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review 2014-07-24 00:31

Action packed romantic, paranormal, whodunit

Thunder Moon (Nightcreature, Book 8) - Lori Handeland

Opening line: "A storm beneath the Thunder Moon is both rare and powerful."

THUNDER MOON is the eighth and final book in the Nightcreature series, however I read this book as a stand alone and thanks to Lori Handelands returning cast of characters and generous back story I never felt confused. With a strong female lead, sexy but mysterious love interest, lots of entertaining secondary characters plus an intriguing paranormal mystery to solve this is a good read.

Grace McDaniel is the sheriff of Lake Bluff, Georgia she's a tough, sassy and independent woman with a small sarcasm problem. Written in the first person I found Grace's character and in particular her running internal dialogue to be hilarious, you just never what was going to come out of her mouth next. Although part Cherokee, Grace has never embraced her traditional side and when after a freak thunder storm the elderly residents in Lake Bluff start turning up dead and upon autopsy missing their hearts she is at first reluctant about excepting the supernatural.

Also arriving during the storm is Ian Walker, a Cherokee doctor who blends native with traditional medicine. The pair has immediate chemistry even though there's something about Ian that Grace doesn't fully trust. Ian character is intriguing from the start, he's gorgeous of course but also very secretive. Bearing the mark of a warrior on his back and an eagle feather in his long hair, Ian has hidden powers and a painful past he's trying to overcome.

As the creature preying on the town's residents gains strength it begins to kill not just the old but the young and healthy as well forcing Grace and Ian to team up in a race to find the Raven Mocker. Since this has been written in the first person we get the pleasure of discovering Ian and learning his secrets as Grace does. And although their love story is unconventional due in part to Grace's dominance this only makes for some very steamy love scenes. I don't think I've ever read a romance before where the heroine rescues the hero, so yippee if you like a strong female lead.

I also enjoyed the many other residents of Lake Bluff in particular Grace's partner and his Chuck Norris joke bandit and fans of the series will love hearing about the returning Doc as well as her best friend Claire and husband Malachi. There is also some mention of Dr Elsie Hanover and the Jager-Suchers.

THUNDER MOON has a heavy mystical presence which I loved. Combining Cherokee legends with the paranormal and with all the non-stop action you won't be able to guess `whodunit' until the very end. Cheers

review 2013-12-28 00:29

My first "Breed" read

BUGGY

Elizabeth's Wolf of Leigh, Lora on 01 June 2005 - Lora Leigh

Opening Line: "The letter came at a time in his life when the battle inside his soul could have tipped either way."

Now this is the Lora Leigh that made me a fan. Erotic romance at its best; Steamy, graphic love scenes mixed with action and suspense. Written in 2004 (when she still used an editor and cared) and before her storylines became repetitive, ridiculous and made sense.

ELIZABETH'S WOLF was my first Breed book and even though its the forth in the series, it stands alone just fine and had me captured from the very beginning.

Dash Sinclair is a wolf/human hybrid created in a secret lab from which he managed to escape as a teenager. Growing up alone and on the streets without friends or family Dash eventually finds himself in the military where he is trained to kill. After a horrific helicopter explosion in the Middle East that kills his entire unit Dash is slowly recovering in hospital when his commanding officer begins reading letters to him from a young girl back in the states.

She is Cassie Colder and something about her letters calls to him, something about the girl and her widowed mother makes him feel possessive and protective almost immediately, forcing him to recover faster from his life threatening injuries. When the letters abruptly stop Dash learns that Cassie and her mother Elizabeth have perished in a fire. In his heart he doesn't believe this to be true and hires a private detective to look into their situation. Learning that the two are actually on the run from the twisted, evil man known as Grange, Dash makes it his personal mission to protect them and claim them as his own. His mate and his child.

Months later Dash tracks down Elizabeth and Cassie and rescues them from another would be attacker. Cassie accepts him immediately but Elizabeth although fascinated is weary because she hasn't been able to trust anyone in a long time and those that have helped her in the past have died in the process. Having no choice however, Elizabeth allows herself to be rescued by Dash who whisks them away to a safe house where they can all begin to heal and recover. As Dash learns more about why Grange really wants Cassie his worst fears are realized but as Elizabeth comes to trust and love him he also knows that he will stop at nothing to protect what is now his.

Even though our heroes don't make love until nearly halfway through the book this is one hot read. Dash tells Elizabeth from the beginning that when she's ready he will have her and she accepts this knowing that there is no way to fight the growing attraction she feels towards this gorgeous alpha male. Ultimately the anticipation, the knowing looks, and gentle caresses, the reader foreplay is almost hotter than the actual act.

The sex scenes are graphic and so explicit that at times I was uncomfortable. Still this is a good, strong story full of action, intensity and family bonds. Dash's loneliness is heartbreaking but Elizabeth's character is written strong, she is a worthy mate who completes him. The scenes between Dash and the precocious Cassie are also well written and very sweet. Several breed characters (I'm assuming from past books) turn up for the exciting climax which comes together rather abruptly and finishes too quickly even though all the loose ends are tied up.

Breed extra sexy time Lora Leigh men in uniform paranormal romance shelf 9 tortured hero weretastic

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review 2013-10-18 01:35

Great story premise, weird world building

BUGGY

Opening line: "Faith Watsons new partner was big, muscular and covered in fur, and he didn't give her any crap."

Wow, okay so in Angela Knight’s weird, out there ‘Mageverse’ world King Arthur is a vampire, Camelot’s Merlin is an alien, and everyone is searching for the black grail. There’s a fairy king, some witches, Guinevere (also a vampire) shows up and she‘s horny, we visit the round table, Avalon, and watch an entire police department get taken over by magic while officer Faith Weston gets it on with her K-9 partner Rambo who also happens to be a werewolf-shifter posing as a German shepherd. All this takes place in the alternate universe known as Angela Knight’s acid trip.

The thing is though Master Of Wolves has a great premise and the writing is really good; peppered with comedy, action and smoking hot love scenes (although they do breathe “Oh god” into each others mouth every single time they get it on, which annoyed me.) If it weren’t for all the magic and bizarre world building this would have been a pretty good read, as it was I did enjoy parts of it, the parts that had nothing to do with 'Mageverse' that is, skimming over almost all of the King Arthur scenes and just concentrating on Jim and Faith in the ‘real’ world.

Jim London is a werewolf/shifter, when his best friend Tony gets killed while in police custody he goes undercover as a K-9 drug dog to find out the real story behind his murder. Partnered up with officer Faith Weston the sparks fly immediately but Jim has to keep his paws to himself. When Jim and Faith get caught up in the vampires and magic wreaking havoc on Clarkson police department this brings out the animal in Faith and changes her forever. Unfortunately this fairly cool idea gets way overshadowed by too much magic and fantasy. I mean come on King Arthur, the Holy Grail, Excalibur it was actually funny at times.

One of my biggest problems with fantasy is that the author writes the world rules as they go along, or for convenience to the plotline wherein there are no rules. This was a big issue for me here as explained in the following quote;

"What the grail did was genetically alter the people who drank from it." "Genetically? How the hell did a cup do that?" “PFM” “Which is?” “Pure fucking magic. It turned the men into vampires, and the women into witches. Collectively they’re the magekind.” “Wait a minute-- the chick that wants to sacrifice us is connected to King Arthur?” Faith opened her beer and took a sip. “Hell no, different bunch of vampires all together. She’s one of the bad vamps. Arthur and his bunch are the good vamps who are trying to catch them.” “And we’re werewolves?” She rolled her eyes “Do you ever have trouble believing all this shit?”

-No, no trouble at all. Cheers

Angela Knight bizarre men in uniform PCFF paranormal romance shelf 11 weretastic