Tag: Anna Leigh Keaton

Guest Review: Falke’s Renegade by Anna Leigh Keaton & Madison Layle

Posted May 10, 2013 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 0 Comments

Judith’s review of Falke’s Renegade (Puma Nights #3) by Anna Leigh Keaton & Madison Layle

Veterinarian Heidi Falke can tell that something isn’t as it seems when she rescues an injured jaguar. Black jaguars aren’t native to the area, and as a Falke, Heidi knows that some men can walk in the shape of a beast…literally. She won’t let this seductive shapeshifter leave without getting some answers.

Javier Montero is on a mission: find the shapeshifter who killed his family and get the justice he deserves. This unexpected detour won’t put him off for long, and what he has with Heidi can’t be anything more than sex–even if it does feel different from anything he’s ever known.

With Javier, Heidi discovers passion she never thought possible. She wants their connection to lead to a future together. Javier made a vow never to mate again after his loss…but if he wants to keep Heidi in his life, he’ll have to decide how far he’ll go for vengeance.

 
What must it be like to be the only female born into a family of puma-shifters in the last 150 years?  It is the plight of Heidi Falke and has put her life into a mold that is uncomfortable and one that holds limited prospects for the future.  She is greatly loved and deeply respected for her brain and her achievements as the community veterinarian.  But she has two fathers who are focused on her well-being and with whom she resides, and older brothers, one of whom is her alpha, who growl and spit every time she goes anywhere near a male they don’t approve of, especially another shifter.
Now she is responsible for caring for a shifter–a jaguar who has been shot and seriously wounded, a man who has lost his mate, his unborn son, and his twin at the hands of an assassin bent on destroying all shifters.  He is a very honorable man and one who recognizes the attraction between him and Heidi but who is determined to be true to the memory of his “one,” his mate.  Yet Heidi knows that finding a mate for her will be next to impossible and she is going to make some memories while she has the chance.
This is the third in a series of novellas about a shifter family in the American Northwest who are treasured by their community, who have come to be respected and the part of the lives of humans who live shoulder to shoulder to the Falke family.  Heidi’s brothers live in committed polyamourous relationships and they have borne children that are the loves of Heidi’s life.  Yet unless she meets a shifter mate she knows that she will never have children of her own.  It is a layer of sorrow that pervades her life, a sense of loss that is always there.  Javier brings some loving, some joy, a deep sense of appreciation for who Heidi is, but his determination to remain true to his wife’s memory keeps that sadness in Heidi very much alive.
I have liked all these novellas and have found them interesting as the authors have developed a community that lives with pumas yet has so little awareness of the true dimensions of the family.  Now they are bringing in another kind of story into the mix, a female shifter who cannot shift herself and who will remain barren all her life unless she mates with another shifter.  It’s a different twist on the paranormal/shifter story and testifies to the creativity of the writers as well as their ability to keep the tensions, the consistency in story telling quality alive after telling two other tales in the series.  There are always common denominators in shifter romance fiction, but from time to time there are authors who give us another twist, another zigzag in the legends and the telling thereof.  So it is with this short novel.  It’s fun reading, not taking up too much time but yet sufficiently long to develop the characters and the scenarios in which their story unfolds.  I know I was delighted when this latest addition to the series appeared and those who like the writing of this team will be equally pleased.

I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.

The Series:

Book Cover Book Cover Book Cover

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Carina Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.


Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Review: Falke’s Renegade by Madison Layle & Anna Leigh Keaton

Posted April 19, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Veterinarian Heidi Falke can tell that something isn’t as it seems when she rescues an injured jaguar. Black jaguars aren’t native to the area, and as a Falke, Heidi knows that some men can walk in the shape of a beast…literally. She won’t let this seductive shapeshifter leave without getting some answers.

Javier Montero is on a mission: find the shapeshifter who killed his family and get the justice he deserves. This unexpected detour won’t put him off for long, and what he has with Heidi can’t be anything more than sex–even if it does feel different from anything he’s ever known.

With Javier, Heidi discovers passion she never thought possible. She wants their connection to lead to a future together. Javier made a vow never to mate again after his loss…but if he wants to keep Heidi in his life, he’ll have to decide how far he’ll go for vengeance.

Javier Montero wants Lev Durchenko dead. The criminal killed his mate and twin brother 2 years prior and he’s been after him ever since- it’s his life. During a chase through the forest in his black jaguar form, Javier is mistaken for a bear and shot. Luckily the shooter realizes his mistake and calls the local veterinarian, Heidi Falke.

Heidi is on the job and takes care of the jaguar but soon finds out that he is a shapeshifter, just like her family. She is one of 7 children and the only female. She’s also the only female that has been born to a shifter family in years though she can’t actually shift. She’s pretty excited to meet another shifter but when he shifts into human form she’s even more excited because the man is hot.

Heidi manages to talk her family into letting him stay at their house to recover from his wounds but soon both Heidi and Javier can’t deny their attraction to each other any longer and move to a hotel. There they spend hours in bed but also spend time just being together and enjoying each others company. Heidi knows that this man is the one for her but Javier is determined to continue his search for his family’s killer and though he wants Heidi like no other, he can’t stop until vengeance is his.

The third book in the Puma Nights series and it was a really good one. This book hit me in a way that the other two didn’t, even though I really liked those as well. I think with this one, because it was just Javier and Heidi, and not twin heroes plus a heroine (as in the previous books), it felt like it was a more concentrated romance if that makes sense. We weren’t shifting between 3 pov’s – just 2 and that made the book feel more intense to me. It was both heart wrenching and fun and I love that in a book.

Heidi had believed that she would never find a mate and never have children. Being the only female shifter she would need to mate with another shifter in order to even have the possibility of children and even that’s not a guarantee. When the only shifters you know are your brothers that puts a big kibosh on your hopes and dreams. It seemed at first that Heidi was only thinking of the jaguar shifter in terms of what he could provide for her – children – but as soon as she got to know Javier those priorities, while still present, moved to the back burner. The relationship between the two was incredibly hot but also very sweet and I loved seeing the two just have a fun time being together.

Javier was an emotionally scarred hero but he didn’t let that stop him from opening himself up to Heidi. He still had issues but he realized that he could accomplish his goal and maybe in the future have the woman that he was coming to love. His kindness and strength was a wonderful asset to this story.

Overall I thought Falke’s Renegade was a very good story . This is a great series and I only wish I didn’t have to wait so long in between books! 🙂

Rating: 4.25 out of 5

Madison Layle & Anna Leigh Keaton


Tagged: , , , , ,

What I Read Last Week

Posted April 15, 2013 by Tracy in Features | 3 Comments

Howdo!

What have you all been up to this past week? Anyone do anything fun? It was a pretty quiet week in Tracyland which was really nice. This past weekend I didn’t have to go too many places so I got to be a homebody and just hang with the kids. That was really nice. 🙂

So since I have nothing to report about life I’ll get right on to what I read last week: 

I started off the week with Stranded with a Billionaire by Jessica Clare. This was a great book about Bonte who is a waitress from Kansas City that wins a trip to the Bahamas and ends up stuck on the island during a hurricane. She’s not alone though, she’s with Logan who she thinks is the resort manager but he’s actually the owner and is a billionaire. They spend great time together but when she finds out who he really is she’s pissed at the lie and heads home. He finds her again and the book is the story of them trying to work through their relationship issues – mainly him having money and her not having it and how they deal with that. It was really good and I definitely recommend it. 4 out of 5 (read for Book Binge) 

Mindlink by Kat Cantrell was a sci fi book that was my next read. I’m not usually a fan of sci-fi romance but this was pretty darned good. I’ll be posting my review of this one in a couple of days. 

Warrior’s Cross by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux told the story of Cameron who is a waiter who has a crush on a guy who comes into his restaurant every Tuesday. They finally talk after months of silence (besides order taking/giving) and end up going home together. Julian and Cameron start a relationship but Cam really doesn’t know all that much about Julian and Julian doesn’t share. This was a good book but I didn’t like that we were never specifically told – and neither was Cameron – what Julian did. It’s inferred that he’s a hit man (all evidence points that way in my mind) but for some reason the fact that it wasn’t specifically stated bothered me. IDK, maybe it was just me. It was a hard relationship and it didn’t look like it was going to get any easier so it was hard for me to completely enjoy the HEA. 4 out of 5 

Falke’s Renegade by Madison Layle and Anna Leigh Keaton is book 3 in the Puma Nights series. This book was a bit different from the others as it starred only 1 woman and 1 man (previous 2 book it was m/f/m). The story was about the Falke sister, Heidi, who is a vet and nurses a black jaguar back to health after being shot. The jaguar is a shapeshifter and he’s not exactly welcomed into the Falke family. I’ll post my full review later this week. 

Next I tried to read Cowboys Down by Barbara Elsborg but I just couldn’t get into it. It’s an m/m book about an uptight stock broker from England who goes to a working ranch in Wyoming to learn to relax and get dirty. The guys were ok together but the homophobia being thrown around was just too much for me and it had me setting down the book. I normally like Elsborg’s books but this one didn’t work and I ended up putting it down half way through. DNF 

Roses in Moonlight by Lynn Kurland was a great book about an innocent American woman who is thought to be a thief. The man who is hired to get the stolen object back thinks she’s involved but when he finally realizes she’s not their more than attached. I really liked this one. It didn’t have a whole lot of time travel but enough to satisfy. Derrick and Samantha were wonderful together and I loved reading about them. 4.25 out of 5 (read for Book Binge) 

A Passion for Pleasure by Nina Rowan is probably not a book I would have normally picked up but it was sent to me (randomly) by the publisher and ended up sounding good so I picked it up. The book has several different parts to the story that all intermingle. Sebastian was a well known pianist but suddenly quit playing and returned home. Clara is a baron’s daughter who is looking for assistance in getting her son back from her father and requests Sebastian’s help. I’ll post more info in my review later this month but it was really good. 4.25 out of 5 

My next read was In Plain Sight by Marie Harte. This is a story set in the Cougar Falls series and involves Cullen who is a large man but quiet and shy. He’s got a thing for local waitress Sarah but Sarah’s on the outs with a lot of the townspeople because of vicious rumors that have been spread. Cullen saves Sarah when she’s attacked by other shapeshifters and takes her home to help her heal. Cullen wants her for keeps as he’s been in love with her for forever but he knows that he needs to go slow so he doesn’t scare Sarah away. This was a good novella. I loved Cullen and his shyness. He almost did himself in with Sarah when he just couldn’t get himself to talk to her. This one was short but good. 3.5 out of 5 

Last for the week was Gay as Mardi Gras by Lily Velden. Jesse’s grandma is convinced he’s gay even though he just spent 6 years in a relationship with a woman. She sends him on a month-long gay cruise in the hopes that he’ll find a partner. Though he and his roommate spend all their time together it’s not until a couple of weeks in that Jesse starts realizing that the has feelings for Daniel. The story was very sweet and though the sex scenes were more sex-lite (compared to some) they were still very hot. Short but good. 🙂 4 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
crickets

Happy Reading!


Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Guest Review: Falke’s Captive by Anna Leigh Keaton & Madison Layle

Posted October 22, 2011 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 0 Comments

Judith’s review of Falke’s Captive (Puma Nights #2)by Anna Leigh Keaton & Madison Layle.

But her research is a threat to the Falke family secret. When Kelan, in cougar form, is captured, that secret comes closer than ever to being revealed. He escapes, but not before Beth draws a blood sample, and analysis shows this is no ordinary mountain lion.

Kelan and Reidar cannot deny the powerful attraction they feel toward Beth. She might just be their destined mate. But if they reveal themselves to her, will she embrace who they are or see them as just another science experiment?

A graduate student working in animal genetics, Beth Coldwell is in town to track and tag big cats in the wild. Her prospects for the summer only improve when she meets Kelan and Reidar Falke and decides the sexy brothers are the right pair to fulfill her other, less than scientific, desires…

The mountain community in the Pacific Northwest which is home to the Falke family are well accustomed to seeing one of the brothers in cougar form. The family has been creative and careful in keeping their secret identity as shifters under wraps–until now. Alex & Gunnar Falke are happily mated with Dakota and they are expecting new little Falkes soon. Now Kelan and Reidar (pronounced “rider”), the two younger members of the quadruplets, are moving through their days, enjoying being bachelors, meeting and bedding beautiful women, loudly proclaiming they are nowhere near ready to settle down. They are totally unprepared for their own inner responses to a night of passion spent with a graduate student, one who is a threat to their hiddenness. Of the two brothers, Reidar is already becoming tired of the easy conquests, admitting that he wants to wake up with someone he knows loves him and for whom alone his hearts beats. Kelan seems unwilling to open himself to that possibility and even when he becomes aware that his responses to Beth are far more than just physical attraction, he fights those feelings with anger, distance, and work.

Beth is a woman who is willing to put herself in hock up to her eyeballs in order to achieve her educational goals. But from the outset, she is troubled by her mentor’s willingness–his penchant for taking over her research and discoveries and claiming them as his own. Perhaps that is why there is a sense that she is dragging her feet, a reluctance to submit her evidence to the university. It is this reluctance that will become critical as the story progresses as well as her growing awareness of her deeper feelings for these two sexy men.

This second novel in the series is a bit more tied up in knots and has that sense of impending trouble for the brothers and their family more than in the first book. It is certainly a paranormal romance and there are some kinky stuff, too, but all in all it is about a developing love relationship. But the road to true love is definitely not smooth for these three, littered with the presence of a co-worker who is critical of her personal relationship with the brothers, a mentor who is suspect in his ultimate goals, the possibility that Beth’s academic plan will derail their future life together, and censure of Alex as alpha of their family. There is an underlying uneasiness present in this novel that was not present in the first story, and some readers may not like that. This is no simple boy-meet-girl story. And while there is fun and humor and bickering among the brothers that is reminiscent of all large families, it sometimes seems that a happily-ever-after won’t be in the cards for these three.

I like this writing team and the stories they create. So I enjoyed this story a lot. It has an edgier feel than many of their stories but I felt that the tension between the romance and the scientific endeavors added to the relational tension from the very beginning. Add in the rather unsettled minds of the brothers as to their future family plans, and you have a novel that seems weightier than most paranormal stories. I have to admit that this quality was a plus for me. I think this is a terrific read, a very good sequel to book one (although it is a stand alone book in every sense), and a worth the time and effort to read.

I give it a rating of 4 out of 5

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Carina Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Review: Falke’s Captive by Madison Layle & Anna Leigh Keaton

Posted October 20, 2011 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

A graduate student working in animal genetics, Beth Coldwell is in town to track and tag big cats in the wild. Her prospects for the summer only improve when she meets Kelan and Reidar Falke and decides the sexy brothers are the right pair to fulfill her other, less than scientific, desires…

But her research is a threat to the Falke family secret. When Kelan, in cougar form, is captured, that secret comes closer than ever to being revealed. He escapes, but not before Beth draws a blood sample, and analysis shows this is no ordinary mountain lion.

Kelan and Reidar cannot deny the powerful attraction they feel toward Beth. She might just be their destined mate. But if they reveal themselves to her, will she embrace who they are or see them as just another science experiment?

The very first night that Beth Coldwell is in town she meets Kelan and Reidar Falke. They know she’s in town to work but they truly have no idea why she’s there – to study the genetics of pumas. Little does she know that she just met two puma shifters.

After having an argument with his brother Kelan does something that is forbidden and shifts and shifts and goes on a run in broad daylight. Granted he’s in the woods but he’s pissed off and needs to get grounded again. Beth, out to track puma’s see’s Kelan and promptly shoots him with her tranquilizer gun.

Kelan eventually frees himself but not before Beth and her professor get some of his blood. The Falke family is now in an uproar because they are about to be discovered and they must get the blood back before someone figures out what they truly are. On top of this Kelan and Reidar start sleeping with Beth because as fate would have it she is their mate.

This is book 2 in the Puma Nights series and it was a good one. I really love the mate trios in this series as there are 2 brothers to every woman.

In this story Beth is really just having a great time – as are Reidar and Kelan but it soon turns to something more. Reidar and Kelan are both in a big pickle, to say the least, as their family hates Beth for her role in the kidnapping and tranquilizing Kelan (even though she didn’t have a clue it was him).

Though I loved the sex in this book I would have liked to have seen a bit more romance. Yes, there was the fated mate aspect and there was hot and steamy sex, of course, but the romance itself was a bit lacking. I think because they fell for each other so quickly it put a damper on things for me but it made up for it in other way, as I’ve said.

Overall a fun book that definitely kept my attention.


Rating: 4 out of 5


Tagged: , , , ,