The Fake Mate

October 9, 2023
For this spicy paranormal rom-com, Ferguson (The Nanny) gleefully toys with shifter tropes, drawing on omegaverse fan fiction, where alpha and omega wolf shifters have distinct, inhuman sexual characteristics that uniquely complete each other. Doctor Mackenzie “Mack” Carter is a rare omega in wolf shifter hierarchy. Her matchmaking grandmother is determined to find her a decent man, but her recent blind dates have been “scraping the bottom of the barrel,” and she’s not interested in going on any more. Enter Dr. Noah Taylor, a fellow shifter and “the Boogeyman of Denver Memorial Hospital.” He’s as taciturn as Mack is bubbly and has a (“grossly overexaggerated”) reputation for making nurses cry. His status as an unmated alpha comes with stigma (stereotypes include fits of rage and sexual violence)—and now that it’s been leaked to the hospital higher-ups, he’s afraid he’ll lose his job. The solution to both their problems? Pretend to be fated mates with one another. What begins as a typical fake relationship story quickly slides into a delightfully endearing study of two people overcoming expectations. The kinkier side of omegaverse tropes won’t be for those expecting a more traditional shifter romance, but readers willing to go with it will have plenty of fun. Agent: Jessica Watterson, Sandra Dijkstra Literary.

October 1, 2023

In this wolf shifter romance, Dr. Mackenzie "Mack" Carter's grandmother is obsessed with finding her a mate, but all of the resulting dates have been duds. In desperation, Mack tells her grandmother she's dating someone and blurts out the name of the first person she sees: Dr. Noah Taylor. Noah is universally disliked at the hospital where he and Mack both work. Now someone has turned him in to the hospital board as an unmated alpha--a stigma that could jeopardize his job. He needs a mate--fast--or his career could be over. When Mack tells him her plan, he can't believe his luck and quickly agrees to a fake relationship. Soon their chemistry is too strong to resist, and their new friendship turns into a friends-with-benefits arrangement. The longer they pretend, the closer they get, but what pushed them together could tear them apart. This fun, steamy romance has interesting, well-drawn characters who happen to be shifters. While aspects of the wolf play into the dynamics (and mechanics) of the story, the focus is on the relationship between the protagonists. VERDICT Fans of fake relationships will appreciate Ferguson's (The Nanny) paranormal twist on the trope.--Heather Miller Cover

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November 1, 2023
Charming. Funny. Primal. Ferguson's paranormal romance manages to be sweet and spicy at the same time, with two likable leads who can't ignore their wolfish urges. Doctors Mackenzie Carter and Noah Taylor live in a world where shifters are part of society. But while shifters aren't unusual, Alphas and Omegas are. Noah is an Alpha, but he's been hiding it by taking powerful suppressants. Mack is an Omega, a fact she is not forthcoming about. The two enter into a practical agreement: they will pretend to be mates. Noah's Alpha status has been mysteriously outed, so he needs a mate to continue to practice medicine, while Mack just needs to get her grandma off her back in regard to her love life. What starts as a business arrangement quickly spirals into a hormone-driven tryst. With Noah off his suppressants and Mack giving in to her Omega urges, the two can't keep their paws off each other, and these fake mates find themselves careening towards becoming real mates whether they like it or not. Readers will tear through this omegaverse novel.

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November 15, 2023
Opposites attract when two doctors, who also happen to be wolf shifters, become fake mates for their own respective benefits. Mackenzie Carter has had bad date after bad date, and her grandmother is becoming increasingly worried that she'll never be mated. It doesn't matter that she's an accomplished ER doctor; her family only seems to care about her love life. Interventional cardiologist Noah Taylor is hiding his status as an unmated alpha, given that alphas are often incorrectly stereotyped for volatile and violent outbursts. But when he's threatened with revelation to the medical board, putting his career in jeopardy, he'll have to resort to drastic measures. Mackenzie, who is bubbly to Noah's acerbic, has no qualms about suggesting the unthinkable: They could pretend to be mates. She'll get her grandmother off her back, while Noah can put the rumors at ease before they get out of control. This is an omegaverse romance, drawing from the fanfiction genre of erotic shifter romances where alphas, betas, and omegas inhabit the shifter mythology. While romance readers and omegaverse fic lovers certainly have some crossover, those new to the concept might have to take several Google breaks to fully understand the worldbuilding at play, even though the book is wrapped in a contemporary rom-com package with only subtle references to the characters' more animal natures. It's still a steamy, worthwhile romance with plenty of banter, tapping into the popular grumpy-meets-sunshine trope. The fake-dating trope is amped up a notch by the addition of shifters and matehood, and while it feels a little like reinventing the wheel, Ferguson obviously had a blast writing this one. A sexy and funny paranormal romance with a slight barrier to entry.

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