I had fairly high hopes for Mate, which is a sequel to Ali Hazelwood’s first paranormal romance Bride, that takes place in a society where humans, vampires, and werewolves all have to balance living in the same world together. Unfortunately, while the romance between the main couple isn’t terrible, everything else kind of fell apart under closer inspection.
Mate sets up some genuinely interesting backstories and plot points, but then just… doesn’t develop them? It feels like the book would introduce something with real potential and then be like, “never mind, let’s focus on the romance instead.” And I go into these books knowing and expecting a romantic focus, but these other plot points needed room to actually breathe around that main focus, otherwise it’s not worth trying to write them in at all.
A perfect example is this huge issue that’s supposed to keep the couple apart the entire book (no spoilers), but it gets built up as this massive obstacle, and then suddenly it just gets resolved in one paragraph and a discussion. After all that drama? It felt pretty anticlimactic.
Not to mention some things completely contradict what the reader was already told, which just makes the whole thing feel inconsistent and sloppy. Beyond the plot problems, there were some legitimately confusing moments and sentences that made me wonder if this book got properly edited.
And don’t get me started on the main character’s struggle with being able to shift that is tied to a fairly random plot point and then also randomly resolved without telling the reader even though it was a big part of the story.
In my opinion, Mate is also way too long for what it actually is, which wouldn’t be a problem if all those pages actually went toward developing the world more. But they don’t. Instead, you get this hefty 400+ page book that’s laser-focused on just the romance, with barely any worldbuilding or character development outside of the main couple. It honestly feels padded, and I think it could’ve been way shorter without losing anything important.
Final Thoughts
Mate doesn’t seem to know what it’s supposed to be. If you’re looking for a straightforward paranormal romance where the couple is literally all that matters, you might get what you’re looking for here. But if you want a paranormal romance with actual depth and interesting subplots, this is probably going to frustrate you.