Loading ...Forced Mate by Rowena Cherry
Watch out, y’all! Rowena Cherry knows how to write an Alpha male and then bring him to his knees. You will remember that I was not as enamored of her novella Mating Net. One issue I had was that it was too short and there were too many neat wrap ups at the end.
Well Cherry did not let me down this time. Forced Mate is a chess term which chess lover Cherry explains in the book. In fact, I think if I’d had a chess board, then I might have been able to map out the entire plot. Sadly, chess escapes me but this story did not.
Djinni is of royal blood and has been raised to hate and fear two things: sex and Tarrant-Arragon. And guess who shows up on her doorstep to kidnap her? You got it. That sexy Tiger prince himself - only Djinni doesn’t know it’s him, which makes for some very funny moments.
One of my favorite moments is when Djinni reveals that she thinks her “Tigger” (she doesn’t know Tigger and Tarrant are one in the same) is of another race - one known for sexual inadequacies. In an effort to ease her mind about sex (Djinni is full of stories of frogs who choke fish and insects who bite the heads off of their mates), T-A has a codpiece designed to make Djinni think he is “smaller than normal” in a certain area.
This is a very sexy book without being overtly sexual. While I adore erotica, I also appreciate a good story that knows how and when to close the bedroom door. Don’t get me wrong! You get to peek behind that door quite often, but it’s just not the main (pardon me, y’all) thrust of the story.
One of the secondary characters has a name that unfortunately made me giggle EVERY time I read it because it is the name of a character on a silly 60-70’s American TV show. Cherry, a British native, probably had no clue. It’s a minor thing and did not distract me from the fabulous tale she wove.
The sequel to this is Insufficient Mating Material and continues the story of that secondary character (thankfully he’s using a different variant of his name in that one). I can’t wait to read it! If you like books with unusual characters, well-drawn worlds and fun plots, go get a copy! 4 Tombstones for a really well done story!
Book Stats:
- Mass Market Paperback: 326 pages
- Publisher: Love Spell; Reissue edition (November 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0505526018
- ISBN-13: 978-0505526014
To purchase a print copy of Forced Mate click here.
Books in the series in the order in which they should be read:
Forced Mate
Mating Net
Knight’s Fork
To visit the author’s website go here.
To visit the author’s blog go here.
(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Hello, Kate.
I love your review, but simply have to chime in on the name thing, because I thought long and hard about it.
Was I going to allow an attractive member of the Clampett family to spoil the perfect, symbolic name of a potential hero?
For that matter, was I going to be daunted because a brilliant British rock group has the name?
Jethro Tull was a British farmer and inventor, 1674 to 1741, who invented a seed drill and wrote a treatise called “The New Horsehoeing Husbandry”. On of his more amusing observations was that there’s a downside to horse manure, it contains the seeds of weeds.
My Prince Djetthro-Jason drew on the timeless theme of the thwarted farmer whom fate decreed should be a warrior or a king (like Britain’s King George aka Farmer George), and of mythological heroes who yearned to turn their swords to ploughshares.
In fortune-telling terms, he’s the King of Clubs (I’ve always thought it odd that “Spades” is not the suit of men who dig!). He also is the most “Earthy” of my characters.
If your name is your destiny, JJ had to be Djetthro-Jason.
Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
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