This was a very sweet love story – 100% pure Cardeno’s style.

I really loved this story. It spans several decades and the unfolding of Zev and Jonah's maturity is a great read. When they finally reach their HEA, I got the full blast of a romantic fulfillment that made the heart thrum.

This was a wonderful story and the chemistry was off the charts.

I loved this book! C. Cardeno kept me frustrated with Ben, laughing with him and sometimes sobbing right along with him on his journey to self awareness and a life worth living in every respect. C. Cardeno's characterizations and spot on dialog were so wonderfully executed that the story zipped along and I was finishing the end before I knew it. ...And the other characters C. Cardeno created to assist/love Ben into making the life adjustments necessary to become a whole man happy with who he is? They are just so real, so alive that they jumped off the pages at you. ... In fact C. Cardeno has laid out a beautifully realistic book of one's man's' journey to a happy fulfilled life, and the pitfalls he encountered or put up himself that had to be overcome before he could achieve his goals. As I said I loved this book and I think you will too. Don't pass it up.

Wake Me Up Inside is the first book in the Mate series from Cardeno C and I can't wait for more. Cardeno C has a straightforward narrative that delivers the story in a manner that makes it easy for the reader to follow the timeline of Jonah and Zev's relationship as it grows from childhood to adult. ... Take a good long look at that marvelous cover and it gives you an accurate picture of a scene in the book. Boy and wolf pup and Jonah and Zev, always together no matter the form Zev is in. How does that idea not draw you in? It is the characterizations that make or break a story for me and in Zev and Jonah we get two characters to connect with immediately.