Title:  Taken
Series:  True Mates #2
Author:  Olivia Arran
Published:  November 24, 2015
My Rating:  5 stars
Source:  Borrowed with Kindle Unlimited
Cover Description:

Being with her is like standing a little too close to the sun…
Beta Wolf Sean Colstone has a mission – to recover a kidnapped jaguar shifter, and deliver her safely back to the pack. The only problem? He suspects that wildcat Lisa is his true mate. There’s something about the curve-packed petite bombshell that gets under his skin, heating his blood, and threatening to destroy his well-honed discipline of control.

He clings to his control like a well-worn blanket – one she’d like to rip right off…
Smart talking jaguar shifter Lisa Shadowpaw is a lone cat, and she likes it that way. Dragged into a fight between two wolf packs by her best friend, she’s just waiting for a chance to escape her kidnappers’ grasp. She can’t count on anyone coming to rescue her, least of all Sean – after all, he made it very clear that he didn’t want her… But no matter how much she tries to convince herself to just forget the hot, sexy shifter, she can’t get him out of her mind…or her heart.

When Sean’s control finally breaks, can Lisa tame his beast…or will his past consume them both?

While there’s not a lot of constant sexual activity what there is definitely is hot and steamy – so you know the rules 18+ readers.

Taken picks up where the previous novella, Promised finishes – Lisa has been kidnapped by the nasty piece of now dead meat, Eric but his slimy pack members have her hidden.  Sean is the pack’s best tracker and Lisa’s true mate, even if he won’t admit to it.  His determination to find her is driven by duty to the pack and something else he just can’t understand or accept.

Lisa is a jaguar on her own – now more than ever.  Kept in this smelly room with barred windows and guards outside the room and the building she sees little help coming her way any time soon.  If she shifts she might be able to take down a couple of the men, but not all of them.  Somehow she must escape because only humiliation, rape and death will meet her in this place.  She’s hoping against all hope that Sean will search for her.  She knows her best friend Kara will, if she is able.  For now she waits for the right moment – and it’s going to come sooner than she is ready for.

Taken is such a gripping, edge of the seat story.  One that I’d really like to tell you more about – but if I do that it will spoil your own reading enjoyment of this next installment of the True Mates series.  There will be three surprises or twists to this story.  And some answers as to why Lisa and Sean react to each other and their own personalities.  But those answers are spoilers.  So, nope, sorry.

As more secondary characters are introduced and given backstories, or at least hints, I’ve a feeling that True Mates is going to be a compelling series that will be added to for a good while.  There are very good reasons why Sean is so determined to deny his bond with Lisa and why he rarely calls on his wolf but uses his human power to deal with trouble.  And Lisa has experienced a humiliation that she simply will not speak of to anyone, not even Kara.  When that reason is revealed, you will look at Lisa’s character differently for she truly is a strong woman in so many ways.

These two need to own their pasts in order to have any hope of a future together.

True Mates is not a serial, each story does have an ending, a happy ending – but the stories flow from one to the next.  So this is a series that would be best enjoyed by reading in order… in my opinion.

Available for the Kindle