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Book: “Mate” by Ali Hazelwood
Publishing Info: Berkley, October 2025
Where Did We Get This Book: the library!
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey to the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left—if he’ll have her.
As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn’t matter if Serena doesn’t reciprocate his feelings, nothing will stop him from keeping her safe.
But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her—and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation…
Previously Reviewed: “Bride”
Serena’s Thoughts
I deeply disliked this book. Part of the reason comes down to the natural comparisons to its predecessor, but some of it also includes a spoiler for the book. I think it’s a pretty obvious part of the story (a big part of the problem actually is how obvious it is), but I wanted to give people a heads up before they read on!
Anyways, so yes, I really, really didn’t enjoy this one. For one thing, I don’t think either Serena or Koen hold up well in comparison to Misery and Lowe. For her part, Serena was almost too similar to Misery to come across well. She felt like a non-stop snark fest from the start to finish, but somehow missing the heart that Misery brought to her wit. What’s worse, much of Serena’s character arc involved exploring some of her very damaged perceptions of self. Indeed, these themes were so strongly touched on in the first half of the book, that I was confidently waiting for the scenes where she was forced to confront these toxic views of herself. And I waited, and I waited, and nothing really came of it, except for more snark, of course.
As for Koen, the very first scene with him set him up in a fairly poor light, and it just never recovered. Beyond this initial poor impression, the story also included a series of flashbacks that also painted him a very negative light. The conflict that was set up in Koen and Serena’s relationship was incredibly contrived (and equally conveniently hand-waved away at the end) and easily explained between adults. Of course, it wasn’t. But beyond failing basic communication, Koen was unnecessarily cruel to Serena again and again. For absolutely zero reason. He only started behaving better late in the book, and by that point, my dislike had hardened pretty solidly.
I also really, really hated the romance itself. I’m not into the whole breeding kink as it is, but even if I was, I don’t think I would have enjoyed this version of it. For one thing, it boggles the mind that readers are expected to buy that not only one but TWO werewolf doctors failed to recognize the incredibly common condition of heat in a female werewolf and instead proclaimed her as dying of a super rare and unlikely condition. Perhaps there was meant to be some commentary on healthcare services and women, but if there was, it didn’t land.
Beyond this, from a love story perspective, the heat thing combined with the fated mates trope sucked the romance entirely out of the story for me. At no point did I feel any true connection between Koen and Serena. Instead, we had two characters who were biologically drawn to and tied to one another, and the story never did much to advance their relationship beyond this. Indeed, even by the time we got to the steamy bits (and there was much of this, though all crammed into the last quarter of the book, which hurt the pacing), it never felt like there was much of an impetus behind their coming together beyond these biological factors. As such, it felt like lots of steamy sex scenes, but no actual romance.
So yeah, I didn’t like this one. Perhaps if readers are fans of the fated mates trope and heat/breeding kinks, they might enjoy it more than me. But even those aspects aside, I think Koen and Serena were weak characters and the plot, for what there was, was all over the place and solidly an afterthought to the spice. This was a stark contrast to the first book, where we not only had solid leading characters, but a developed love story and a plot worth caring about.
Kate’s Thoughts
Okay, so…… I didn’t hate this book as much as Serena did. There were definitely things about it that I liked, and I will start with those because a few of said things I found to be pretty interesting. The biggest thing that I DID like was the way that Hazelwood brings in pack politics and dynamics, and the offshoot fringe group (led by a megalomaniac named Constantine) that had a huge run on power in the past that shook the Northwest Pack (the group that Koen leads) to its core, involving lots of violence, death, enslavement, and bad tensions between Weres and humans. Which has left a huge mark on the group as time has gone on. This kind of thing is always interesting to me, with cult stuff and fringe extremists catching my eye in basically anything I’m reading, watching, consuming. I enjoyed that aspect of the book (incredibly predictable plot reveals about it aside). And Serena’s (character) characterization didn’t bother me as much as it did Serena (blogger), as I’ve just kind of come to expect this from Hazelwood in many of her female main characters: they’re going to be quippy, they’re going to be cute, and they’re going to be hand wringing about their attraction to the guy they can’t believe they feel attracted to.
But generally, I do agree with a fair amount of the other stuff that she said at least a little bit (I do think that the misogyny in medicine leading to a crap diagnosis landed more than she did, but I also think that it was kind of ludicrous just as a plot device to lead to Koen’s magic dick banging it all out for our characters). I also really didn’t enjoy Koen as a male main character, as he is hostile and he is a huge jerk to her throughout a lot of the narrative. I get why it was happening within the narrative, but it was still just kind of a rough character to have to follow and root for romantically, especially since Hazelwood CAN write standoffish and conflicted male main characters that don’t feel like flat out assholes. I’m guessing that there is an audience for this kind of character in a exploring this type of dynamic through fantasy, and I’m not going to yuck anyone else’s yum in that regard because explore away! But it rarely clicks with me.
I also think that overall I just wasn’t as entertained by the story as other books that Hazelwood has written. And I do think that it’s because 1) I’m not really an Omegaverse reader (though I’m not against it, don’t misunderstand me), and 2) the characters just didn’t hit because of the lack of chemistry and the way I just couldn’t gel with Koen. Not to mention some predictability in the plot points. There is almost assuredly an audience for this book, but I was just kind of bored. I still appreciate Hazelwood exploring all sorts of sub-genres, but with the huge swath of story types they will almost certainly not all be winners for me. “Mate” fits into that category.
Serena’s Rating 4: I have a clear memory of coming up for air about halfway through and realizing that I was actively hate reading the book. As I continued, nothing swayed me from this perspective.
Kate’s Rating 5: I liked some of the lore, but the main plot at hand was just kinda middling for me.
Reader’s Advisory
“Mate” is included on these Goodreads lists: Gimme a Beast and (because I can) “Serena”.
The Library Ladies 