Hour of the Lion

Hour of the Lion by Cherise Sinclair

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I enjoy a good paranormal book.  I'm a bit jaded by the plethora of shifter books lately.  Some of the authors throw in a couple of wolves and recycle the common "understood" of how werewolves and shifters came to be.  I've read Ms. Sinclair's books before and generally found them to be well written with great characters that I like and a story line I can follow.  In addition, she creates conflicts which I can believe and follows each developed thread to a conclusion.  It may not be a happy conclusion, but it's a conclusion.



When I heard she moved to the paranormal genre with shifters, I was nervous.  Would it turn out okay?  Is she just jumping on the band wagon?  With great reluctance, I finally forced myself to read the book.  The first thing I can say after reading the first few pages is, "WHY ON EARTH DID I WAIT SO LONG?"



The first chapter BLEW me away.  We went from zero to sixty in less than a second.  I LOVE IT.  I was captivated from the very first moment when Vic was tied up and under threat of rape and torture.  This world Ms. Sinclair created for the shifters is fabulous.  She's used some of the existing accepted mythology and added her unique twist.  Her book leaves a wide open world for more than just shifters.  She has so many interesting characters I hope she writes several books and this becomes a series.



The erotic categorization of this book for me was the sensual and sexy heat between the three main characters, Vic, Calum and Alec.  The menage was a nice treat.  There was nothing out of this world about the sex, but it was nice each time.  Each sex scene had purpose to enhance the story.  It wasn't a gratuitous sex just for the sake of checking off a list of required sex scenes.



I liked Vic - she's the type of woman I admire.  Smart, loyal and strong cognitive skills and the ability to make a decision and stick to it.  She isn't w/o her flaws.  It's rather sad her flaws and I admit to shedding a tear at her heartache.  Alec and Calum, what can be said about them?  H.A.W.T, sexy, alpha and okay a bit paranoid.  But seriously, is it really paranoid if people are really out to get you?  I wouldn't mind being the meat in that man sandwich. 



The axillary characters were just as charming.  There was a reason for each person's madness.  There was no "just because" explanations.  Did people do bad things?  Yes.  Were they completely bad people?  No.  Each person's motivation was true to that character and help generate believable conflict.  This is what I admire about Ms. Sinclair's storytelling technique. 



I recommend this to all my friends, even those who don't really like paranormal, this is still a well written story.  I'd read it over and over and over and over again.  At this point, Ms. Sinclair should just be an auto-buy for me.

Caged

Caged by Tam Ames

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I expected the worst from this book.  Seriously, a hamster shifter?  WTF?  A GAY HAMSTER SHIFTER?  Double WTF!?!  To my delight, this short story which easily takes less than 10 minutes to read is good.  The writing was tight.  Sticking to one POV was pleasurable.



Marek, er Marcin was so darn funny.  He's a snarky vengeful little bugger.  Hamilton is a sweet sweet guy.  This story felt like tongue in cheek for me the entire time.  I like it!  Maybe Ms. Ames will read this review and write about this storyline the Kindle Smut group has been kicking around...One member came up with a WTF storyline about gay squirrel shifters just looking for a few good nuts.  O_O  Ms. Ames, I hope you're out there giggling over her idea.  Maybe it will ignite a spark in that deliciously wicked sense of humour mind you have.

Undercover

Undercover by Lauren Dane

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Undercover is my one of my FAVOURITE books by Ms. Dane.  This book has it all - angst, kinky sex, two HOT alpha doms, a sexy sub and menage scenes that make me melt into a puddle.  I love this new world Ms. Dane created.  I love the sci-fi parts of it.  I really love Ash, Brandt and Sera.  The painful past which becomes a hard future together was pretty impressive.  I felt emotionally attached to each of the characters.  No one was perfect.  Each had flaws which were easily relatable.  With how hot Ash and Brandt are, I would fantasize being Sera.  The fact that they are covert operations in a sci-fi type world really stroked all the places that makes me go mmmm.  I can't wait to read the next book in this series.  LOVE IT!  I recommend this to any woman who enjoys romance with a happily ever after mixed in with a bit of scifi/fantasy and a sexual tension that will spike your temperature.



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A Perfect World: An Erotic Science Fiction Short Story by Kris Cook

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed this short story.  I generally don't like male authors, but Mr. Cook cooked up a hot little story that I enjoyed greatly.  In this futuristic world, it's pretty harsh and it took me a bit to understand what was going on.  Once I understood about the longevity of humans, I really got into the story.  The menage was hot.  I liked it.  The flow of the story was also smooth and other than one minor grammar error, I thought it was very well done.  I enjoyed it enough that I'm going to be looking for more of Mr. Cook's stories.

Lovely Wicked by Kari Gregg

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ever wish to have your cake and eat it too?  Ever fall in love with two different people and try to keep them both?  Mitch, Liv and Sam come together and one would think it's Liv that falls in love with both men.  That would be the wrong assumption.  Ms. Gregg turned it around with Mitch as the main character, wanting to have a love relationship with both Liv and Sam.  This perspective from a male with deviant sexual desires, chasing after two people was intriguing.  The sex scenes were intense and hot.  Flaming hot!  I wanted to jump my DH after reading each scene.

What I didn't expect was all the baggage Mitch carried.  Nor did I expect it to manifest in the way it did, without resolution.  Mitch is too softhearted despite his rugged construction worker persona.  Watching his heartbreak over his losses made my heart bleed a bit for him too.  Watching his relationship with Liv and Sam fall apart just about shattered my heart.  Ms. Gregg appears to have no compassion for her characters.  They never get a single break.  It's one bad incident after another.  At one point, I wanted to just kill myself to get over the sorrow for Mitch.

This is definitely not a HEA book.  It's a HFN and Ms. Gregg better write a sequel with a HEA for Mitch if she knows what is good for her.

Xmas Spark by Delphine Dryden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This short and sweet book was purchased just so I could complete a book challenge.  I wasn't expecting too much.  I understand why the book is titled, Xmas Spark, but it really should be FLAME.  This is the first story I've read with the violet wand in it.  Now I want a violet wand set.  HOT!  Jack was a dominant man who I would love to submit to.  I thoroughly enjoyed this short story and would recommend it to my friends for a great quick read.  Be careful, you might start researching for violet wand kits after reading this book.  I did.