Arctic Panda’s Secret Mate by Elva Birch

Timy reviews Arctic Panda’s Secret Mate, the first book in Elva Birch‘s shifter romance series, Alaska Mountain Chalet Shifters.

Possible fit for The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge 2025 prompts:

Joker prompt that goes with anything: Freed from Desire

A white Christmas and a chalet of many secrets…

Panda shifter Tristan jumps at the chance to see snow for the first time, leaving his tropical construction job at a luxury resort for a free (if chilly!) holiday in the wilds of Alaska. Unfortunately, he’s the odd one out, with no mate to keep him warm…and the chalet appears to be haunted. Things are going missing and mysteriously breaking.

Housekeeper and cook for Mountain Crown Chalet, Haisley isn’t supposed to be at the lodge for Christmas—she was kicked out for a last-minute booking that wanted complete privacy. But with nowhere to go, she’s stuck in a locked room trying to stay as quiet as a mouse while a quirky crowd takes over her beloved house. Are they exotic animal smugglers? Nudists? Something is definitely not right, and she is determined to get rid of them.

But fate has other plans.

The cozy first book of a hot and hilarious spinoff of the beloved Shifting Sands Resort, Arctic Panda’s Secret Mate is a slow burn shifter romance romp, with fated mates, secret shifters, cookie baking, and a magic garage.

Before I get to the actual review part, you need to know a few things: 1) you can sell me (almost) anything with pandas, and 2) I don’t care about shifter romance books. These days, I also prefer M/M when it comes to romance, but that’s beside the point. When I came across the cover for Arctic Panda’s Secret Mate, I had…questions. Namely, the fuck pandas have to do with the Arctic? I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out that badly, because, as I said, shifter romances are not my thing at all. Enter people I formerly called friends, who literally paid me to buy, read, AND review the book. I probably would have bought it anyway (already did by the time they ko-fid me the money), but I wouldn’t have reviewed it, so if you read this, please blame them. And now to the review.

When I was still in the debating stage, whether I wanted to read Arctic Panda’s Secret Mate, I made a quick scan of the author, as I had never crossed paths with her before. Elva Birch also writes/wrote(?) under the name Zoe Chant, all shifter romance with a quite high number of reviews and ratings on Goodreads, so clearly she has a very loyal fanbase. Which also gave me confidence that the writing should be solid, because you don’t get these numbers publishing absolute shit. Hopefully. The blurb also said that this is the beginning of a new series, including a few characters from the previous Shifter Sand Resort series, but that no previous knowledge was needed to enjoy the book. Keep that in mind, because I’ll reference back to it later.

Arctic Panda’s Secret Mate has two POV characters – Tristan and Haisley. Tristan, as you might have guessed from the cover, is our panda shifter guy, who works in the Shifter Sand Resort in Costa Rica as a builder and repairman. He is invited by his colleagues to spend Christmas in Alaska at a mountain chalet that’s isolated enough so they shouldn’t be afraid of prying eyes. The party includes 6 mated pairs (from the previous series) and Tristan, who is on his lonesome and sticks out like a sore thumb. He is the new guy, sort of, and as such, doesn’t really find his place within the group, whom he barely knows. I could sympathize with him on that account.

Haisley, on the other hand, is an ordinary girl, who works at the said chalet as a live-in caretaker. She welcomes guests, cooks for them, and makes sure their stay is nice and easy. Since the owner only lets the chalet out if all rooms are taken by a group, Haisley expects to spend Christmas on her own, having the chalet all to herself to enjoy. Until a last-minute booking takes place and she is booted out, as the party doesn’t need any staff to be around. The problem is, she has nowhere to go, so her solution is to hide in her room and forage during the night. Guess how that goes for her. Especially, when she finds herself face to face with exotic animals – leopards, in this case – she thinks they keep as pets, and the weird conversations she catches.

I’m probably not going to reveal a big spoiler, but as it turns out, Tristan and Haisley are fated to be mates. Surprise, surprise. One of the reasons I’m not a big fan of shifter romances is exactly this – the mates thing. It’s basically instalove, and I’m not a fan of that trope. At all. And honestly, Arctic Panda’s Secret Mate didn’t change my mind about shifter romances. Although, at least for Haisley, takes a little bit to wrap her head around the mate thing and comes much slower into the relationship – not by much, mind, because it doesn’t take very long until they find themselves in bed. Look, I have nothing against sex in books – hell, I’ve read some spicy M/M romances this year – but once they meet – which takes a while, to be fair -, that’s basically their whole relationship. Well, that, and cooking/baking together occasionally.

At 250 pages, Arctic Panda’s Secret Mate is a short book, that doesn’t leave a lot of space for worldbuilding, or digging deeper into the characters’ lives, especially if you cram 14 of them into one tiny book. And sure, the other 6 shifter pairs are only side characters who all had their books in the previous series, but if you haven’t read those books, like me, then you don’t get a lot out of them. It comes across well enough that they are a close-knit group with a lot of history, and some of their basic personality traits, but it’s surface-level at best. For me, as a new reader, it would have been better if there were fewer characters, but we’ve got to know them better. The same goes for Tristan and Haisley. We barely get to know anything about them. They barely have any personalities, and Tristan only because he is a panda shifter – and has a panda talking in his head, which is the funniest bit of the whole book. I wish they had more conversations because at least that was entertaining. Other than that, I had pretty much nothing to connect with when it comes to the characters, which was a shame. But hey, at least there was a panda included, and that’s rare!

And remember what I said about no previous knowledge needed? Now, I don’t know how much worldbuilding was done in the previous series, I certainly hope a lot more than here, because I was left with too many questions. Obviously, based on this book, shifters are part of the world, and they have their own secret communities, but a lot of them live among people. What I wanted to know, though, was how a panda shifter (Tristan’s father) ended up in Florida of all places. There is a hint that being a shifter is hereditary, but I’d like to know how certain shifters can live in places that are not native to their species. Like…pandas. Who mostly live on bamboo. That mostly grows in certain parts of China. They also like a cooler climate, which Florida is not famous for. Or Costa Rica, for that matter. While I’m absolutely giving extra cookie points for including shifters of all kinds, not just the usual culprits, I also wish I had more knowledge about how this world actually works for shifters.

All said and done, Arctic Panda’s Secret Mate can be a perfect Christmas-themed popcorn read if that’s what you are looking for. It has snow, found family, romance with a bit of spice, and cute animals. Not a lot of depth, but it’s very readable, and it’s great if you want to switch your brain off and just relax.