The Mating

Wild Cats #1

by Sandra Ross

Librarian's note: This is an alternate cover edition for ASIN: B009Y64T94.

A PANTHER AND THE STRAY CAT
She never knew someone like him would come...

Iliana meets Nickolas in the restaurant where she works as a waitress. He is beautiful, rich, witty--and beckons her for just one date. Yet her senses whispers a warning: "He's unpredictable." She will never know what to expect with him.

Nickolas woes her everyday, nonstop, for a month. He brings her to his secluded castle, straight from the pages of a fairy tale, and dazzles her with a display of romantic lights like she's never seen before. All of this... for her.

He is the epitome of control, like a panther, but as a lover he was just as wild. He sets her body on fire, and it consumes both of them again and again. Sex with him is simply incomparable!

Overwhelmed by passion she has never experienced before, Iliana isn't really thinking clearly. It is every girl's dream unraveling faster than she could hold onto. Nickolas is just too good to be true. So she i sometimes afraid--of waking up. Of seeing the truth.

Because all her senses knew his secret. There is something to Nickolas that more than meets the eye, and it's what's tugging at her to wake up. To just open her eyes.

Genres: Romance, Paranormal, Erotica, Paranormal Romance, Ebooks, Shapeshifters, Contemporary

93 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 27, 2012

About the author

I am a prolific reader and a freelance writer. As a little girl, I always knew I would write romance. Growing up with a firsthand romantic experience, I expanded my preferences from just romance to romance with a dash of now trending sub-genres--paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi, and even erotica.

I love challenging myself and I would write on a dare!

email me: sandra@sandra-ross.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SandraRossBooks
twitter: https://twitter.com/SandraRossBooks
pinterest: http://pinterest.com/SandraRossBooks/

Reviews

[Cazy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Real rape should never be glamorized. The first book had me thinking that this author was writing an intense romance. I was okay with that, in fact I rather enjoyed the intensity and the plotting of the male lead. Little did I know that I had stumbled upon some Ike and Tina drama in the second book. She had to get shot in the third book for him to treat her as more than trash, and I didn't even get through the third book. I started to feel like I was trapped in an abusive relationship myself... with the author. I am far from a prude, but consent is always a must or my freak flag don't fly.

[The BookChick · Rating 1 out of 5]

My Rating: ❤

FAIL: The characteristics of a 1 star book include: the story failed to hold my attention; it didn’t have interesting characters; the storyline was trite or contrived; and/or their was extremely crude behavior/language. I would not never recommend the book to anyone.

Book Description:
Iliana first met Nickolas in the restaurant where she worked as a waitress. He was beautiful, rich and he wanted to go out with her. He did not seem to care that she was poor. He acted like she was the most beautiful and special woman in his world. And sex with him was consuming. He was perfect! But what if it wasn’t real? What if it was all a dream?

Page Count: 48 Pages

My Thoughts:
Sadly, I cannot rate this book higher than one star. It was very chaotic in its story telling and felt as if several fragments had been strung together to construct a story -- fragments that were sketchy and jagged.

The poor editing also did nothing to help the story. The tense shifts (in the same sentence) were extremely distracting and even more negatively impacted the haphazard flow of the story.

And finally, the story just ended -- not concluded -- to spur the reader into buying the next book, The Taming, in the series. But honestly, this book had so many issues that I could not see myself spending $2.99 on the next book. This one was a freebie so no harm done.

Reading Time: 30 Minutes

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[Skye Stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

1/2 star! I am so confused! I'm waiting for it to start making sense :-/
Terrible editing (or lack there of)
I'm so very glad this was free, or I'd be one very pissed of woman!!

[Rosebud · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a well written short read that is basically an incomplete story. What is there is very very good and has mystery, intrique, and erotic action and ends in a cliffhanger that will result in you strongly wanting to buy the second short story release to know what happens. I'm not going to spend a lot of effort to re-cap the story as I wouldn't want to encourage anyone looking at my review to get sucked in.

"The Mating" is a 17,115 word count (long novelette length) that ends in a cliff hanger which was offered free. The next installment is "The Taming" and is a 12,307 word count (so shorter) priced at $2.99 and then "The Calling" a 15,033 word count read priced at $2.99. And I do see that their is a 4th installment called "The Yielding" which isn't out yet. I can only assume that as long as people buy these that the story will continue. Adding up the price of this short story makes it quite pricey to read a complete story.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a short story. It starts off confusing and continues that way throughout the story. It ends just as you start to put the clues together for it to start making sense. I'll read the second book because I do want to see where these characters are going. But if it continues like this one did, I probably won't finish it.

[Ana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I'm still waiting for it to start making sense...It starts a little feebly and it doesn't get much better. It is a really small read though so maybe it becomes better in the next books.

I'm just saying that if I'd paid for this, I'd be one pissed off woman!

[Shadi ***save your ratings use disclaimers** · Rating 1 out of 5]

very very confusing.

[L Huber · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read through 55% of the book and have nothing nice to say.

[Amber Wilburn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very short. Not much story to it.

There was hardly anything to this. What's there is good, but this isn't a book. This is basically a preview. I'm glad I didn't pay for this. I may read the 2nd one. I'm not very invested and I don't know if I will spend the time reading it, even though, this probably took longer to write than the story will take to read.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iliana meets Nickolas at her job and he makes her so nervous, but when Nickolas is near Iliana feels safe. Nickolas seduces Iliana for a month, then he tries slowly to get her to open up about her past and to move the relationship to the next step.
Great short story with great details. I am looking forward to reading the rest of this series.

[Amara]

This author also had a book I wanted called, "His Gifted Hands". It's not even on goodreads.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Iliana doesn't know what to make of Nickolas. He arrives one day in her restaurant and returns every day for a month, just watching her. When he finally relents and asks her out it is overwhelmingly obvious the differences between the two, he is rich and handsome while she is plain and a waitress. What Iliana doesn't realize is that Nickolas sees so much more to her and has big plans, but he is holding a carefully guarded secret that could destroy their beginning before it even begins.

Interesting story, cliffhanger ending. I thought there was kind of a magnetic pull to Nickolas but not much is revealed about who he is. Told from both perspectives, I wish it had been a full story rather than a quickie serial.

[Chantel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short story full of potential, but it fell a little short for me. A nice set up, an okay storyline, half decent characters... It was an almost, but not quite type of deal. The dialogue, writing, and build up was weak (a few times the characters felt juvenile). I see the good stuff, and there is good stuff, but it needs tweaked to make it a book I don't want to put down. The bones are there! It's worth reading because of that.

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thankfully this was a free download. The personalities aren't well developed, there is no rationale to the plot and it ends abruptly. The 'relationship' between the main characters makes no sense and has no basis from which to build. Truthfully it's dull and lackluster. Be forewarned that if you're interested in the next one, it's totally overpriced for the number of pages...I checked. I'll be deleting this one from my reader.

[Julie Baswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a story worth reading, but it was way too short. At 67 pages long, it kinda skips parts. It goes from committing to first date, to skipping to a month later, and then ending. You really don't get a feel for the characters' interaction. You still don't know the entire story without reading the next book. I really liked the two characters. I just wish more of them had been revealed.

[Mindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book way more than I expected to. The female character is gun shy and weary of trusting anyone. While the male character is bold and dangerous. There's chemistry between them and a desire that seems natural and unnatural at the same time. I would recommend giving this book a try if you're looking for a short but really good read.

[Susan Parks · Rating 2 out of 5]

How many stupid names for genitalia can you cram in 50 pages? Love nest, pleasure hole, bliss button, really? Not a great story either, fairly disjointed and kind of stupid. It's the first of a four parter, and I shan't be reading the other 3 parts.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was well written for the most part but also a little disjointed at times. I realize this is only a small piece (part 1) of the whole story so I can forgive the author that. It good enough that I'm looking for part 2

[T · Rating 2 out of 5]

*free read* to only be 46 pages it a was a dry long drawn out short story. the story was decent and if you want to finish the story u have to get the next book. its between a half and a whole thumb..

[Serena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cliffhanger!!! I want to know what happens and at the same time I don't. I don't want the series to end badly!!

[Ann Frank]

Great novella.. Should be longer.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel these should be combined into one. Novellas are just annoying.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was short and had some problems, but I like it enough to see where it goes. I think it could be a good story.

[Maya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh hell no. Way too short to be called a story. Totally left you hanging.

[Jennifer Hines · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was so much left unsaid and when it started getting good, it was over. (And on my kindle, it was over around the 50% mark...ugh!)

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book but was not interested in reading part 2.

[Hollow May · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh lawd. No. No, no, no. NOOO

[Nikita Isaac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have loved to have story.

[Meiwilli · Rating 2 out of 5]

What just happened?! I feel like the only thing I understood in this short novella is that Iliana was poor and Nickolas was rich. That point was repeated redundantly.

[Denise · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay really who say's stuff like pink buttons, love button, love nest, and my favorite wait for it.......pleasure hole lmao. OBVIOUSLY this book did not do it for me!