Claws Mates Fangs is about Elijah, a coyote shifter, and Kayden, the Alpha of the Bear Clan. The story is told in third person from both Elijah and Kayden’s pov.



Before I get started with my review, here’s a brief summary of the story. We meet Elijah living with the coyote pack. His life is miserable. Elijah’s father hates him for being gay and for being an omega. He keeps Elijah locked in his room, and punishes and humiliates him for every little infraction. Because of this, Elijah has deep issues and his spirit is almost broken. Elijah’s father is all too happy to send Elijah away to become the mate of Kayden. The arranged mating is desired by Kayden to help join the two clans in battle against the Wolverines, which have declared war on all shifters and soon, humans. Elijah and Kayden don’t get off to a good start because of Elijah’s issues. Kayden thinks it’s just coyote snobbishness, until Kayden is later set straight. The story revolves around how Elijah and Kayden adjust to their mating, Elijah discovering information about his omega abilities, and the battle with the Wolverines.

The writing style for this book has an interesting tone. In a way, it reminded me of young adult stories and of comic books, an over-exaggeration of voice. A kind of ‘chipperness’ when characters where happy, and an over dramatic flair when events weren’t going well. If it weren’t for the sex, I would have classified this story in the young adult genre. It just doesn’t have the kind of seriousness or maturity in other shifter stories I’ve read. There are humorous moments, but I wouldn’t call this book a humorous read.

This story had an entertaining plot and Elijah and Kayden seemed suited together. The author did a good job of showing the developing relationship of the two characters. I also enjoyed the secondary characters as well. Elijah’s sister, his two bodyguard friends, and King, Kayden’s second in command. I did however think that Kayden seemed a bit immature for his Alpha role, that he didn’t quite have the confidence yet.

Since this book centered mostly on the relationship between the MCs, not much was revealed about the functioning of the pack. We’re told a few things here and there but that’s it. I don’t remember if it’s mentioned whether or not humans know of the existence of shifters. A lot of background information seems to be lacking, which means there isn’t much world building. The story references a lot of pop culture, like Harry Potter and objects we use in everyday life, which means that the shifter world is closely connected to our current real world. The only alternate universe aspect to it is there are shifters.

I mentioned how there’s a lack of information about shifter society and scenes in the book that are totally glossed over. I’ll put my comments behind a spoiler. I have a lot of questions about the battle scene. First off, where did the battle take place? Why were the shifters battling with what appeared to be swords? Why not guns, since shifters used other technology created by humans. They could have used silencers. Yet again, why didn’t they battle in shifter form instead of using swords? Yes, it’s the author’s world, but I’d like facts to hold the elements together and there are none. Information is thrown into the story without making logical sense. Then, after the battle, what happens to the dead and injured? Do they have ambulances? Where do they take the injured? Do they have their own hospitals on the clan lands? Many questions are left unanswered. I don’t know if they’re going to be answered in following books or if the lack of information is the normal way the author writes. For me it cuts down on the enjoyment of the plot and leaves me frustrated.

After all that, there is one thing the author did that drove me bonkers. At one point I questioned whether English was the author’s second language, but I read her bio and she was born in the US. Therefore, I can only conclude that either she didn’t have any proofreaders for this story or her proofreaders are not any good. Because the SPAG-- spelling, punctuation and grammar, for those who haven’t run across the abbreviation before-- was terrible. I’m not joking. There were anywhere from 2-5 errors PER PAGE throughout the book. It was doing my head in, seriously. If you’ve ever ridden in a vehicle that has a stick shift, and the person doesn’t know how to drive it, the vehicle jerks back and forth as it travels, that’s how I felt reading this book. Every time I found an error, my reading stopped in its tracks. My mind tried to figure out what was supposed to be correct before I could continue, only to be stopped again further on. All the errors took me out of the story, stopping and starting repeatedly. I STRONGLY recommend the author find at least two good quality betas/proofreaders to go over her writing before releasing the next books in the series. Because the errors are bad and numerous.

To sum up, the two things that bothered me about Claws Mates Fangs was the lack of detail about shifter society, how it functioned, the battle, and shifters relationship to the human society. The other factor, which is worse, is the overabundance of errors throughout the book. The errors took me out of the story too many times to count. The good things I liked were the characters, good character growth and an interesting plot. This book is set up to be a series, which looks to be interesting. But please author, find some good betas/proofreaders to check over your writing. It desperately needs it.

The book’s plot and characters save the story, but because of the major SPAG issues and the lack of background shifter information, I can only give this 3 Stars.







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