Change of Heart by Mary Calmes

As a young gay man-and a werepanther-all Jin Rayne yearns for is a normal life. Having fled his past, he wants nothing more than to start over, but Jin’s old life doesn’t want to let him go. When his travels bring him to a new city, he crosses paths with the leader of the local were-tribe. Logan Church is a shock and an enigma, and Jin fears that Logan is both the mate he fears and the love of his life. Jin doesn’t want to go back to the old ways, and mating would irrevocably tie him to them.

But Jin is the mate Logan needs at his side to help him lead his tribe, and he won’t give Jin up so easily. It will take time and trust for Jin to discover the joy in belonging to Logan and how to love without restraint.

Rating: 2.75 out of 5

This was an intriguing set-up. Shifters as a secret in modern society, ugly-duckling-becomes-a-swan story, and a nonconformist bucking the system. And for a good portion of the book, it was. Then it devolved into Jin acting like a whiny teenager who annoyed the heck out of me. I have a pet peeve about stories where the primary dramatic conflict could be resolved if the main characters just sat down and talked frankly like responsible adults. If this book had done that it would have been about half the length it was.

The problem I had was that a lot of the pseudo-Egyptian terminology threw me off. Many of the elements of the world building were just missing, leaving the reader to guess at many aspects, but at the same time there were many MANY references to The Rules that every werepanther should know (even if the clan leader doesn’t. Um, what?). Add to all of this the usual insta-love/fated mates trope and I’m left disappointed.

The final tally:
+4 for quality of writing
-0.25 for enough baffling Rules to fill a set of encyclopedias
-0.50 for “I have just met you and I love you!” (I mean, I guess it worked for Dug in Up, but still…)
-0.50 for annoying, uncommunicative man-children
Grand total: 2.75

I won’t recommend it, but I won’t say don’t read it either. Maybe your tolerance for some of this foolishness is better than mine.

(No points off, but a side note: That book cover. It’s certainly a thing, yes. Wow.)