4.
Title: Pride Mates
Author: Jennifer Ashley
Pages: 304
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition:
Date Completed: January 4, 2012
Rating: ****

It's not often that I will rate a romance book a 4-star read (even if I rate within genres instead of across the spectrum), but the first book in Ashley's "Shifters Unbound" series is just that, because she managed to make me extraordinarily uncomfortable within the parameters of an otherwise traditional shapeshifter romance.  The source of my discomfort wasn't the romance itself, and ultimately isn't unique to Ashley's work: she left me shuddering at racism and bigotry.  In her series, shapeshifters have been revealed, and the expected tension arises from humans, but the American creation of a distinct second class is all too familiar and ugly.  Instead of outright slaughtering shapeshifters, the government forces them to wear "Collars" - part magic and part technology that cannot be removed, and deliver debilitating pain when the wearer acts violently (even in self defense).  Shapeshifters are also forced to live in "Shiftertowns" - isolation camps (they are free to leave, just not live elsewhere), are not allowed technology, can only work minimum wage jobs, and are not allowed to even apply to four-year universities.  Much of the tension in the novel (smartly) pulls from this prejudice, and leaves the novels feeling all too familiar.  I appreciate that the conflicts are not insular to the world of supernaturals, and doesn't provide an easy peace.  This is a matter that most paranormal authors have to face sooner or later, and this particular account is far too ugly to not be believable.