Kiska Gray

Following Chance is the first book in the ‘Shifters of Greymercy’ series. The main characters are Huxley, a wolf shifter, and Chance, a fox shifter. The story is told in first person from both Huxley and Chance’s povs.



This is a new to me author so I don’t know if the style of writing in this story is the usual way this author writes. It’s quite fast considering the topics covered. It’s not a deep emotional story because it only touches on key points in short bursts and then those points are quickly solved. The plot covers a lot of events and a lot of shifter tropes. There’s the death of a mate, instant lust, knotting, mental, physical and sexual abuse, mpreg and a few more I’ve forgotten.

The blurb does a pretty decent job of explaining the plot. Adding a bit more info, Huxley has been widowed a year. He was married to Chance’s twin brother. Visiting his dead mate’s grave, he finds Chance and takes Chance home. Chance is in bad shape. He’s been severely abused by his ex, Bones, who is a werewolf and Bones’ gang of hangers-on. Huxley is immediately drawn to Chance and realizes that Chance is his mate. Chance is afraid Bones will find him and destroy Huxley, his son, and Huxley’s brother who all live together. The story progresses with Huxley proving he’s dependable, Chance going into heat, Chance learning to trust Huxley and then Chance getting pregnant, followed with Bones showing up. From the time Huxley finds Chance until Chance gives birth takes a few months.

One of the thoughts I had was, how could Huxley fall so quickly for Chance if Huxley already had a previous mate? I realized, that’s us as humans thinking that Huxley could only have one mate, or that shifters could only have one mate. In fact, nothing says that shifters can’t have more than one mate and the way ‘Fate’ works in their world could function in any way the author wishes. Huxley and Chance are not humans, it’s our human misconception that makes the erroneous judgment of only one mate.

But there was a major issue I had with the relationship. It’s sort of the ‘Magical Pe**s’ syndrome. Huxley helps Chance through his heat and suddenly a lot of Chance’s fear of Huxley is gone and he starts to find his place in Huxley’s family. In reality, if someone was as terribly abused as Chance was, as an example he’d likely flinch and duck any time Huxley raised a hand to just scratch his head. I certainly couldn’t see Chance wanting to be touched that much after his heat was over. Even an abused animal takes more than a few months to recover and Chance recovers far, far too quickly and I found that to be the major problem in this story. It was too unbelievable.

Finally, there were some instances during the pregnancy that reminded me too much of female pregnancy. For some reason the vast majority of mpreg authors can’t come up with original ideas on how an omega deals with pregnancy. I can’t imagine them giving birth to a child out their butts, especially with the size of a child’s head. In this instance I believe the author had someone say the baby was crowning. This type of error is too close to an M/F story.

Overall, Following Chance was an okay read. There were a lot of shifter tropes, and I’d add a warning of topics of abuse and the return of the abuser at the end of the story. Chance recovers too quickly from his past abuse so that it’s highly unrealistic. The pregnancy is too close to M/F fiction which isn’t what I want to read. I want to read a unique omega pregnancy not something similar to human birth. Because of these issues, I won’t continue with this series unless later books are free. I give this book, 3 Stars.

… (meer)

3.5 stars

A fun super quick read that was just what I was expecting. This isn’t getting a higher rating not because I didn’t enjoy it or anything. It’s just because I’ve read stuff like this before and this one didn’t blow me away enough to get a higher rating.

There were a lot of time jumps in this that made it seem like the story was moving super quickly which isn’t super surprising given that this book is under 200 pages. The relationship was definitely a bit insta-lovey so if that’s not your thing maybe skip this. However, I personally am very forgiving of insta love in a books with a mates/soulmates element because I know that sort of part of the deal.

The characters in this were cute. I liked the way Huxley and Chance fit together and I liked the side characters of Dresden and Soren. I usually like or at least don’t mind children from previous relationships in my romance as long as they aren’t throw away characters and I think for the most part Dresden wasn’t but it was definitely a bit of a plot convenience to have Soren always available to watch him so that Huxley and Chance can do whatever they want without worrying about the child.

I think some people may not love that Huxley was formerly in a relationship with Chances twin brother and then gets into a relationship with Chance but I personally am not super bothered by plot points like that but it is something to keep in mind.

Overall I enjoyed my time reading this. It was super quick, I finished in about an hour, and I would consider picking up other books in this series if I wanted something like this in the future.… (meer)

This started out great (second chance holiday romance with a single father, a kitten, and cuddling), but the whole religious guilt plotline was too much for me, and in the end some of the emotional scenes seemed rushed.

Also, this isn't the novella's fault, but I really wish romance stories didn't automatically come with sex scenes, or at least there was an indication about it in the blurb or something. I keep accidentally picking up stories that have sex and then I feel like I shouldn't be upset because what was I expecting, really.

This doesn't apply to the books I already own, but for new reads I think I'll make an effort to pick up books only if 1) I know for sure that there are no sex scenes, 2) I know for sure that there ARE sex scenes, so I can decide when to read it and it's not a surprise.… (meer)