Rites of Mating

Rites of Mating is Book 5 in the Kegin Series. The children of King Joel and Queen Susan, Michael and Danellan, and Alex and Lyssa are beginning to reach maturity, and the royal marriage market is open! In this story, Jenneane and Joseph, the eldest children of Joel and Susan, search for their mates. Both young people are offended by the hoards of hopeful suitors that swarm around them at public functions. Jenneane, in particular, hates the fact that the men seeking her hand feel free to paw at her. The only man who doesn’t seem to cross the boundaries of good behavior is Captain Tirin Li, one of the palace guards.

On the other hand, Joseph knows who he’s going to mate with. Berel, the daughter of their woman healer, Syl, has been part of the royal children’s group since she was born. Joseph has known she was his mate for three years, but he must wait two more years, until her twentieth birthday, which on Kegin is the age of adulthood. At that time he intends to woo her and make her his bride -- and the future queen of Kegin.

I just love the Kegin stories, and this installment is fascinating. I love stories that are rich in background detail, and in this one we get to learn much more about the culture of Kegin, especially the courting customs, and the work of the healers. At the same time, the information is slipped unobtrusively into the narrative so that the reader can concentrate on the story. The main characters are interesting and well developed, and the author brings back some of our favorite characters from previous stories so that we know how they are doing now. In spite of being part of a series, the story easily stands on its own, so one doesn’t have to read the previous volumes to understand it.

This is definitely erotica, because the Keen people are very, very sexual! The love scenes are quite emotional, and very graphic, in a slightly alien sort of way – after all, these children are the result of human/Keen interbreeding, and they have some physical traits that are a little different. This one is a keeper in my opinion! I predict that fans of Lyons’s Kegin Series will love this story, and that those who have never read the Kegin books will read this one and go out and buy the others.

Reviewed by: Jean