Review: Altered Heart (Mated Heart and Soul #1) by Kate Steele

As a werewolf and an enforcer for the Committee for Supernatural Behavioral Enforcement, Mick Matranga has seen his share of lowlifes, but Kevin Sutter, pack alpha, is one of the lowest. He has forcibly turned and taken prisoner a young human. Mick has been assigned to affect a rescue and bring Sutter to justice.

Dispatching the bad guy turns out to be the easy part of his assignment. Sutter's prisoner, Rio Hardin, turns out to be a smart-mouthed, sassy brat with the face of an angel who takes Mick's heart by storm. He's also a runaway turned hustler who has suffered numerous abuses in the course of his tumultuous life.

Bound by his code of honor and determined that Rio be protected at all costs, Mick makes it his personal duty to see to it that no one hurts Rio again. If that includes ignoring the instinctual knowledge that Rio is his mate and Rio's own desire to be with him, so be it.

There's only one flaw in his plan. Rio is about to go through his first shift, a very painful process which can only be made tolerable by applying a certain amount of distraction--sexual distraction. Mick has two choices. He can leave Rio in the hands of his very capable brother or he can give in to the mutual heat and need between them and indoctrinate his young charge into the ways of the werewolf.

Title: Altered Heart (Mated Heart and Soul #1)
Author/s: Kate Steele
Publication Date: January 2009
ISBN/ISBN13: 1596328576/9781596328570
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Maria's Rating: ★★★

Pretty standard and straightforward shapeshifter story. I think the writing is more than good and I liked both characters. Felt pretty bad for Rio (what a horrible stepmother!) although I'm still kind of unsure how I feel about him not saying anything to his dad and simply running away. I thought it was interesting how Mick wanted to be hands-off despite the attraction between the two of them right off the bat, but I think it provided a nice twist that made me want them to get together even more. The world building is adequate, and I like the explanation about the sex distracting from the pain of shifting for the first time. A bit similar to other shifter stories, of course, but unique enough to be able to stand on its own. I also like how there wasn't too much emphasis on how they're mates, but instead on how they are genuinely attracted to each other and want to be together.

I think my only criticism is that the thing with the stepmother was practically brushed off; I thought it deserved a whole lot more time because ugh, that was just sick. Additionally, there were some formatting issues and typos that I thought should have been addressed during the editing process.

Not sure if I will read the sequel about Rio's dad, because in this book I thought Jed sounded just as young as Rio. I ship pretty questionable ships, but I just can't see that one; it strikes me as too odd. Nonetheless, I think it's very likely that I'll read other works by this author.