! I have hung onto every word in this story. Its hot, it makes u feel every emotion the characters are feeling. kudos to Laurann for her extremely talented writing. gonna go buy another one of her books now.