This Rec League is from Clare. Thanks, Clare!
So I’m reading another shifter fated mates book and the heroine is all up in arms again that fate is dictating to her. Are there any books with dated mates where a protagonist is just like, oh thank goodness I don’t have to think or wonder or stress, this is just my person and now I don’t have to date anymore? Like, as a person with anxiety, fated mates sounds pretty ideal and where are the people leaning in to it?
Shana: I feel like there’s one or two Ice Planet Barbarian books where no one is mad.
Barbarian’s Choice ( A ) seems the closest? It’s one of the few in the series where both of the main characters are aliens.
L. Starfyre’s Klaxian Cyborgs’ Mates series ( A ) has heroines who choose to be part of a polyamorous setup to find their fated mates. I didn’t love the disability rep in the first book, but it was nice to have minimal conflict in the pairings.
Sarah: I’m pretty surprised that I haven’t read a book that fits this ask. I need to go lie down.
Do you have any recommendations for this request? Let us know!
I feel like That Time I Got Drunk And Yeeted A Love Potion At A Werewolf by Kimberly Lemming fits the bill.
The heroine is a little reluctant at first because the hero is hit with a love potion at the exact same time that he recognizes her as his mate (this happens in the first few pages), so she thinks the potion is the reason he sees her as his mate. But beyond that she’s fine with the thought of being his mate and at some point, I believe she even says something along the lines of “Oh, free husband” lol.
I feel like Cassandra Gannon’s A Kinda Fairy Tales Series would match the brief. The ‘Bad’ folk know their True Loves instantly, but the ‘Good’ have to have sex with them – but since the sex is all happily enthusiastic, they are already super into the soul mate and the whole “True Love” thing ends up being a cherry on top.
This may fit, I only read half of it though – A Little Too Familiar by Lish McBride. He’s a shifter, she’s a witch, they get accidentally bound to each other both ways, as mate and familiar. They try to resist the attraction on ethical principles but surprise surprise, they couldn’t resist. I remember the warm fuzzy feeling of belonging to each other. I stopped reading because the external drama was too much for me, ymmv, the romance part is great. Also, food and found family vibes.
Barbarian’s Seduction – Ruby Dixon is one. I loved this book. Also, I Married a Beast – Regine Able. Both of these were 5 stars for me. I would love to read more like these, so I’m taking notes of the other answers.
I’m due for another reread, but I wonder if Unboxed by Amy Crook might work. It’s set in a world where everyone is assigned either a box or key at birth (this is not related to gender), and one’s soulmate is the perfect fit of box and key. This is a m/m/m romance with more tea and biscuits than one might ever anticipate.
I think Nalini Singh’s latest, Resonance Surge, kind of fits the bill? That would be tough to read as a stand alone, though, there’s too much back story. Maybe a few others? Almost all of the Psy-Changeling books feature fated mates and in several of them the drama is “we can’t be together because of X external problem” (which is of course resolved) rather than “I don’t want to be mated to this person!” Off the top of my head I think the second set of books (Psy-Changeling Trinity) tends to be more external problems and the earlier books in the first series tend to be more internal blockages of the “I don’t want to mate” variety. A lot of the external problems boil down to “you are so amazing I love you but my powers prevent me from bonding!” books (don’t get me wrong, I love these books!). Would those suit? (FYI if you haven’t read these the Goodreads blurbs for each would give a good idea of whether it’s internal or external drama, and the reason there is less “I don’t want to be mated to this terrible person” in the later books makes sense due to the world building.
Cassandra Gannon’s Elemental series would definitely fit this ask – almost all of the series protagonists really want to meet their Match (fated soulmate).
As a reader, I never hesitate to recommend or suggest books and as I’m in a marathon reread of Nalini’s Psi-Changeling series, I agree with @S that most of them would fit. A few are “I don’t want to bond with ANYONE! But then there’s you so…” Now, this is the hard part for me because I happen to also be an author and suggesting my own books in this forum feels…weird. (Self-promoting is soooo not my strong suit–obvioulsy!) That said, I asked my readers if they thought my Moonstruck books would fit this premise and they resoundingly said, “Yes!” One of them went on to explain, “Your heroines aren’t the ones worrying back and forth about it, they’re too busy figuring out that their fated mate just turned furry in front of them. The hero is the one worrying!” In my world, the fact there are Wolf shifters is not exactly common knowledge. Anyway, I’m putting it out there, but no links, no solicitations, just an FYI. Thanks, and I’m ducking back into my cave now.
Zoe Chant is an umbrella name for a group of authors that write fun, low angst shifter romances, filled with unusual shifter types and cute shifter kids. Enthusiastic and joyful acceptance of your fated mate is a pretty common theme in the ones I’ve read. I’ve also read several written by one of the Zoe Chant authors under her own name, Elva Birch, and the same theme was featured. These are great for general de-stressing.
Under Zoe Chant, The Shifter Bites series are short novellas, perfect for a quick break while the Shifter Vets series are longer books. Under Elva Birch, try Day Care for Shifters or the Royal Dragons of Alaska series. There are also plenty of others to choose from.
I have nothing to add here, because I don’t read a lot of this trope, but I love it and totally should read more.
I just agree that the idea of not having to go looking and just knowing for a fact that you’re with your life person sounds so incredibly low-stress, that if it were a RL option, I’d be that heroine who is totally down with it. Just the idea of looking sounds exhausting to me, forget actually going out and trying to find them (and this is why I’ve never been married at 40, y’all).
I also think Eve Langlais would fit this. She has a bunch different shifter series and I think they are all pretty low angst regarding acceptance of your fated mate.
Also although her recent series have veered more toward UF and don’t feature as much romance, Shelly Laurenston’s older series, especially the Pride and the Call of Crows series are more PNR and there’s never much angst regarding mates. Both MCs tend to be enthusiastically all in, but the series are rather over the top and filled with crazy sauce. Fun reads, but also a bit violent.
I just finished Servant to the Spidae by Ruby Dixon. The heroine is introduced in the first book of the series, Bound to the Battle God. so I might recommend reading that one for some background. It’s not totally fated, but the heroine chooses to be the “anchor” for a god who presents as three separate male entities. I enjoyed that it was low conflict, especially compared to the other books in the series. It’s more about their growing understanding of each other and their relationship.
The series has started me on a Ruby Dixon kick – I get totally sucked into reading multiple books/series by the same author and she just has soooo many books. I might be here awhile.
I think Patricia Briggs’ books about Anna and Charles (Alpha and Omega series) fits the mood. It’s starts with a novella where charles’ wolf choses Anna as a mate the first day they meet and as they solve each other’s problems they grow stronger as individuals and as a couple.
The Celta series by Robin D. Owens sort of fits the brief, I think. A person, male or female, can recognize their heartmate and makes a “heart gift” for them, using whatever their special magic is (in the first book it’s jewelcrafting). The catch is that it’s considered coercion to TELL your heartmate that it’s a heart gift, so they have to accept it freely. Some of the books are internal conflict, some external. Most of the internal conflict is of the I’m not good enough/I’m too old for you/I can’t give you what you need variety.
The first book – HEART MATE – is not great, imo, but does a lot of the heavy lifting of setting the world up. Each is a standalone, so reading previous books probably isn’t necessary. Later books work with this concept far better and in some cases, it is the FMC chasing down their heart mate. My favorite is HEART CHANGE (the only book of this series I re-read with any frequency) followed by HEART QUEST.