Genre Paranormal Romance

Breed Series #6

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First let’s start with The Bad.  The minute I finished this book I was on the phone with my partner in crime bemoaning my disappointments.   Here was Cabal’s story, the nasty playboy Bengal tiger who spent most of the series steeped in compromising positions with his ménage-a-breed sexathons.   And what do we get with his book, barely a mention of this side of him or why he was into such carnal pleasures of the flesh.  We get a brief page all wrapped-up nice and tight and no closure or what-have-you’s of how he has suddenly changed his ways for his mate.

 My bitch list is as follows “The Ugly”

1.  Firstly, I am tired of having her side characters have a more enriching plotline than her actual main characters. She peaks your interest with  such side characters and when their book comes out, wham,  major disappointment.   I don’t know what is happening but each book is the same cookie-cutter version of the last. You could literally predict the actual dialogue between the two characters and soap opera’esque fights between them.

2. Secondly, all of her male characters and female characters are interchangeable. Cabal’s character was so reminiscent of her previous male characters that I thought I had bought the wrong book. 

3. Thirdly, let there be peace damn-it!   As I stated before, there is nothing more I hate than what I term the Danielle Steele or Gone with the Wind Effect.   Useless fighting until the last possible second when they realize they love each other is my utter pet peeve! I found myself skipping through all of the sex scenes (sacrilege for an erotica fan!) to speed up the parts to where an actual plot unfolds.

4. Lastly, I am tired of her having maybe three-four pages of actual plot development happen as an epilogue at the end of the book.   She has a great concept going, but where is she going to go with it? We know that the breeds were tortured harshly and lived in inhuman conditions but seriously, after x amount of books we are still stuck on the nuances of mating heat? And when is a breed and a breed going to get a little action, seems to me, if human mates keeps fighting the effects of the mating heat then let’s move on to some women/male characters that are actually happy to have found a mate.

 Now, I might have been a bit harsh and in need of some medicinal chocolate, but I just have read some of her earlier material that was truly innovative and captivating and I know she can do better than this!  Her book Broken Wings is one of my favorites and is so rich in character and plot development that there is no comparison.

What I would like to see is more plot development, an actual difference between her female and male characters as well as sticking to their original identities created as side characters.  I need more winged breeds; she mentioned them briefly in the beginning of this series and they have since disappeared.  I’m also hoping for more stories with breeds that mate with other breeds.   Her characters have undergone such atrocities and to be stuck with unwilling human harpies is just plain mean. I’m no bra-burning feminist (let’s not count college shall we) but the only female lead that actually had any gumption and wasn’t whining through half the book was Elizabeth from Elizabeth’s Wolf (My Fav)! That being said, I’m still on board to read her other books and I hopping for some more character diversity and to read about Jonas and Cassie stories!!!!

What I did like:

 Despite my above ranting I did like some aspects of this book, as I am a loyal Lora Leigh fan and despite some bumps with this book I’m still game. 

1.  Rrrraw this Bangal has strips, me likey

2. Pay attention in the later part of the book, big 411 on Jonas’s mate is mentioned

My Scene Pick

It happend so fast and yet Cassa swore she watched each detail of movement as though in slow motion.  She saw the only Bangal still standing, his enraged, demonic eyes spitting amber fire.  Blodd dripped along his body.  His face, his shoulders, the stripes that extended from his buttocks around his thighs – blood flowed over the heavy muscle and lean lines of his golden body.  He lifted a broken steel stake and hurled it past the slowly opening cage door, swashing through the control room windows with deadly force.

He was the one the others had fought to save.  She had watched as they had sacrificed themselves to save this one.

“I own  you,” he growled again. It was the animal, not the man, she faced.  This Breed was nothing like the civilized Breeds she had been following for so many months for the newspaper she worked for.

Major FYI Just Saw on Amazon Jonas’s Book is Due Out April 6, 2010 *screaming like a crazy Jonas Brother fan*

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