Book Review: Perfect Mate by Mina Carter

Title: Perfect Mate
Author: Mina Carter
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: review copy from author
Published: August 2012 by Samhain

Monsters do exist...and they’re the good guys.

Lillian Rosewood leads an ordinary, boring life working as the manager of a psychiatric hospital. The highlights of her day, other than her skinny hot chocolate, are the hunky guards who work in the secure section. Until a late night emergency is wheeled in.

Captain Jack Harper is insane, drop-dead gorgeous...and just had his abdomen shredded. Despite the fact they're not an emergency room, Lillian can't turn him away and risk a death on her hands. Unable to get the handsome soldier out of her mind, Lillian sneaks into the restricted area to check on him. What she finds is beyond belief. Somehow Jack has managed to heal himself from a near fatal wound in mere hours.

When one of the doctors, Walker, attempts to rape her, things go from bad to worse. In the blink of an eye, Jack is loose and Walker is dead... and Lillian must accept a truth about her rescuer that will change her world forever. What if the patients aren't insane? What if their stories of secret government experiments and monsters are true?

Warning: Contains blood, mayhem and nude werewolves operating heavy weaponry. Large amounts of sarcasm, and smart-ass vampires may offend some readers. No civilian hospital staff were harmed in the making of this story.

Reviewed By: J9

In a Nutshell: Great world building, great characters and wonderful romance. Two pesky things made me knock a half frog off but still well worth the read.

The Set Up: Lillian is the administrator of a psychiatric hospital when Captain Jack Harper is brought in with an abdominal injury. Lillian knows something is suspicious since she runs a mental hospital not an emergency room so she sneaks in to see her patient a few days later. Lilly is shocked to find Jack nearly healed and ready to protect her from a fellow doctor bend on raping her. Now on the run, Jack is going to introduce Lilly to a world she never imagined.

Why I Read this Book: My top August book was After the Crux (my review) and that author, Dani Worth, gave this book a five-star review on Goodreads so I had to read it.

What I Liked: Jack and Lilly were excellent characters and their romance just delicious. Lilly would have every right to freak out at what happens but she maintains a wicked sense of humor and strength of character that I just loved. For instance, when faced with a zombie attack she yells, “these are new pants, asshole. I’m not pissing them for anyone!” Jack is the classic protector Alpha but he tempers it with love and respect for Lilly. I think it’s remarkable that this romance develops both sexually and emotionally given the danger the couple is in throughout the novel.

What I Also Liked: I also love the world building here. A virus created by the military transforms infected humans into three possible beings. They’re all unique and whet my appetite for more novels set in this great world.

The secondary characters are also captivating. I don’t want to say too much about them since it may spoil the plot a bit but they’re a great combination of entertaining and heartwarming. Again, it’s amazing that the author developed meaningful secondary characters within the danger plot and still kept the romance focus.

What I Didn’t Like: But as much as I love this novel, there are two little things that when combined made me deduct half a frog from the book. First, the ending was just too abrupt. I wanted even a paragraph more resolution between Jack and Lilly. I thought I was missing a page on my e-reader and went back three times to reread the ending and still felt it was missing something. Second, a teaser romance is set up here and anyone who’s read my reviews knows that’s a pet peeve of mine. I want authors to rely on strength of storytelling to get me to read the next book, not use a ploy. I even really liked the teaser romance and the characters and look forward to their story but don’t tease, it isn’t nice!

IMO: I really enjoyed this funny romantic paranormal set in a great world. Anyone looking for a good read should pick this up. I know I’ll be awaiting the rest in the series.

J9’s Rating: