Review - Jarrah by Alexis Woods

For seventeen years, fae prince Jarrah has helped a mysterious, powerful being restore her powers. The first step was seventeen years ago when Jarrah gave the one-year-old human Valter a drop of his blood so that the now eighteen-year-old prince is about to meet his two fated mates, a werewolf and a vampire. Step two is for Jarrah to meet his own two mates, who also happen to be a werewolf and a vampire. Quinn is a young werewolf who acts as beta guard to his childhood friend, alpha Duke, who is mated to Valter. Marius is a 350-year-old vampire who was hurt badly by a werewolf when he was first turned and has held a grudge against all werewolves ever since.

This book is a continuation of the series that started with Valter. As in the first story, we have a menage relationship that develops rapidly once the three men meet. There's quite a bit of overlap with the events of “Valter,” except now we see what happens from three new points of view.

Jarrah is clearly a very key figure in the entire series, although he doesn't dominate the story as much as the title might suggest. It's Jarrah who sets things in motion to bring the various human and supernatural beings together for the as-yet-unnamed individual who may or may not be a goddess. Because of this, we learn a bit more about the reasons for forming these triads in this book, even if Jarrah still holds some cards close to his chest.

Quinn is the youngest of the three new mates. Unlike Jarrah and Marius, he has no experience outside the forest where he grew up, although he is anxious to see the world. Quinn's inexperience gives him doubts about his role as both a mate and warrior, but I get the feeling that the young werewolf will be an important player in later books.

We met Marius in the first book of the series, where he came off as a world-weary individual who upheld the old enmity between vampires and werewolves. He is forced to re-examine his attitude when faced with Quinn. His turnaround is perhaps a little surprising but not unbelievable.

As with the first book, there's not a lot to this story other than the three mates getting together. There is a little action towards the end and, finally, some context to what is going on, so this story ends up being a little more satisfying than the first volume.

“Jarrah” is available from Amazon (commissionable link).