Mate Me

Immortal Vices and Virtues Universe

By: Kel Carpenter, Aurelia Jane

Narrated by: Savannah Rivers, Stephen Borne

Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Beauty and the Beast meets Hades and Persephone in this shifter fantasy romance standalone!

A god wants me dead.

My ancestors stole half his soul then imprisoned him in Tartarus, thinking he'd be forgotten. That he could never return.

They were wrong.

The day he rips open a portal between our worlds, my life is over. As the current guardian of his cursed soul, my head is on the chopping block, but there's a snag in his plan. This dark god believes he's my fated mate.

We're not, but he refuses to take no for an answer.

When he kidnaps my cousin, I'm forced to make a deal. To rescue her, I have to spend six months in Tartarus. Pretending to be his mate. His queen.

Saving both our lives means fake dating the king of monsters. The real danger comes when my modern-day Hades makes it clear that he wants not just my life, but my love.

That was never part of the bargain, but with every stolen kiss and forbidden touch—I just might be handing him my heart.

Mate Me is a spicy standalone romantasy set in the Immortal Vices and Virtues Universe. Every book is a guaranteed happily ever after with a satisfying ending and no cliffhangers. Perfect for fans of Immortals After Dark, Black Dagger Brotherhood, and the Demonica series.

©2024 Raging Hippo Publishing (P)2024 Pink Flamingo Productions

fantastic narration!

🅰🆄🅳🅸🅾🅱🅾🅾🅺 🆁🅴🆅🅸🅴🆆

I listened to another book in this series out of order and knew I wanted the rest.
These authors and narrators are completely new to me and I'm glad I took the chance to listen.
The writing was good, narration was fantastic.
Narration by Stephen Borne and Savanah Rivers.

Caius and Reagan are fated mates (and a past lives trope bonus).
There are multiple side characters to love and cheer on amd a few you want to die!
Overall a good choice to listen to if you like romantasy/PNR.
Looking forward to the next books!

She was Forced to Take his Soul, but now has his Heart

A Romance that shifts from magic to monster lore, mystery and banishment, lies and discovery, Mate Me tosses our heroine into Tartarus.

Reagan’s life is straight from a supernatural novel: a rare black unicorn shifter (that is struggling to control and bond with her familiar,) a father who is an alpha werewolf pack leader, a contracted hunter of magical items, and a guardian, forced at birth to house the soul of the god of Tartarus inside her… and it will eventually kill her. Just like her mother.

Little did she know that when her life is in danger, it opens up the locked portal to Tartarus…and the next phase of her destiny.

When her powerful (and sassy) witch cousin, Clara, is kidnapped into Tartarus, Ragan makes a deal with the king of the Underworld; she will stay six months with him then both Ragan and Clara can go home.

His reasoning? It’s not to get back his soul back that has been inside the females in Reagan’s line for thousands of years.

It’s because he swears Reagan is his mate.

The story does indeed transform into the notes of the cherished “Beauty and The Beast” and “Hades and Persephone,” just like the tagline states.

J will admit; it took me a bit to get into the story. The reasoning was because the lore for this world they set-up was often confusing. Or not explained hardly; just there. I would have enjoyed a prequel novella or maybe a few more chapters to explain the complexity of Reagan’s family and their monstrous, magical, shifters, and fey abilities and connections.

But the final climax was handled well, touched my heart, made me gasp, and tied the loose strings in a bow.

The setting of Tartarus was described well and our king of Tartarus had his background decently flushed out.

Our leading lady Reagan was so sarcastic and snarky. She was easy to relate to and like. And Clara was such a devilishly charming character! My favorite. The audiobook narrator played them both brilliantly.

Our king of Tartarus was dark, rich, charming, tender, and a just ruler. The male lead had a great intonation, pitch, and rasp for him. I wish his voice would have changed a little more for the others; he also had a surfer drawl to it. But I did enjoy his performance.

And their steamy scenes…let’s just say, it’ll make you appreciate painting more!

entertaining

I really enjoyed listening to this story. It had suspense, mystery , twists, humor, and romance. What more would you want from a Fated mates, opposite s attract story?
Reagan,A strong woman and Caius, her alpha mate, discover the truth about betrayal in the royal palace

Stephen Borne and Savannah Rivers narration is very well done.
It was an entertaining audio to listen.
#PFP productions #the Flock on Tour

Kicks off IVV Season 2!

I’m discovering that any book in the IVV world is a good book. This one packs:

Grave diggers.
Ancient curse.
Pranks.
M@te-biting.
Non-con.
Mythology.
Tartarus.
Rejected m@tes.
Magic.
Mystery, betrayal, scandal.

Overall:
This was a mostly fun read, I especially liked the bits that were set in Tartarus, as I found that a bit interesting, and the authors put an interesting twist on some myths and legends.

A bit slow-paced, and the writing could be a bit stronger, but ultimately, mostly enjoyable and there were some likable characters to boot. Particularly, I liked Caius—he was a well-designed male lead.

3.5 stars.

🎧Audio:
Great performances, pleasant voices and flawless sound quality made this a perfect production.
5 stars.🦩

Book 1 - can be standalone

This is book 1 in a multi author series called Immortal Vices and Virtues: Shadow Shifter Bonds. This book is by author duo Carpenter and Jane. I think the blurb description of, "Beauty and the Beast meets Hades and Persephone in this shifter fantasy romance standalone!" fits this to a tee! These authors did a wonderful job transporting me into these worlds and lives of our main characters. Captivating from the beginning, the twists and turns were wonderfully and strategically placed throughout the storyline. I love the different family dynamics displayed and the patience and loyalty of Caius and the strong, determination of Reagan. I also loved how their relationship developed and grew. A wonderful read and duo narrators Rivers and Borne were great. I will mention that our male vocal threw me a bit as his pitch or tone didn't change regardless of what character he was narrating but the vocals themselves were great and I very much enjoyed the narration of this audio bringing the characters to life! I can't wait to read more in these series' and don't know how they will top this one!

This book was given to me for free at my request and I voluntarily provided this review.

Great read

I enjoyed this book. I love how they met and she has a strong character. Both narrators did an amazing job at narrating

Shadow Mate

This story has some great characters and world building. I went into this one with no expectations. It has several different types of shifters which is outside my normal and welcomed. Caius is an amazing main male lead. He is possessive and sweet with a dash of darkness. Reagan is a feisty, independent female lead and when they come together its explosive. The side characters are so good you want to hear their stories as well. The narrators did an amazing job. These are new to me authors but I am positive it won't be the last I read of theirs.

Family Is Everything

Reagan is a wayward guardian, an unknown shifter who can't shift, a graveyard digger, and a beloved daughter, sister, and cousin in the boisterous Santiago family. As a guardian, she holds the soul of a condemned primordial and is all that is standing between him and the world's destruction. Caius was betrayed and then sentenced to Tartarus for eternity but when his prison falls he opens a portal to Earth to kill the guardian and reclaim his soul. However, one look at Reagan and he recognizes his mate. Once again the world changes. When Reagan won't listen to him Caius kidnaps her cousin, forcing her to follow him to Tartarus. There she discovers everything she's been told about him and much about herself has been a lie. She may hold his soul but he earns her heart and not everyone is happy about that.

This story is about Hades and Persephone with a fun family twist and a dark unicorn. A standalone romance in the Immortal Vices and Virtues world, this was an entertaining story. I would have appreciated more character development. We never more than touched on Reagan's witch side and barely much more on her shifter side. More details would have been better. Caius and Reagan were fine, Caius's inner circle were good characters, but the real stars of the story were the Santiago family. Their big personalities, the food, drink, games, and especially their love for one another made the book for me.

Savannah Rivers and Stephen Borne were the narrators for this story. I thought Savannah did a wonderful job with the female cast. However, I felt Stephen was less successful with the males. Every male in Tartarus including Caius sounded the same. There was no distinction between Caius, his brother, and best friend. His tone was great but there was no diversity.

#PinkFlamingoProductions
#TheFlock
#AudiobookObsessionReviewer

Loved this

I couldn't stop listening to this book as soon as I started it. It was so much more than what I was expecting. It has everything from mystery, spice, banter, and amazing chemistry. I can't wait to read the next book in the series. The world the author created was amazing to read about.

The narration was so well done. The way the narrators brought these characters to life.

Not exactly what I expected

I really enjoyed the authors' style of writing. The female lead is feisty and sarcastic. Sarcasm is my love language, so I actually enjoyed the banter she had with her family. I am also very close knit with my family, which is the same with that character. So I identified with the FMC, but she is not what I expected. For starters, the FMC and her whole family are hispanic. They mention this specifically several times in the story, speak spanish in some places, and use some of the hispanic customs. The girl on the cover does not fit the description to me. It's a minor thing and certainly would not have deterred me from reading it. The other thing is the description lead me to think the God that wants her dead would be horrible and scary to her, but he was a gem from the moment he felt she was his mate (Which was the moment he met her) I was expecting some turmoil that he would not believe the bond was legit because the curse involved her having half of his soul or she reminded him of his past love that betrayed him and there would be some angst to overcome with trusting this "new" version of her. He was all in from the start, was actually an amazing guy, and I am still scratching my head as to why he was cursed to begin with. So I do feel like there were some holes. There are ALOT of side characters that got a little confusing at times. It might be a lead up for more books with specific stories for those side characters. It is a very slow burn because she did not believe there was a bond. Truly, it was like a mini vacation for her while he convinced her that she was his mate. It perked my interest enough that I would read another book by the author, especially if it had one of the side characters. The narrators were amazing. It is a duet style narration where the male reads all the male parts and the females reads any of the female lines. I really enjoy the stories done in this style.

I requested and received a free audio copy via the publisher, and I voluntarily wrote this honest review. #TheFlockVIPReviewTeam #PinkFlamingoProductions #PFPAudio