Review of Wake up Inside me by Cardeno C.

 By Cardeno C.

3.5 Stars

Zev Hassick is surprised and confused when he finds himself attracted to his best friend. His very human, very male best friend. Zev is the son of the pack Alpha, regarded as the strongest wolf in generations, born to lead. And everyone knows a male shifter has to mate with a female of his own kind to keep his humanity. So shifters can't be gay, right?

Jonah Marvel wants a relationship with Zev, his best friend, the man he has loved since childhood. It wasn't easy to maintain that relationship over years spent living apart while Jonah studied to become a doctor. And then things grow more difficult when Jonah becomes his own patient. Before he can make a life with Zev, he has to understand his past and cure the unexplained ailments that plague him.

Zev and Jonah know they're destined for each other, but they're facing traditions ingrained over generations and long-buried secrets that may threaten any future together.

Well, we love Cardeno C., picking up one of these stories you know you are in for a sweet sappy, insta-love story, some work and some don’t but Wake up Inside Me, the first on the Mates Series delivers on all good Cardneo C. things. We aren’t usually fans of shifter stories, but this story of love between an Alpha shifter and a human works in so many ways.

Zev is the Alpha of his pack, and his family is pushing him to claim a mate, but Zev knows that he isn’t like all the other males who crave a female, he is gay.  His childhood best friend Jonah is a regular human, byut Zev knows deep down that they are mates, destined to be together.  This story follows them over many years, from when the meet as children well into adult hood.  It is sweet to see their journey, but a few stops along the way we wish we could move a little faster.  When they finally do get tighter it is great, love, hot-between-the-sheets, and so so good.

There were a few things that created a few ummm moments for us.  Zev keeps Jonah in the dark for 12 years.  They are ‘together’ but not really???  And by in the dark we mean, he doesn’t talk about being the alpha, why he needs to stay in his small town and why they can’t jump between the sheets.  I get about fate, and love and all that, but 12 years for Zev to keep stringing Jonah around seems a little ridiculous, especially if they are really bound as mates. 

But to be honest we are just being picky, we really enjoyed this Wake up Inside Me.  It is a great shifter romance full of all good things in the genre, alpha males, insta-love and hot-between the sheets!