Stripes and Two Horns, despite the quite serious background of the raccoon mate, is actually quite a fun read, like many of the other volumes of the Midnight Matings series. The idea of having twin unicorns, both ancient and set in their ways, suddenly having to deal with a quirky little raccoon shifter who needs more emotional support than a normal man could give, never mind two fairly reclusive guys, was bound to lead to some misunderstandings at the very least.

Gilbert, a raccoon shifter who has only known emotional physical abuse due to some obscure rules raccoon shifters apparently live by, cannot believe he has two gorgeous mates. While the twin unicorns are not mated to each other, they are definitely more than interested in him. Only Gilbert has such low self-esteem that he doesn’t believe them and it takes him quite a while to open up and admit the possibility it isn’t just a dream.

Drake and Blake, having lived pretty much on their own for hundreds of years, aren’t ready for such a challenging personality. Not that they’re easy to live with or don’t have emotional baggage, but we don’t find out a lot about their past. Luckily, they have more patience than any three normal men and they manage to slowly gain Gilbert’s trust. One of their fix-alls is sex, which leads to some interesting scenes in the bedroom, and the process of how they ‘unlearn’ those habits was fun to read about.

Add a great mother, her new boyfriend and a disgusting villain to this mix and you can see why the resulting ride might be interesting. If you like unusual shifter stories with a few secrets that pop out as you read, if a mate who needs protection so he can learn to stand on his own feet is your thing, and if you have enjoyed the other books in this series, then you may like this one as well. ( )

3.5 stars ( )

kinda paint by numbers ( )