Coyote's Mate

Why do I keep picking up Lora Leigh books? I've never given one of her stories a rating over a 2 and yet, at least once a year, I'll breakdown and buy one of her novels. This is mostly because her futuristic world featuring genetically altered humans (aka Breeds) is fascinating. I always go into her books hoping that this will be the one that I absolutely love, but that never happens. Mostly because the relationships featured in the series are pretty disturbing. I hate how little control the heroine has over her life and body the minute she comes into contact with the hero. But my biggest problem is how the line between consensual and forced sex are extremely blurred due to the "enzyme" the Breeds release that sends both parties into a show more sexual frenzy. Typically, neither the heroine nor hero want to have sex, but are compelled to due to the "enzyme", which leads to some pretty disturbing sex scenes. My other problem is that every single one of these books, that I've read, relies on the captive heroine trope. So, the stories come off as extremely formulaic.

In this one, Anya has been working with Del-Ray for years planning to bring down a company that's been experimenting on coyote breeds. When Anya first approached Del-Ray she only requested one thing from him, that her family (who works at the lab) not be harmed during the take-down. Del-Ray not only breaks this promise to her, but also kidnaps her and unintentionally claims her as his mate. What proceeds is a really disturbing first sex scene, followed by Del-Ray being a rather spectacular ass for the rest of the story.

I have to give Anya credit for showing some backbone. Once she's within the Breeds compound she takes Del-Ray to court for his actions and verbally wipes the floor with him. The court eventually rules in her favor, which wins Anya a reprieve from Del-Rey for half a year. However, the points Anya earned for that stunt quickly deteriorated once Del-Ray reappears in the story after his half-year mission/exile.

Del-Ray returns from his exile to find Anya has been running his compound extremely well and has gained the respect of almost everyone who works for her. After seeing everything Anya's done, Del-Ray is committed to undermining all her work. He demeans Anya, keeps her in the dark, and essentially just shits all over her. But its supposed to be okay because he's doing it for "her protection" which was such a flimsy and ridiculous excuse for him being a bastard that I got tired of reading about their shenanigans pretty quick. It didn't help that Anya constantly forgave Del-Ray at the drop of a dime and turned into a big ole martyr half-way through the story. All this led to Del-Ray never having to atone for his actions and my wishing that Anya would just take her friends' advice to hightail it on out of that toxic relationship.

Hopefully, I will not find myself being lured into picking up another book in this series. show less

Lora Leigh's latest Breed book will singe your fingers and leave you begging for the next story set in her world of hybrid human-animals and the women (and men) they love. "Coyote's Mate" gives readers their first deep look at the Coyote breeds and their similarities and differences from the other Breed groups.

Del-Ray is the Coyote Alpha who survived hell, refused to bend to his human 'creators', and fought his way to freedom taking as many of his kind with him as he could manage. When a young sixteen year old human approaches him with information on a Council coyote lab, he's intrigued by her fire and lack of fear. For six years, he and the human work together to weed out traitors and plot a careful raid and Del-Ray becomes enamored show more and finally possessive of his human. But when he injures her family in the raid and becomes lost to the mating heat, she turns her back on everything he offers.

Anya is in love with Del-Ray and has been for several years now. But when she realizes he's been lying to her for six years, she's beyond furious...and hurt. Then the mating heat ambushes both of them and her virginity is lost in the fierce haze of mating lust and she panics. Once her fears subside, she quickly realizes there's nothing she won't do to keep her coyote safe...even if that means breaking his trust in her.

Anya intrigued and infuriated me (a lot like she did Del-Ray!) through most of this book. But she does manage to 'put on her big girl panties' and begin acting like a woman and not a child a little less than halfway through the book. Del-Ray is typical of the Alpha breeds, arrogant and clueless about humans...especially human women. Which means that he manages to do just about everything wrong! But it certainly makes for a smoking story.

Seriously hot Alpha coyote sex, murder plots, hilarious 'women things' discussions, and a wonderful happily ever after. If you like Lora Leigh, don't miss this one. If you haven't read her yet...you really don't know what you're missing! show less

The problem with this series is that there's no real drawbacks to the Mating Heat, aside from the heat itself - once the heat is done, you have a guaranteed happy-ever-after. So in order to make one or the other fight it, the author has to pile on stuff. In this case, the beginning was very promising, with trust and trust violated, uncertainty about the mating, uncertainty about the Coyote Breeds in general, and character-driven decisions - pretty good. Then they finally communicated and things worked out and happy ever - whoops, no, he gets this bee in his bonnet about protecting her by not acknowledging her. He decides this more or less at random and ignores all the, increasingly obvious, signs that there's a lot more to it than he show more was assuming (and no one talks to him, they all assume he knows what's going on and wants it)...until everything blows up and they both come very near dying. STUPID. This is not one I'll reread, despite liking the Coyotes rather better than the Lions - they are, oddly enough, less manipulative and sneaky. I haven't yet given up on the series, but it's coming closer with every one I read. show less

I was somewhat disappointed with this entry in the breed novel series. The writing felt rushed, the plot contrived. I didn't find Del Rey's miscalculation of how is coya (Anya) would be mistreated by his soldiers after his rejection very believable. He's the alpha, after all, and should have been aware of many of the consequences of that rejection. I think it would have made for a better story if someone close to Del Rey convinced him that these consequences wouldn't of happened and then turned out to be the traitor. That, I would have believed.

I also felt some of the erotica missed the mark. Lora Leigh is gifted when it comes to graphic sex scenes but these came off as stock sexual encounters. "I've seen these before" kept ringing show more through my head as I read them, although it was interesting to see a little BDSM introduced at the end to freshen things up a little. show less

Anya Kobrin spent 6 years working with Del-Rey Delgado to organize an escape for the Coyote Breeds from a Russian research facility to a sanctuary in Colorado. During the raid her family is wounded and she kidnapped by Del-Rey's men betraying his promise. Upon arrival in Colorado she finds herself in heat and claimed by Del-Rey as mate. She fights against the attraction and claiming. Besides their emotional story there is also a plot involving tensions between human locals and the Breeds with trying to sort out spies in their midst and plots to eradicate them. The emotional plot was too over the top with the whole heat component and misunderstandings. Action parts were good.

Way too close to an abusive relationship for me to like it. Plus Anya's characterization is all over the place; one minute she's tough and sassy, the next she's crying in a corner bemoaning her station and not doing anything about it.

The ups and downs in this book are almost dizzying, in a good way. You're kept held captivated as a reader and just rooting for the couple to realize what they mean to each other and verbalize it. The drama is intense and again the breeds are betrayed by one of their own. I love seeing how the female mates of the breeds interact with each other. I love how it's a whole community of women helping each other through and understanding their mates.