A review by alexreviewsit
The Tyrant Alpha's Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The description pretty much tells you that Una is rejected by Killian almost right off the bat at the beginning of the book and the rest of the book is essentially a realization/grovel while they spend more time together. 

I don’t know what Cate C. Wells does to her writing but I love every book she writes. She does an absolutely incredible job describing Una’s feelings of rejection. It felt so real and raw! 

Besides being each other’s mate, it didn’t really feel like Una and Killian had that much chemistry. It sort of felt like it came out of nowhere, and they barely knew each other before though that does end up being explained later. I didn’t really feel that much of a connection between them except for their inner wolves wanting to be around each other. 

I didn’t feel like Killian had much to his personality and kind of wish there was a little more there. Una was strong, independent, and really held her ground with Killian in arguments. 

Una has a disability with her leg, but I kind of hated how Killian would talk about it. It just seemed really degrading even though it came out of ignorance rather than malice. Like at one point he says something mean to her knowingly just to distract Una from something else she was mad at. I get that it is a dog eat dog world (haha get it?) but maybe he could have been a little more sensitive to that? Yet it does make sense within the world building put in place, but still a little hard to read. 

I do like that Killian does so many things to get the pack out of their backwards thinking as alpha. The super misogynistic world that gets described did really help to make the plot more believable and really set a good base for the story. I’m interested to see the other stories, especially the other packs to see if they are a little more forward thinking. 

For plot, nothing felt dragged out and everything does come back around to make sense for the plot or character building. Even the side characters had a lot of character building setting up later books in the series. I can’t wait to hopefully see Kennedy’s book later on because I’m super intrigued by her story so far.

I usually don’t love the

amnesia

trope, but it was done pretty well here with a lot of hints and flashbacks. It actually really brought the story together well and made everything that happened as backstory make a lot more sense.