Stolen and Forgiven (Branded Packs, #1)

Stolen and Forgiven by Alexandra Ivy
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Stolen

This collaboration has a familiar shifter feel in totally unique setting. Kind of like a dystopian shifter romance.

Years after a virus thinned out human existence shifters came forward to help save the human race.

Their thanks was incarceration, branding and why not collar them as well for good measure.

Small community living has enormous down fall for a large group of people suck in tight quarters. With that being said imagine being a shifter, knowing that if you haven't found your true soul-MATE you probably never will. How could you? You are locked up with the same people you have been for decades.

Holden the Alpha has hard choices to deal with everyday between being forced to brand and collar all of his people even the children and the feeling of being trapped and at his wit's end all comes to a halt the instant he smells her. The thought of just letting her bleed out and die when there is a way she could be saved is unacceptable. Not to mention the retribution his pack will suffer if a dead human is found in their compound.

Ariel has had a less than perfect life. Parents are dead, growing up in an orphanage was her all time low or so she thought. I think lab-rat and a real live game of operation just made it to the top of her shitiest moments list. Tossed away like garbage into the Wolves compound with death closely nipping at her heals. In that moment of darkness she never imagined emerging a wolf.


I found the plot to be inventive but the usual flow was not there. Not to mention the sex, it was really choppy. You didn't get any heat from it, no titillation or yearning to run home a strip it down. It felt clumsy. What also brought the rating down for me was the first chapters seem to have an abundance of repeating going on. The need to run, the way the submissive wolves where described. No poetic eloquence. Not to mention the part where she just wants Holden to "Make her feel good" totally made me think of Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry in Monster's Ball. No Romance.


Forgiven

Now for the second installment Forgiven, this one was very different. Like night and day. The chemistry was bubbling and overflowing. Loved it. The story had a building up tempo that had you powering through the pages.

Holden's pack feared retaliation from what happened with the doctor. They expected punishment just not in the form of sharing the small living compound they had. With the tigers no less. Higher Powers that be expected them to just fight and let themselves thin the herd. The shifters where smarter than that. They have been in communication for years and the key players in each community already had some history. The in the sheets kind.

Cora the tiger princess is less than happy to see the only male her cat wanted to mate with, Soren. Soren took one for the team and mated in his own pack. Back then the Alpha wasn't mated the pack needed stability. Yet the guilt he holds due to his young mate dying is a palpable thing, so strong that even after she passed away he couldn't approach Cora. But that too is in the past. All they have between them is the walls they built themselves. Which happen to be paper thin...lol They each have a strong mating pull towards each other their other half have absolutely no qualms with human emotion or pride.

When they do come together, fireworks are ignited and the passion that has been tempered pour out. With life seemingly good, of course that is when the other shoe drops. The SAU wants to force the packs to change people of their choosing into a shifter. They got this bright idea that having Cora would make her father more pliable to their whims. What wasn't accounted for was Soren and his determination to have her with him now and always. They just pissed off the wrong wolf.

AS I mentioned before this was gripping and action packed, this story sheds light on new players and gives you an idea of all the possibilities the series can go.

Very good read.

I received this for an honest review. I truly enjoy Alexandra Ivy's writing. This collaboration was not quite what I expected. I just finished Blood Assassin and I was thrilled to pick this book up. But not a total loss.


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