Rating: 3.75 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Sebastian’s whole life has been turned upside down in an instant. His parents are dead in a horrible fire that Sebastian couldn’t stop and he’s chased from his home by terrified villagers. Now, having discovered he isn’t human, but a changeling faerie, he’s being led to a new life, a safer one living amongst a clutch of vampires. But before Sebastian can arrive, he’s forced to layover at a brothel with an incubus who wants him anywhere else.
Dominus is generally a warm and welcoming host, but he has no use for faeries. As an incubus, Dominus knows what kind of damage the fae can do and doesn’t want Sebastian anywhere near his home. He reluctantly agrees to temporarily house Sebastian, as long as the man stays out the way. Sebastian proves to be sweet and charming and Dominus finds himself falling in love despite his best efforts. But when Sebastian is finally offered an opportunity to join the vampires, he must decide if a life with Dominus is what he truly wants.
Changeling is kind of a standalone and can be read as such, though it’s part of the Outcast Mates series and characters from another book, Mongrel, are mentioned here. Changeling was an enjoyable read thanks to the strong connection between Dominus and Sebastian, though the plot had some issues.
Dominus and Sebastian aren’t fully dimensional, but they are given enough scaffolding to feel believable and vibrant. They have something of a rocky start and these initial chapters to the book are the strongest in my opinion. The push and pull as they learn about one another results in a sweet and soft romance that read as natural and comfortable. These two characters work well together and generally do a good job of building one another into more complex partners.
Unfortunately, the plot is something of a mess. The reasons for the curse the fae once put on the incubi doesn’t make much sense. It’s a bit of a stretch and it fell apart as the book moved forward. It was resolved with relative ease and didn’t seem like the kind of thing that would result in such a long standing rift. Additionally, the romance between Dominus and Sebastian moves forward awkwardly; they go from being friendly to being madly in love a little too quickly, and this feels out of step with pacing earlier in the book. As a result, the last half of Changeling reads as uneven and just a bit awkward when in comparison to the first half.
Despite its issues, I still enjoyed reading Changeling and that was primarily down to the characters. Their romance was a good one and even if the plot wasn’t all that it could be, Changeling still worked for me.
