GRR Reviews One True Mate 1: Shifter's Sacrifice by Lisa Ladew

One True Mate 1 was an interesting variation on the shifter romance genre, with a good bit of world building to explain this particular variation. The romance was slightly forced, and the evil a bit too conveniently... slippery. The world-building was excellent, as it managed to build upon the normal true-mate wolf-shifter lore, but also throw in some angel and demon, as well as feline and dragon shifters. The romance itself, however, was only lukewarm, as it was pretty much predestined. But first, let's discuss the world.

Unknown to the general populace, the world is full of shifters, but the shifters have a major... propagation problem. Years ago, the demon Khain managed to accomplished the Great Reaping... He managed to kill 99.9% of the female shifters. Now the male shifters have nobody to mate with, and shifters are in danger of going extinct. But the prophesies foretold the arrival of One True Mates, who are half-angel and half-human, and capable of mating with shifters and producing offsprings. The Wolven has a special task force in the Serenity Police Department dedicated to track down Khain, but due to his dimension portals, he can appear and disappear almost at will. As Trevor tried to follow Khain, they found that Khain is after a girl named Gabriela "Ella" Carmi, who may be a One True Mate. Ella was aware of an evil presence following her around, and her special ability allowed her to escape (that only came out under pressure), but she had no family left, and no one to care for her, until Trevor took her in, because Trevor knew that she was his. When Khain took Ella's sister then Ella, the Wolven must call in help from the last Dragon shifter and Feline-shifters to mount a rescue operation...

The talk about One True Mate, predestined, is about faith and prophecy and all that. So it's in a way, both spiritual and paranormal, and it even has influences of angels and demons. The characters and plot are actually pretty average. But the pretty grand world they inhabit was interesting, and the characters that will be inhabiting the later novels were not just hung on as accessories, but are minor parts of the plot. Still, the romance seems to be more about predestiny than actual love.

Category: Paranormal

Primary Plot: Good world building in this variation on shifter story, but characterization and plot are merely average

Tropes: shifter, different worlds, secret worlds, law enforcement, protector, woman in peril

Overall Rating:  3/5