Sydney Croft - Taken by Fire (book 6)

HIS MISSION WAS TO TAKE HER OUT.
BUT DESIRE GOT IN THE WAY.
A product of genetic manipulation, Melanie Milan shares a body with her malevolent sister Phoebe. A sleek, blonde predator with a heart of pure darkness, Phoebe puts their body through the wicked underbelly of sex for thrills—when she’s not igniting her pyrokinetic skills for an evil organization bent on taking over the world. Melanie rarely gets out to play—much less fall in love. But that changes when rival ARCO agent Stryker Wills shows up, with a mission to take out the woman who torched his partner.
An operative with rare abilities, Stryker soon realizes that the woman he’s about to kill isn’t the murderous fire starter he’s hunting. But he does want her. Melanie, with the power to ice anything in her path, is heating things up in ways that are setting his blood on fire. As long as Melanie stays in control, she is his best ally to bring down her sister and stop hellish havoc from being unleashed. Walking a tightrope of longing and hate, Stryker and Melanie begin to understand that true power lies in sweet surrender to each other, to the fire between them, to the erotic adventure that’s joined their hearts and abilities to become their salvation—and perhaps the world’s.
My Thoughts: Book 6...Last book in the series, I'm very sad to see this series come to an end. I loved every thing about the series, the storyline, the characters and the sex! This book like the previous 5, have main characters for the story but also a few other side stories going on at once and I liked that. I never got confused on who loved who, who were the good guys and who were the bad guys, the story flowed nicely. The continuation of the characters was fantastic because with this type of storyline you just can not end it with one book.  The love you felt when you read the books to me was genuine love (the kind you can read about and feel while reading), didn't matter if it was between a man and woman or two men, you just felt it. There was heartache, death and suffering but love truly won out above and beyond all of those.
We met Phoebe and Stryker in the last book when Phoebe killed his best friend. Phoebe who is actually also Melanie, share a body, unlike multiple personalities they are two different people due to an experiment in the Itor labs. Phoebe has the ability to ignite and control fire and Melanie can produce and control ice along with the freezing weather. Phoebe controls their body more that Melanie, so Mel stays indoors when she is in control. Stryker finds them and kidnaps them but so many things happen along the way while trying to get to the safe house. By the time they get back to the US, Stryker believes Mel about them being two separate people. Once at ARCO not many people trust her and most are upset with Stryker for not killing her. Dev has ordered him not to harm them. Mel has never been with a man before but Phoebe has so really their body is not a virgin but to Mel she still is. Their love grows quickly and it is complicated with three people in the relationship. Phoebe makes a few appearances that are not forgettable.
During this whole time, Dev is working hard to keep a wall between him and Gabe but with a little help from a special someone he sees what he had in his life and what he has now. He focuses more on the here and now and gets everything he ever wanted.
The battle between ARCO and Itor is a big one with happiness and sorrow in the end. Like I said before I hate to see the series end but I am very happy with how it all wrapped up.
My Rating: 4.5

Blood Awakening - Tessa Dawn (book 2)

Marquis Silivasi, the oldest of the Silivasi brothers and the only one to have lost his twin to the Blood curse. Cursed by the God’s twin two brothers, Jadon the light and Jaegar the dark were punished by their father’s deeds. While Jaegar embraced the evil, Jadon fought it. After sacrificing all the women in their land, only two remained, their own sisters. But Jaegar planned to kill them so Jadon whisked them away to hide them, having them put to sleep for centuries in hopes to save them. Marquis has blamed himself for his youngest brothers death, even after killing the dark one who caused his brother to die, he couldn’t forgive himself. Emotions getting the best of him he screamed all his pain to the sky. But with his power it shook the ground and awakened one of the sleeping Princesses.
Ciopori was one of the celestial beings that cursed them, but once they laid eyes on each other they knew that they knew each other and loved each other. While sleeping Ciopori dreamed of Marquis and he dreamed of her wondering why the Gods would allow him to go for thousands of years without his destiny to save his life and love him. Now knowing she was asleep in the ground all this, he planned a life with her. But as Marquis was helping save a waitress that was beaten yet again by her boyfriend at his casino, he sees the stars form in the sky to let him know he has found his destiny, the only woman who can give birth to his twin sons. Where the evil one will die in the place of Marquis to atone for what his fore fathers did. But the woman that has his matching star pattern on her arm isn't' his true love Ciopori but the mixed up young waitress, who would rather die than be his mate. Will true love be stronger than what the Gods have planned for them?

My Rating 4.5 

p.s. I have shockingly gotten use to the killing of babies in this book because they are truly soulless monsters that try to kill their parents at birth. And there’s a shocking M/M rape scene that stopped me cold from reading for a whole day. But it was a good read

Rhyanna Byrd - Last Wolf Standing- Book 1

That a woman who was his perfect match even existed. And that he’d find her in a bustling café. Yet just the scent of sweet, mortal Torrance Watson ignited a driving, explosive need to claim her that he knew his pack would never sanction. Worse, the rogue werewolf he’d been hunting had sensed that attraction and made Torry his prey. Forced to safeguard her from this ruthless assassin, who already posed a threat to his pack, Mason now faced the ultimate challenge. Did he have the courage to cross the line by sealing the blood bond that would make Torry his alone - a disloyalty few of his kind ever survived--or would he live an eternity without love?
As a half purebred werewolf, half human, Mason Dillinger is known as a Bloodrunner. To the pack he must prove his worth by tracking down and killing members of the werewolf breed that have turned to the dark, becoming rouges, and giving into the blood lust that turns their souls into murdering beasts that kill the human race for food and power. In his mind Mason knows what he wants and doesn’t want out of life, and the complication of a mate is not in his plan. Conflicts from a painful past make him determined that a bonding and falling in love, is something he has sworn never to do. Torrance Watson, a geeky girl, that carries around dreams of a whole fantasy romance, prince charming story in her heart, is scared senseless by Mason’s attraction when she sees him for the first time. With time she understands that he never wants to love her even though they were meant to be be together. Giving only a promise to never walk away, Mason vows to protect her from the rouge that now tracks her to get to him. Battling her fears she puts it all on the line to try and give him her heart and save his life with the mating bond, while knowing there will be nothing returned in the end.

My Rating - 3

Shonna

Dangerous Pleasure- Lora Leigh

Dangerous Pleasure is the latest installment of the Bound Hearts series by Lora Leigh. The entire series centers around a Men's Club where all the members want/need/prefer a third (a male of their choice) for their female partner. And when they find the woman they want to spend their lives with, no matter how possessive they may be of that female, they still have the need to share her with a third at some point in the relationship, supposedly just to watch and enjoy the female's pleasure. This series is sexually explicit as is most if not all of Lora Leigh's writing.

I have read this entire series and I did enjoy most of them. I will say though, that this book gave me a lot of problems, right from the very beginning. Ms. Leigh's sex scenes have all started sounding alike, and while I do like sexy times in books, her explicit descriptions do not even come close to holding my attention, and at times are very off putting to me because of their vulgarity. And I especially found this book's story line to be lacking in character development or in building any real relationship between the main characters, Paige and Abram. I don't even think the HEA's had a decent conversation in the entire book, let alone did they show any signs of romance. Every time Abram and Paige had a sexual encounter, Abram got angry and it ended with him being mean and regretting it. I found the entire premise of the book boring and the conversations almost comical. There was little in the book that drew me to either Abram or Paige. I like to be able to at least identify with the characters a little, but I just couldn't with either of these two protagonists.

The story starts with Paige watching while Abram and another man have a sexual encounter with an unknown woman. It even describes the look on Abrams face as he orgasms. At some point after that wonderful beginning Paige ends up getting kidnapped and instantly taken to Saudi Arabia, where she is held as a prisoner by Abrams father (Azir), an insane man that had also kidnapped her mother years ago and got her pregnant with her half brother. Yes, it sounds almost but not quite incestuous. There is a lot of political drama and it does visit past book characters, including a pregnancy, which is always fun. This book is definitely NOT a stand alone and must be read in order for it to make any sense whatsoever. I even suggest a quick reread of the previous book in the series (Khalid and Marty's story/Guilty Pleasure). It has been a long time between books and maybe this book would have been easier for me if the previous book was fresh in my mind. Ummm, maybe not.
My rating: 2
T

Brethren Beginnings- (Volume #1) Deena Remiel

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Let me start off saying, I love when you can meet the characters before they have their own books and before they find love. This way you get to know the person before the love. So you learn their personality and then it’s funny to watch them change or bend for love. I love this series... I’ve read Trinity and loved the newness of the way it’s written, I haven't run across a series close to this and I love it. So let’s talk about Brethren Beginnings Volume #1, we get an up close meeting with Gabriel Brethren Protector,  Nathanael Brethren Warrior and Cassiel Brethren Savior. This Novella tells a little bit about how they get their lives settled in the human world as Angels while fighting evil up close and personal. Gabriel is now back with humans he doesn't like being here, but soon changes his mind once he sees the new toys and electronics that had not been invented since the last time he was here. Soon after getting here he has over 20 people to save from prostitution and an evil touched pimp. Nathanael has been here for awhile and is worrying that he's enjoying killing the evil people a bit too much and wonders if he has a little evil in him also. Cassiel choose to be a Doctor so he could slowly heal dying children without people noticing if he did it in an instant. All while fighting back Satan and the people who have been touched by him. I can’t wait to get the other Brethren starter stories.

My Rating for this is 5

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Deeper Than Midnight- Lara Adrain (book 9)

Hunter was once Drago's deadest assassin now he is a part of the Order and has sworn to take down Drago and all who follow him. Emotions are something Hunter never had to worry about until he met Corinne Bishop, a Breedmate that's been held prisoner by Drago for over 70 years, she was used to breed Drago's assassins. For years being beat and raped repeatedly, but as soon as she took her first breath of freedom after being saved by the Order and Brock, who was her childhood bodyguard, she made a promise to find the son she gave birth to 13 years before. Hunter is put in charge of taking Corinne back to her home where she finds out her adoptive father knew that Drago had kidnapped her and never did anything about it. Feeling she had no where to turn for help to find her son she was drawn to Hunter after seeing he was able to get free of Drago's grip. She figured he would be the best person to help save her son, so she asked him to take the most important gift she could give him, she asked him to drink her blood, knowing it would bond him to her forever. After finding out what was Hunter’s special gift, he could read memories from their blood, she was hoping he could remember something from the day she had her baby. He did it, never feeling anything but logic these new emotions were enough for him to give up everything for her.

Will they find her son? Will Hunter ever understand these feelings? And will they find each other in time?
My Rating: 4.5
P.S Get ready for Chase's book it will be a doozie .. He's on the verge of Bloodlust

Beast behaving Badly- Shelly Laurenston (book 5)

Ten years after Blayne Thorpe first encountered Bo Novikov, she still can't get the smooth-talking shifter out of her head. Now he's shadowing her in New York-all seven-plus feet of him-determined to protect her from stalkers who want to use her in shifter dogfights. Even if he has to drag her off to an isolated Maine town where the only neighbors are other bears almost as crazy as he is...
Let sleeping dogs lie. Bo knows it's good advice, but he can't leave Blayne be. Blame it on her sweet sexiness -- or his hunch that there's more to this little wolfdog than meets the eye. Blayne has depths he hasn't yet begun to fathom -- much as he'd like to. She may insist Bo's nothing but a pain in her delectable behind, but polar bears have patience in spades. Soon she'll realize how good they can be together. And when she does, animal instinct tells him it'll be worth the wait...
Ok first I have to get this out of the way- stupid cover!! Yeah the guy is big and tall like Bo in the book but that is where it ends- and Yes I am discussing the cover before I get into what I thought about the book- stupid cover... umm Blayne the lead female is black, does that chick look black to you??? NO, me either. I want my covers to look somewhat like the characters in the book.... Steps down from her soap box
Ok loved the book in some aspects and not so much others. Blayne is funny and goofy which makes you kinda love her no matter what she says or does. She talks and talks and talks oh and she cries too, big puppy dog eyes leaking everywhere! Ten years before when Bo first spotted her on the other side of the glass he was a goner, lol not so much for Blayne. She screamed and took off running. Blayne is a wolf-dog, which is a hybrid wolf and wild dog mix. Bo is also a hybrid but he is a bear-cat, polar bear and lion mix. I loved the fact that he was a hockey player and a polar bear- haha too funny. Blayne is one who wears a watch but it is a broken watch and she's not much on being on time or being orderly and Bo is just the opposite, he lives by his watch and his schedule. I think he is OCD and that just makes him funnier to me. He is the meanest player on the ice and actually not the nicest person off the ice until Blayne shows him how to live and to be loved. The characters from the other books are of course in this one and Lock along with Ric are on the hockey team with Bo, they also get a huge thrill out of messing with his locker and rearranging the contents of the locker. I have to say that I really enjoyed this book but he is still not my favorite bear but he comes in a really close second.
My Rating: 4.5

Sherrilyn Kenyon - Born of Shadows - The Legue Series (Book 4)

Growing up in the dangerous shades of the street, Caillen Dagan fought through a childhood filled with struggles and pain. Each day a test of survival, Caillen defies the laws of the universe as a smuggler by trade. Calloused by a world with no mercy, kill or be killed was the only motto to embrace, until a twist of fate changed his world. Unknown to him, a birthright is revealed and he is thrown into a world of royalty and prominent political profile. Despite the two different worlds, the parallel of treacherous corruption are the same as a plot to kill his King (and birth father) surface. Achieving the position as an honored warrior, Desidera does as expected, even though in her heart are hidden feelings of emotion that are considered a weakness in her world. Learning of a plot to kill her mother and her to change the political powers of her planet, Desidera finds herself entangled in a well schemed assassin’s plot. Thrown together, with no where to turn, Caillen and Desidera must learn to unite together and unravel the webbed intent. Balancing their doubts of trust, while the growing feelings they have spark for one another, a story of adventure and love unfold with an ending that will keep you guessing.
On a personal note, and a huge fan of Sherrilyn Kenyon, this is another great read in The League series. The characters unveil a quality that makes them come to life off the page. Uncovering a vast array of multiple emotions, secrets, passions and fears round out a growing experience between the two main characters. . Mystery and multiple action scenes keep the pages turning in a story that will make you glad you took the time to read.

My Rating - 4

Shonna