4* I laughed my way through this, at the storyline, at the leads, at Cas's snark and irreverence.

This seems to be book 2 in a series that's a spin-off of another series by this author, but I don't think it's necessary to read those, as I had no trouble jumping straight into this tale. Sometimes where authors' 'worlds' are concerned, too much of an introduction can be an off-putting infodump, so I'm glad that wasn't the case here. And, from snippets, you get the idea of what happened in book 1 anyway.

This is too funny a book and with too much going on to be able to review easily without Spoilers, so I'll just say that I was laughing within a couple of minutes, because of Cas's thoughts, his lack of respect for his 'elders', the incompetent marriage clerk, and the funnies just kept coming.

Cas had the snarkiest, bitchiest mouth on him, and when he called Rusty's ex-boyfriend Felcher instead of Fletcher, lololol! And when a drunken Rusty, a beaver shifter whose human form is built along the lines of a stereotypical lumberjack, informs Cas that he's an outcast, and most of his clan are no taller than his shin, both Cas's and my mouths fell open - Rusty had meant chin, hahaha! And, when Cas ends up biting Rusty, the euphoric high that ensues is hysterical.

This is a book that you do need to read slowly and without interruptions, as a certain character appears and for a while I was wondering why, and where the author was going with him, other than his medical skills, and because I was reading a little quickly, and because there was so much humour, I nearly missed the... gift... that eventually allowed the leads to be together. And, I kind of got into the little snippets of this character's life, and wondered if he'd be getting a tale of his own. I hope so.

BTW, in this world, faes glamour, vamps mesmer and incubi thrall, which I thought was a nice departure from the vamps glamouring trope that abounds in pop paranormal tales.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Riptide Publishing, for my reading pleasure.

Ahh, that ending!!!

This Books happens along the same timeline as Single White Incubus and tells Rusty and Cas’ story, the mates Ted and Quentin were originally matched with. Fake dating is absolutely one of my favorite tropes and I loved this one so much. Cas needs a mate to “rehabilitate” him because the vampire council feels he keeps making poor life choices while Rusty is looking for a mate after his boyfriend got engaged to a woman for the betterment of his beaver clan.

In the beginning, Casimir and Rusty are antagonistic towards one another, but I loved seeing their feelings for one another grow and develop. Things do happen on a short time line, but it still gave me serious warm-fuzzies by the end.

And that ending! It was just so soft and wonderful and ughhh~!

Really excited for Zeke’s book after all the drama that has ensued due to his “””clerical errors.”””