Elaine White's Life in Books

** This review is word-for-word as the one contained within the Being(s) in Love Bundle **

Book 3: A Beginner's Guide to Wooing Your Mate
Length: 26-39%
Star rating: ★★★★☆

Ugh! This slow-burn stuff is slowly killing me, but I love it!

This is the first story, so far, to have a dual POV, with both MC's – Zeki and Theo – getting their say. It worked really well, because there was a whole lot of history between these two that needed to be covered and it went much better with both of them giving their view on things. It created that really fun element of “I know this, but he doesn't” for the readers.

Again, this is a really slow burn, because Zeki and Theo knew of each other in high school but never hung out or spoke, so there was a lot of unresolved tension between them from the past that the other was completely unaware of. It made for some amazingly awkward, tense moments full of chemistry and “will-they-wont-they”. It was brilliantly written.

I loved the characters. Zeki and Theo were both scarred by their high school years in different ways, but both strong in their own ways, too. Zeki became feisty and self-reliant, strong and able to stand up for himself, while Theo withdrew into himself but found his passion in baking and had a strength of belief in his people that was beautiful to see. Zeki was something new, for the series, as a wizard, which was really fun to see. I loved that they were both hung up on their high school crushes – so important to people, at the time, and all consuming – while they both became something more. Zeki became a powerful wizard and used his past history of being hurt and used to build a life where he helped people and made the world better, while Theo became a volunteer fireman (with a free wet-t-shirt show at weekends) and baked as a hobby. It was really nice to see the big bad were being the submissive of the two, both in personality and in the bedroom.

I really liked the gender-neutral Pixie, Violet, the sheriff and Littlewolf, as well as Zeki's dad, and all the minor characters that helped to make the story more exciting by offering support or condemnation whenever it was more interesting. I'm really looking forward to reading Little Wolf next. I also really want to know who Theo's cousin Albert is, because he sounded interesting, though he was only ever mentioned once.

There were some really great hints for Zeki and Theo that neither really understood or noticed, because of their mental and emotional predicament, which I really enjoyed. It was fun to have everything laid out, see both sides and have all the answers, dribbled into the story bit by bit, only to realise that neither of the MC's had the information we did. The anticipation of the big reveal was great.

I loved the idea of Wolf's Paw as a place of refuge for weres and Beings (not referred to with the capital B that it is in other books, in this one) and how the place has a code of ethics and behaviour that is neither set in stone nor enforceable, but is definitely preferred for the safety of everyone involved. I loved that part; it was so original. I also loved that they taught Sex Ed in school, for both humans and Beings, which was a stroke of genius, even if it didn't prove to be much help the MC's of this story. I also thought it was a stroke of brilliance to have one of the rules be that humans had to make the first move on a were, because of the free will and mate issues. It was a great tool to help move the story along, but also an intriguing idea that I loved to see explored.

However, I did find that the sense of 'wolf' in the were world was totally different here to book 1, which was a little jarring at first, but really proved the point made later in the book that Wolf's Paw operates like its own little world and has no idea how wolves outside of it behave. That's going to be more prominently focused on, I believe, in the next book.

So, why have I given it four stars instead of five, like the others? I found that while I loved the build up to the romance, I missed out on the dating part, which was limited to Zeki and Theo thinking about it, during their POV, without us actually getting to experience it. It created a disconnect with the present scene, taking us into the past (even if only by a few days) and I often left the flashback-y moment disorientated and unable to remember where the characters were or what they were doing. This also led to some editing errors, where the wrong names were used. In previous books, any editing errors are limited to the odd punctuation or spelling mistake, but the ones here really affected my reading and had me going back to wonder if I'd missed something, so that was a down side. I didn't understand the whole 'mis-communication' issue, because they were kids when it happened, no adult ever tried to help Theor work through what happened and they all expected Zeki to automatically know what had happened back then, even though they admitted that it shouldn't have happened, because teenagers never recognised their mates. No adult ever tried to help either of them through the situation and that bothered me. I also really wanted to see more at the end. More of what? I'm not sure. Maybe just some actually “getting to know you” moments, because I really didn't feel like there were all that many in here, for my liking. The other books in the series had so much more of that quality time spent together.

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Favourite Quote

“The world was twilight, and Theo was aching for the moon.”

“His parents should see that.” ← I know this doesn't tell you much, but if you read it, you'll understand. It's a really powerful, great moment.