A Beginner's Guide to Wooing Your Mate (3) (Being(s) in Love) Paperback – March 13, 2015

R. Cooper’s weakest feature is her titles. “Some Kind of Magic” and “A Boy and his Dragon” are far more interesting and richly written than their titles suggest. The same is true with this latest in the Cooper’s marvelous, imaginative fantasies, “A Beginner’s Guide to Wooing Your Mate.”The fact is, I love these books and was happy to see a third in the series—which posits a world in which magical beings are just part of the landscape. Imagine a world where sex-ed classes in high school include werewolf mating rituals. Imagine a world where you can be a human with magical powers, but you have to deal with pixies and fairies and dragons as neighbors.Cooper vividly outlines the complexities of inter-species relationships. They may all look human, but every kind of creature has different cultural aspects, different skills and powers. It’s a lot to keep track of, and it leads to misunderstandings.It’s a great world. In this version of it we’re in a small town called Wolf’s Paw, dominated by its founding werewolf community, but harmonious overall. Young human Zeki Janowitz has come home after five years away. Lonely and bullied in school, he left Wolf’s Paw to study hard and become a great wizard.But you know how life is. Out of college, no job: you move back in with dad at home. Zeki doesn’t expect to get work in his home town, because everyone knows werewolves don’t really trust magic.And that’s the problem with a world full of all kinds of beings: we make assumptions.Zeki’s high-school crush, Theo Greenleaf, is now a fireman in Wolf’s Paw. Local lore has it that he was rejected by his mate and it left him a broken man. Zeki vaguely wonders if he might have a chance, now that he’s grown up and covered with cool tattoos and a hip attitude.Zeki’s journey is a little more tortured than those of her protagonists in her two earlier books. I kept thinking of the Otter and Bear characters in TJ Klune’s opulently overwrought novels. Zeki overthinks, he has a hard time just letting things be. His confusion about werewolf customs and his own lingering self-doubts get in the way.I found Zeki very appealing, but also a little frustrating. I’ve known self-defeating people and, honestly, sometimes you just want to smack them.But that’s where Cooper’s world is such fun. Everybody in town has his eye on Zeki, whose return to Wolf’s Paw has not gone unnoticed. Zeki and his father are both fairly oblivious (humans, what can you do?), at least at first. The bottom line is that magical beings are just as confused as humans are. Especially when it comes to love. Magical powers don’t make you impervious to heartache, they just add complications.Each of these books has been a stand-alone set in the same world. There is a plot arc in this book that suggests a follow-up might be necessary. I hope so. I want R. Cooper to keep on writing.

I find myself eagerly starting each of the Beings in Love books, but not wanting any of them to end. (In fact, having started the series out of order, I still haven't read the last chapter in "His Mossy Boy" (book 8), and it's been a month. I do not want to say good bye to Martin and Ian!). This book, about Zeki, a new college graduate, human wizard who returns home still hung up on his high school crush, and Theo, the impossibly tall, gorgeous object of that crush, who is also a werewolf nearly broken from having been rejected by his mate, continues the trend: I didn't want it to end, despite the beautiful final scene.Aside from the strong characterization, pacing, and intriguing plots, each of which reveals new details about Cooper's Being(s) in Love world, one of the qualities I most admire and enjoy is how she deals with power differentials in relationships. Differences in terms of status, money, social standing, health, and other factors (which, in Cooper's case, includes differences in species), is frequently used to establish sexual or emotional dynamics between two characters, in Cooper's work and more broadly in much literature. Cooper's alternate world allows her to explore these differences in high contrast ways, effectively reframing these power dynamics so that they can be reconsidered in the real world. (I doubt this is her motivation, because she clearly loves to write, but such reframing seems a natural by-product of her work). Of course, "power" as a concept is both blatantly obvious (especially if you don't have it), but also deceptive in that those who seem like they have power in a relationship don't always have it. While Zeki and Theo seem to be well matched for each other, Cooper allows the characters to explore the various power differentials between them until they achieve their own balance. Cooper's world is egalitarian and generous, acknowledging the gaps that exist between people even as she patiently allows each character to overcome them. The journeys she traces in each book is what makes the stories so compelling and uplifting. In Zeki and Theo's case, the story feels real, tapping into experiences many of us have had or have observed, but the characters also feel real, as if you can have the couple over for coffee and scones. (But if Theo baked the scones, watch out for that first bite - it'll be a doozy).

I enjoyed this story and would've given more stars, except that the vast majority of the story rests on no one saying the very few words that would clarify what happened between the MCs in the past to mess things up in the present. I didn't believe this was any kind of new problem. First rule of relationship club: communicate clearly. Duh. That said, for once, I really liked all the food parts! A minor miracle.Because of the central miscommunication, I think this would have benefited from being shorter, less time for the irritation waiting for the realization.A minor flaw happened frequently in the last few chapters; the author sometimes putting dialogue and thoughts from both characters in one paragraph, that blurred for me which point of view it was in. It was distracting. But it's common for last chapters to be less well-edited than first chapters, and it wasn't plot critical by then.I already bought the next book, because the pairing is odd and a mystery...Particularly in the last few chapters, the author's paragraphing blurred whose point of view I was in. It should've been obvious since one's werewolf and the other's human, so that was distracting. I think this one could have been shorter without losing anything important.

The series is growing on me more and more. I love the multifaceted characters. There have been a few more intimate scenes connecting the characters.

Cooper has managed to create a really heart-warming tale that includes a beautiful development of romantic relationship between two characters who have some serious emotional struggles along the way. Not only are the two main characters delightfully developed, but the cast of background characters are also intriguing. An excellent combination of tension from the tradition 'will-they-won't-they' as well as in-depth emotional competence. A short read, but still gripping all the way through!

I looooove this autor and this serie! The writing is excellent, the story is funny and sexy.

This is a good story in a good series but like other reviewers it frustrated me at times. I can't understand why no one explained the problem to Zeki when it became clear he really hadn't understood what he had done.Every person said " you really don't understand do you" and did nothing. I wanted to shout " no he doesn't- so tell him!" I still have no idea why they didn't other than to keep the book going which isn't a good enough reason in any book. That said I did enjoy it overall so I can't moan too much as the rest worked very well

Its not an easy book to review, because there is gayness in it, but alsowolves and wizards, and others as well. But underneath it there is a reallynice story of 2 men meeting up and getting together, after a decade or so later.Because they are shy with each other, they could not get it together when theywas younger. But now they are getting it right between them, and brushing awaywhat happened years ago.

I knew when I bought the series I'd just burn through it and I am.These books are lovely with heat to make you burn.Theo thought he'd been rejected when Zeki said no and left town for college.Now he's back and he can't keep Theo out of his mind, this is a courtship of 2 people trying to figure it out.