Chosen Pride

This is the 3rd book in the L'Ange series. This book can be read as a standalone novel. For key understanding of characters and series, I recommend reading in order.

Jon & Kelvin met during an event last year. Found out they were fated mates. When Kelvin rejected this due to his lifestyle and duty, Jon has to learn to live without him.

Kelvin has come to Jon's home and let his plans be known. With all it will entail, they must survive, or die trying. Can they make a future out of a painful past?

I was happily surprised as this story gave me many feels. This author never disappoints as we feel for each character involved. I loved seeing the main romantic interests learn about one another's strengths and appreciate each other more. Really great addition to this series.

I tried to be an adult, like I claimed I was going to be, to a friend when we were discussing having received 'Chosen Pride' and our need to read it immediately. I had some time before it released so I stated that I was going to be an adult and read a few other books first. It didn't take long for me to give up on adulting and join my friend in his blanket fort, eager, ready, and beyond excited, to see what the intensely talented Mary Calmes was going to bring to the story of Jon and Kelvin. I will warn you, however, that there will be no spoilers in this review.

It was just like coming home to be back at L'Ange with Quade, Roman, Arman, Linus, Jon, and all of the myriad secondary characters that make this world a family. Jon is a lion shifter and as such, he shares some common behaviors with male lions in the wild. He isn't very observant, all things considered, but Linus says that all apex predators are obtuse. He also becomes easily distracted and will go off in his own head while you're talking to him - something that drives Linus bonkers. Jon is gorgeous, loyal, oozes pheromones, and he’s broken-hearted after Kelvin tells him it isn’t possible for them to be mates.

“How does a lion have a wolf for a mate?”
“Oh, I have no idea, but clearly you’re his mate and he’s your pride,” Sheridan said.
He lost me again. “What?”
“A wolf mates for life. A lion does not. But a lion, a male lion, is devoted to his pride. He only has one. Think of the entire pride in one man, and that’s the mating bond that you share.”

I found it interesting the lore the author wrote in regards to the position of the fenrir and the duties and responsibilities that begin at birth for these men, leaving them with no family and no one to love them unconditionally. Kelvin needs Jon just as much as Jon needs him. The politics and old traditions of these wolf shifters are medieval, to say the least, and repugnant at best. This is why I prefer the pack that has been created at L'Ange. It's about love, family, and loyalty.

"Because even though I was a lion and he was a wolf, I knew that love had two distinct sides, and one of them was dark and scary and even destructive. He lived in that place, had never been invited into the light, and never had anyone been willing to go in after him and accept the pain along with the pleasure. I would. I called dibs on his heart. And I’d been living my life in the sun ever since I was invited to live at L’Ange."

I never could have guessed the direction the author took this story in. 'Chosen Pride' is everything I've come to love in this series multiplied a thousand times over. The writing showcased exactly what Quade, Roman, and all the incredible characters at L'Ange, have been building for years. A family. One you choose and not one you're born to. The very best kind in my opinion. Mary Calmes has written a phenomenal, evocative novel about love, and it will reside in my heart and mind forever.

NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews