Tag: Breeds

Review: Cross Breed by Lora Leigh

Posted September 24, 2018 by Casee in Reviews | 3 Comments

Review: Cross Breed by Lora LeighReviewer: Casee
Cross Breed (Breeds, #23) by Lora Leigh
Series: Breeds #23
Also in this series: Megan's Mark (Breeds, #6), Dawn's Awakening (Breeds, #11), The Magical Christmas Cat , Mercury's War (Breeds, #12), Coyote's Mate (Breeds, #13), Bengal's Heart (Breeds, #14), Lion's Heat (Breeds, #15), Lion's Heat (Breeds, #15), Navarro's Promise (Breeds, #17), Stygian's Honor

Publication Date: September 25, 2018
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 384
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

#1 New York Times bestselling author of the Breeds series delivers the novel fans have been waiting for–mixed Coyote/Wolf Breed Cassie Sinclair finally gets her story!

It’s been over a decade since she was introduced as an unforgettable eight-year-old in Elizabeth’s Wolf. Now all grown up, Cassie is unique among the Breeds as a Coyote/Wolf mix. She has long known that her mate was somewhere out there, but he’s stayed frustratingly out of sight and beyond her senses. Cassie has decided to make her move and her mate is ready to make his. The Breed world will be rocked to its foundation as dangerous secrets are revealed.

I was on the fence about this book until about 40% through it. There were things happening that I was not into. I often make fun wonder why Holly takes notes while she’s reading a book, but I was all about it while I was reading this book. All about it. I was furiously highlighting and writing notes, something I have never, ever done. Therefore I was pretty surprised that when I finished reading the book that I actually ended up liking it.

Cassie Sinclair was first introduced in Elizabeth’s Wolf. She was a precocious 8? 10? year old girl. A psychic that was often visited by ghosts. It was a ghost that helped save her and her mother’s lives all those years ago. That was what eventually brought Dash Sinclair to them as well.

The book begins when Cassie is eighteen. She can feel herself in the cross hairs of a rifle and knows she is going to die. She’s had the vision, she knows there is nothing that will change it. That is where Cassie is wrong. What she doesn’t realize at the time is that the man behind the gun discovers that Cassie is his mate. He obviously can’t kill her then. Which was reassuring.

Now we are flashed forward six years. The only Breed Cassie can ask for help from when her sister is kidnapped is the mysterious stranger that was supposed to kill her and didn’t. Over the past six years, he has helped her more times than she can count. She doesn’t know why she is drawn to him, but drawn to him she is. This time there is a catch to receiving his help. One night in his arms. As a virgin, Cassie is hesitant, but at a woman she is far more curious than she should be. Promising him one night, she gives in. Then the unthinkable happens. While in his arms, she discovers that she is his mate. This horrifies Cassie, especially when she realizes that he has known the past six years.

Dog has stayed away from Cassie for his own reasons. Known as a Council dog that does their bidding, Dog isn’t liked among Breeds. What few people know is that he is, in fact, undercover trying to find the twelve people that head the Genetics Council. Dog has an agenda and a mate wasn’t on it. Still, he can’t stay away from her although he gives her six years before he claims her. Six years of freedom for her and six years for him to do his work with the Council.

Dog knows that Cassie is different. As a “halfling”, Cassie is half Wolf, half Coyote. This is something the wolves won’t forgive and the coyotes won’t forget. She’s stuck between two worlds, so she does the only thing she knows how to do. She makes herself invaluable to the Breed Council and Jonas, the leader of the Breeds. She doesn’t realize until it’s too late how fast everything can change. Suddenly she’s cast out, as everyone knows she is the mate of a Council Breed. She herself isn’t sure who Dog is. There’s the man she came to know over the last six years, who came each time she called. Then there is the Breed in front of her. The Breed that is far more intense and passionate than she had ever guessed.

So what was my problem with this book? This stupid as shit law the Breeds have where another person can challenge the mating of a couple. Not only that, but the Breed Tribunal can force mates from each other based on someone coming in from the outside and saying “you might be my mate, not that persons”. It was g.d. ridiculous.

While talking to Dog regarding the Tribunal listening to her argue against the separation:

“But they can force me away from you until that time.”

My note here stated “WTAF”.

Then there were contradictions like this. After Cassie and Dog already talked about how they could be separated (see above).

But it was firmly established the fact that mates couldn’t be separated by order or decree.

Huh???

“Brannigan just received confirmation of the receipt of the peition and was given the go-ahead to have your mate taken to the doctors until the Breed Ruling Cabinet could convene.”

Note: “For fuck sake” Honestly, how can anybody force anyone to do something they don’t want to do?

I really didn’t have high hopes for this book after that, but everything changed. Omgosh, you guys. There’s a scene toward the end where Dog leaves Cassie. When Cassie realizes it, she is broken. It was actually really powerful. Then everything changed and it was awesome. So although I had a few problems with the book (see above), I still really enjoyed it and think that LL did right by Cassie.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Breeds

four-stars


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Sunday Spotlight: Cross Breed by Lora Leigh

Posted September 23, 2018 by Casee in Features, Giveaways | 7 Comments

Sunday Spotlight is a feature we began in 2016. This year we’re spotlighting our favorite books, old and new. We’ll be raving about the books we love and being total fangirls. You’ve been warned. 🙂

Sunday Spotlight

I have been reading this series almost since the beginning. I think I read Tempting the Beast when there were only four books out all together. Long before she came to Berkley. Even back then there was just something about the Breeds. No matter what the circumstances, they never broke. It didn’t matter how much they were tortured they never faltered in their beliefs. They made a stand in the world and that was that.

In Cross Breed we finally get the story of Cassie Sinclair. She has really met her match in her mate. I think the lovers of the series will enjoy this book and like the arc that it will be taking. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did. My review will be up tomorrow!

Sunday Spotlight: Cross Breed by Lora LeighCross Breed by Lora Leigh
Series: Breeds #23
Also in this series: Megan's Mark (Breeds, #6), Dawn's Awakening (Breeds, #11), The Magical Christmas Cat , Mercury's War (Breeds, #12), Coyote's Mate (Breeds, #13), Bengal's Heart (Breeds, #14), Lion's Heat (Breeds, #15), Lion's Heat (Breeds, #15), Navarro's Promise (Breeds, #17), Cross Breed (Breeds, #23), Stygian's Honor
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: September 25, 2018
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 384
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Series Rating: four-stars

Fans of #1 New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh’s scorching Breed series first met Cassie as a little girl in Elizabeth’s Wolf. Now Cassie has finally come into her own as a young woman, and she’s about to discover the one she is destined for—but it is unclear whether her fate is to be mated for life, or marked for death…

The Breeds are humans altered before conception with the DNA of the predators of Earth. But although they all carry the genetic material of beasts within them, Cassandra Sinclair stands apart. A unique mix of wolf, coyote and human, she is revered by many—but preyed upon by others. She is fiercely protected by her community…but no one manages to stop her when she slips away one day to offer her body in exchange for her sister’s safety.

The man she succumbs to surprises her by unleashing her inner animal in ways she never dreamed possible—and provokes her deep, furious rage. To Cassie’s shock, he is the mate she has long awaited. She may never be able to forgive his deception. Still, as dangerous enemies track her, and as the threat of all-out war between Breeds and the humans who despise them hovers in the air, they must join forces and hold fast to each other.

But the passionate union between them holds a potential that could change the world—and some will do anything to stop it…

Order the Book:

AMAZON || BARNES AND NOBLE || KOBO

Excerpt

CROSS BREED by Lora Leigh

He wasn’t one to hesitate when he knew something had to be done. The moment he’d intercepted the transmission that the Council had a sibling to Cassandra Sinclair, he’d known he’d have to go after her. It was simply a stroke of luck that put him in the right place at the right time.

But having Cassie’s message come when it had had been surprising, and just as in the past, he’d added it to their little game. Then on a last-minute whim he had raised the stakes. Just to see if she would go along.

The fact that she had agreed to meet, to give him her body for a single night, had presented a challenge he couldn’t resist. It was almost a dare, and he’d warned her once not to dare him.

His mate.

He’d known for years she was his mate, just as he’d known she’d fight him. The knowledge of that fight had held him back. He’d concentrated on other matters, on Breed freedom and his deceptions against the Genetics Council. Until last night.

He’d lost his mind, and now there was no saving it.

Son of a bitch.

Pushing his fingers through his hair, he lifted the bottle of whisky to his lips and drank deeply. Not that he could get drunk with the damned rotgut shit he’d bought at the hotel. The burn wasn’t even enough to take his mind from the hell he’d created for himself.

He’d thought for certain if he obeyed her insane little conditions he could still have her without the consequences that came with mating one’s mate. By not sharing the hormone that had filled the glands beneath his tongue, surely she’d escape relatively unscathed and he could still touch her, take her.

Oh, how very wrong he’d been.

He’d avoided this for six years. Since those stolen moments in Seth Lawrence’s atrium when he’d realized what she was to him, he’d tried to avoid this.

Or had he? He hadn’t exactly been thinking clearly for weeks now, ever since he caught the faintest scent of another Breed clinging to her. So faint at first, he hadn’t been certain it was there. He’d had to get closer, brush against her, and his head had nearly exploded with rage.

“Jonas is getting testy.” Mongrel stepped into the room, careful to stay way back as he made the announcement. “Loki said the director’s at that do-or-die stage.”

Dog merely grunted. Jonas stayed at a do-or-die stage. It was part of his genetics.

“He says the Wolf Styx is in the director’s office with her. No one knows what the hell is going on, though,” Mongrel added.

Dog’s lip lifted in a silent snarl as he fought back his fury.

Styx Mackenzie. That fucking Wolf Breed had nearly met a bullet more than once because of his closeness to Cassie. Had he not mated when he did, then he’d probably be dead.

He lifted the bottle and drank deeply once again.

He was going to have to get better booze if he wanted to get drunk. Hell, he could use a good drunk right now.

“Report is Vanderale’s heli-jet left Johannesburg less than an hour ago. Dane’s flying in. Things are getting ready to go to hell, Dog.” There was an edge of worry in his friend’s voice.

Things had already gone to hell.

Dane Vanderale, a hybrid breed, son to the first Leo, and a manipulating son of a bitch unlike any Dog had ever known, was sure to stick his damned nose into the situation.

Pushing his fingers restlessly through his hair, Dog placed the bottle carefully on the table and turned to face the other Breed.

“Initiate immediate evac,” he ordered him decisively, knowing what had to be done. “Get our people out, have them rendezvous at the house. I’ll need everyone in place.”

Years of planning, manipulating and careful calculations were coming to an end. The end he’d been working toward was in sight, and it was now endangered by a mating he’d hoped to delay.

“It’s already been done. I sent out the call myself. Everyone’s moving,” Mongrel assured him. “The mating scent’s damned strong. Won’t matter where you go, you won’t be able to hide it.”

Sometimes it could be covered, even hidden for short lengths of time, with the right hormonal treatments. But for some, there was no way to hide it. He’d waited too long—the hormone had only strengthened in his system over the years—and now it was raging through him.

Shit. Dane had warned him. Now he was going to have to listen to the bastard’s I-told-you-so’s. That was never pleasant. Hell. He should have just kept her.
Now he was going to have to find a way to slip into Jonas’s office, then slip into his mate’s bed. Because even if the Heat wasn’t burning her alive yet, by God, it damned sure was burning through him like wildfire.

Breeds

Giveaway Alert

We’re giving one lucky winner their choice of one of our Sunday Spotlight books. Use the widget below to enter for one of this month’s features.

Sunday Spotlight: September 2018

Are you as excited for this release as we are? Let us know how excited you are and what other books you’re looking forward to this year!

About the Author

Lora Leigh

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | GOODREADS

Lora Leigh dreams in bright, vivid images of the characters’ intent on taking over her writing life, and fights a constant battle to put them on the hard drive of her computer before they can disappear as fast as they appeared.

Lora’s family and her writing life coexist, if not in harmony, in relative peace with each other. Surrounded by a menagerie of pets, friends, and a son who keeps her quick wit engaged, Lora finds her life filled with joys, aided by her fans whose hearts remind her daily why she writes.


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