Customer Reviews

Coyote's Mate (Coyote Breeds, Book 6)

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

New York Times best selling author Lora Leigh continues her Breeds' saga with the story of Del-Rey Delgado, the Alpha of the Coyote breeds and Anya Kobrin, the woman nature made his very own.

Called the Coyote Ghost, Del-Rey Delgado is Alpha to a pack of rescued Coyote breeds who call themselves Team Zero. Fighting in covert operations the world over, the Coyote Ghost and his band of liberated genetically altered breeds have made a name for themselves as one of the top rescue teams available. When Del-Rey gets word that someone from a lab in Russia wants to speak with him, he suspects a trap but allows himself to meet his contact. When Anya Kobrin levels her blue-eyed gaze on him and requests that he rescue five Coyote breed females from a Genetics Council lab, Del-Rey agrees, knowing without a doubt that he will end up betraying her. Throughout the next six years Del-Rey and his men, along with Anya, plot and plan the perilous rescue of the only known female coyotes. At the culmination of the rescue, what Del-Rey believed would happen comes to pass - with two minor twists. Not only did he deceive Anya, but he also kidnapped and kissed her, with disastrous results.

Anya will never trust Del-Rey again. While his name means, "of the King", he is anything but royal. Trusting him with the lives of her friends, Anya never once thought she would be taken against her will. Nor did she ever begin to imagine that a forceful kiss would cause such a disruption of her body as well as her heart. Wanting no part of mating heat or the mating, Anya fights Del-Ray's claim every step of the way. When Del-Rey leaves Anya to become an Enforcer, she finds out exactly how hard it is to run the Coyote base as Del-Rey's Coya. Months later, Del-Rey is back and ready to assume his status as Alpha of the Coyote base. Del-Rey knows Anya is his mate, but he refuses to go through with the formal ceremony claiming her as such. In his mind, he is keeping her safe -- in the minds of his men, she is no longer his mate and therefore no longer the Coya. They could not be more wrong.

Forgiveness and acceptance is the theme in this enigmatic and highly anticipated Breeds' installment. Readers first met Anya and Del-Rey very briefly in Lora Leigh's Ellora's Cave release, Aiden's Charity. At the time, Del-Rey was not sure what was wrong with Anya and readers didn't get to see what happened to her prior to their arrival in the caves that eventually become the Coyote base. COYOTE'S MATE gives the back story of Del-Rey and Anya which I found perfect. I needed to know that Anya and Del-Rey had not been strangers.

Speaking of Del-Rey - this was one stubborn coyote. Black eyes and blond hair. Strong build. Loyal. All of these traits describe Del-Rey. But, enamored and enthralled by his mate are also traits that we see of this Coyote Alpha. Unable to tolerate his Coya being in danger, Del-Rey does the only thing he can to keep her safe - he denies her place as his Coya. He never anticipates the repercussions of such a decision. Coming to his senses quickly, Del-Rey vows to never put her in danger again.

Breathing a happy and totally sappy sigh at the magical ending to COYOTE'S MATE, I didn't want the book to be over. Every time I read a Lora Leigh release I hate for the story to end. COYOTE'S MATE was no different. With passionate love scenes packing enough heat to keep me warm until summer, COYOTE'S MATE is compelling and addictive. I highly recommend this fantastic installment - the Queen of Breeds has done it again!

COYOTE'S MATE releases on February 3, 2009 from Berkley Sensation. Don't miss it!

Natalie S.

spoiler warning, maybe. I gave it a 3 instead of a 2 because I will (tentatively now) continue reading the series and because it takes guts to go out on a limb and completely break your formula. But if this was the only book in the series I'd read by her, it'd maybe get a 1.

The hottest scene in the book was unfortunately the one that you read at the end of Mercury's War. The rest were ok. That's about it.

There is very little Coyote POV and so DelRay is more frustrating than anything, in fact, he's more a person you want to punch so badly that if he was goodlooking in the book, I don't even remember it. It seemed very plot oriented this time but not much really happened that she couldn't have just written a page summary over in another book regarding. So overly wordy with not enough action. Plot wise or sex wise. Just wordy. VERY wordy. So this review is gonna be wordy too.

Anya's character started out strong and then just kinda seemed to pout the whole book and whine and be a little kid and at the end where she FINAlLY gets an apology, she was like "don't apologize, it's not your fault." Yes, it was. I had just spent over 200 pages reading about how much his fault it really was and then you won't even have enough respect for yourself to say "thank you for realizing that. Now we can move on with our lives and be happy" ?!?!?!? Let a man be a man! Let him apologize on his own and just accept it graciously! How is it that if he says he's right you don't argue with him and you agree with him even while whining in your head about it the whole time (I say whining because she does nothing to change the situation EVER aside from the first scene where she gets seperated) but if he apologizes for being a jerk you essentially tell him that being a jerk with you is ok? That he couldn't help it? Permission granted to keep doing it? Honestly... I'm going to move on. I could rant about that for a while.

I can suspend a lot of disbelief but that was too much. There was no love in the whole book. It was just misery, emotional abuse, and excuses with a couple of (not even good) sex scenes.

It brought to mind the movie "Pursuit of Happiness" where the ENTIRE movie is so horrific and miserable and then you get maybe 3 seconds of happiness at the end. I liked where she (the writer) started going, where love isn't part of the equation in the beginning and how would someone deal with it, but she lost control of her idea and it was horrible. It read like stockholm-syndrome love straight to the end, not like love or respect that any of the other books held.

Please don't say "but it's because the breed is Coyote!" It was just plain bad writing at some points. There was little character development and got far too angsty and miserable the entire book and then got far too happy and perfect in the last few pages. (In the middle/end of the book, it states that Jonas and Hope and all them are sad because they valued Delray and Anya deeply as friends. Funny, that's really the first interaction we've seen the whole book between them that wasn't completely business related! In fact, that's the first personal event seen between all of them!)

That said, it WAS good to see her try something different, experiment with completely different views/outlooks than before, to try a completely different type of character, to try to work on the plot for the main of the book. Unfortunately, the execution was a train wreck, ESPECIAlLY after Mercury's War, which was by far the best book in the berkely breed series. It was like she lost all of her great storytelling abilities and just got sucked to the dark and nasty side of male dominance. Which is fine. It's HER writing and not mine. But I have very low expectations for the next book after reading this, just as I HAD (unfortunately) high expections for this book after Mercury's War.

So yeah, read it if you must, the last chapter sets up the next book interestingly so I guess that might be worth it. If you read all the others, you're gonna read this one anyway. Just please, don't expect much. Just realize that even the fabulous Lora Leigh is not perfect and it was what could have been an awesome experiment gone horribly horribly wrong.

This story is a fantastic addition to a paranormal romance series which is quickly becoming my favorite. I quickly devoured this book in one day and can't wait for the next one.

Each of her books in this series not only highlights a new couple and their romance, but also gives the reader more information about the special abilities of each different kind of breed (i.e., feline, coyote, tiger, lion, etc.). As a reader, I was delighted by the genesis of the new coyote breed capabilities and by the newly, developing coyote breed community.

I eagerly anticipate future coyote breed stories.

I feel like I should preface this review by saying that in general, I'm not a fan of Lora Leigh's style. I have no doubt that that has influenced my raction to this book and that my rating would be higher if I were a fan. I bought Coyote's Mate KNOWING that I don't usually like Leigh's stuff, but frankly, I wanted something smutty -- Leigh writes "erotic romance," with the emphasis on erotic -- and I'm familiar enough with the Breeds series to have not felt out-of-the-loop in reading Coyote's Mate.

In general, I think the basic story is a good one: After six years of planning, Coyote Alpha Del-Rey Delgado finally effects the rescue of Coyote breeds from a lab in Siberian. Among those he rescues is his human accomplice Anya Kobrin, daughter of the lead scientist at the lab and the person who has been feeding him information and urging the rescue for the last several years. From the moment he first met her when she was sixteen, Del-Rey has been intrigued by the little human, and as she grew and matured from a child to a woman, his interest turned physical as well. Now she's 22 and a fitting mate for the Coyote Alpha. The problem is that he betrays Anya's trust by harming those near and dear to her during the rescue (even thought it was a strategic, not callous maneuver, intended to save them from suspicion) and then he bungles their initial lovemaking session. Incensed, betrayed, and hurt, Anya seeks a separation from her coyote mate. For eight months they live separately, with Anya operating as his Coya and proxy when he's not on base. When Del-Rey returns, he finds a different Anya waiting for him -- one whom he wants more than ever, but one who's hell-bent and determined to meet him on her own terms. The plot continues as forces outside the Breeds penetrate the coyote base and seek to eliminate certain key players. With her life now at risk, Del-Rey creates a subterfuge that denies Anya's rightful rank and position by his side...and jeopardizes her life even more.

I thought the story was fine. My problem with the book is that I got the point where I just began to loathe the uber-bossy and Neanderthal Coyote Alpha. In general, I'm not a fan of "alpha heroes" becaue all too often the "A" in alpha can stand for...well, a not-nice name beginning with the letter A, which Amazon won't allow me to include here. All the fighting and strutting and sparring and one-upsmanship between Del-Rey and Anya dominated the story, but it really began to grate on my nerves after a while. Supposedly these two people loved each other, but I dunno.... It was just hard for me to believe it. They were jealous and possessive and territorial, certainly, and I think that Del-Rey admired Anya, especially as the story went on and she proved her smarts and talents. But their connection seemed more physical and anger-driven than anything else. I found it exhausting and not particularly tender or romantic. I also found myself rolling my eyes over a lot of the dialogue.

3 stars from me, with the understanding that my rating would probably have been higher if I were more of a fan of Leigh's style.

Firstly, I enjoy reading so far the entire Breed series. I have no plans on stoping. But, Coyote's Mate was just okay. There was too much arguing, bickering, and miss trust between the two characters. I think both of them humiliated each other equally in front of the breed community. This was not Lora Leigh best.....It was okay, but, where was the love!

Others have written detailed plot summaries, so I won't repeat it here. But I think that this is the best of the breed books so far, because it portrays Del-Ray and Anya in a more more realistic way than the other books in the series. Let's face it - the breeds are DIFFERENT. They have animal genetics that manifests in their personalities, physical characteristics, and behaviors, and that these have to be understood (and even worked around!) if they're are going to have a successful relationship with an intelligent and strong-willed human. This is the first book I've read that really addresses these facts up front, and makes the story so much stronger.

Del-Ray isn't perfect. It seemed to me that other breed characters always knew exactly how to behave and never made any serious mistakes, and it just didn't ring true. Del-Ray screws up big time because he doesn't know any better, so he lets his instincts push him into some really dumb and insensitive moves not only with Anya but with his packs and other alliance members. He means well, like when he denies Anya formal recognition of her Coya status in a misguided attempt to keep her profile low and out of harm's way. But he doesn't understand the full consequences of his action, because his action has the exact opposite effect and she ends up in all kinds of danger.

He also has some leadership weaknesses - perfectly normal because no one is perfect at everything - and these become obvious as his group grows from a small team of fellow soldiers into a larger (and growing) community of people who depend on him. The incidents with kitchen management and housing arrangements are very funny, and just what you'd expect to happen when a leader has no interest in these details but is also no good at delegating responsibilities.

Anya is ready, willing, and able, but working with this stubborn Coyote is sometimes more than she can handle. Together, this couple struggles to work through these problems and I found the realism and honesty very refreshing and true-to-life. I loved their personalities, flaws and all, and this book gets 5 stars!

First off, it should be mentioned that this is an erotic romance involving semi-human characters, and some of the sex gets a bit weird (more so than with the feline breeds in the previous books). So make sure that's what you're looking for!

As usual, the "science fiction" part of this series is really more what we'd term science fantasy--the trappings of science used to explain away superpowers or magic-like abilities. Again, this is fine, as long as that's what you're looking for--some folks prefer for their SF to be pure, hard, and/or scientifically accurate, and that isn't what you'll get here. It makes a fine background for the story that's being told, however, and it's gotten less silly and over-the-top as the series has progressed.

This isn't my favorite of the Breed novels. I definitely like the look at the coyotes, and in particular the examination of how their animal aspects and human aspects interrelate and affect how they treat each other (and humans such as Anya). However, it felt as though the author went way overboard in making Anya and Del-Rey frustratingly annoying, stubborn and dense in the effort to keep them apart as long as possible. It's possible to get away with some level of that with the right events and characters, and Leigh did set it up reasonably well, but the heights to which their differences reached (and the actions they took at times) became frustrating and ridiculous rather than tension-building.

If this was a stand-alone book I might rate it a little lower, but I think that readers of this series specifically looking for those traits they've come to expect from the Breed novels won't be too disappointed. It might not be the best entry in the series, but there is plenty of head-butting personality conflict, wild death-defying action, and crazy sex to be had!

SYNOPSIS:
Del-Rey has been working with Anya for 6 years now to engineer the escape of the Coyote breeds held captive in the lab in Russia. Even though she was just 16 when she began working with Ghost, he knows that some day she will be the most important woman in his life. Anya just wants the rescue to move faster. Every day that passes could result in the death of one of the Coyote breeds she has known all her life.

OPINION:
This story rates five stars from me, and I don't give them out lightly. Lora Leigh's breed stories first came to my attention in the anthology Hot Spell with the story "The Breed Next Door". After I read that I was well and truly hooked. I went back and got all of the previous stories and have read each new book as soon as it has been released. This is called Coyote Breeds: Book 2, (coming after Soul Deep (Coyote Breeds, Book 1)), but all of the breeds books are linked together. They can be read in any order of your choosing but this is story #18 so if you start here there will be a huge amount of background information you will wonder about. Lora Leigh did a good job of inserting tidbits of information to make it a stand alone book, but still, I'm glad I have read them all before this.

I just loved Del-Rey. Poor baby, he just did so many things wrong when it came to dealing with a human female. Come to that, even the breed females stayed mad at him all the time. He insisted that Base was a military establishment and any of the improvements in living conditions Anya tried to do were just "girly" stuff. His men were soldiers, warriors. Coyote's had been bred for the sole purpose of killing. They were told from birth that they had no soul. Del-Rey believed that, at least he did until he met Anya. Once the mating heat kicked in there was no going back for him. Unfortunately, Anya filed a petition of separation from him with the Breed Tribunal because she challenged his right to claim her as his mate.

I liked the Anya character also. That's unusual for me because I tend to be on the side of the male characters but Lora Leigh manages to write female characters in her breed books that I enjoy reading about. They don't annoy me the way some of her other series females tend to do. In this book Ms Leigh took giant steps in moving forward the information discovered about breed genetics in general and coyote genetics in particular. By combining a coyote breed (Del-Rey) and a fully human woman (Anya) she revealed a wealth of information regarding the mating heat.

As usual, this book is peppered with items of interest about characters from previous books and will lead any true breed novel reader to wonder which characters will rate their own stories in the future. Darn, I wish Ms Leigh could farm these out to other writers so that we could get them faster. The problem with that would be, of course, that the farmed out books would turn out to be completely unsatisfactory. I already know that the next book out, Bengal's Heart (Breeds), will feature Cabal St. Laurents ( brother of Tanner from Tanner's Scheme (The Breeds, Book 3)) and Cassa Hawkins, a reporter, because there is an excerpt from that story here in this book. I like Cabal. I'm looking forward to reading how he and Cassa deal with their own problems.

RECOMMENDATION:
Definitely highly recommended. This series of books does contain explicit sexual content, that's what the whole concept of mating heat is all about. If you have never read any of these breed series stories, here would be an okay place to start but personally I would think you might want to buy this one and also the very first in the series, Tempting the Beast (Feline Breeds, Book 1). Some of the information seems easy for me to understand, but that's because I've been reading the entire series. Believe me, once you become involved in this series you will be searching high and low to get every single story that's in print. Anya is a very well written heroine and Del-Rey is just the sweetest hero possible. In an alpha male, dark, dominant, brooding, tortured way, naturally!

I gave this only a three because, while the story was good, I think she's overdoing it - majorly - with all the snarling, growling, howling, and lip-curling-teeth-baring! The Breeds (and sometimes his/her mate after being affected by the hormone) in the recent stories never SAY anything. I get that they're Breeds, but come on...enough already. I had to force myself to finish this one despite liking the story, and I was relunctant to buy anything else by LL. I'm glad I did because Maverick was awesome, but I'll skim the next Breed in the bookstore before I buy it.

I must admit that I purchased this book for my kindle with high expectations. I have read EVERY book in the breed series, most on the day they are released. I also must admit that I wasn't disappointed. It was a great book with an excellent emotional journey for both main characters. I loved how she showed Del-Rey as being fallable. He made mistakes, sometimes without realizing the mistakes until the consequences hit him in the face. I also liked the fact that she didn't have the characters resolving their problems and issues in a matter of days or a couple of weeks. In the course of their realtionship after the "mating" it took almost 9 months for issues to start to resolve themselves. There was no "quick fix", and she was able to show the true growth and maturing of her characters over time. I still can't decide if this or Mercury's War is my favorite so far. Perhaps a tie? LOL. Her series seems to get better and better. I can't wait to read the next installment in this amazing series.