REVIEW!! The Mercenary (The War Chronicles #1) by Petra Landon

Buy from Amazon US

SYNOPSIS FROM GOODREADS

She's a prisoner of the Imperial Forces. He's a nomad with a mercenary army. Can a desperate girl's risky gamble and a fierce warrior's love turn the tide of war and rewrite the destiny of their corner of the galaxy?

In a distant corner of the galaxy, Quadrant Five burns in the flames of a deadly war. The Budheya people are one of the worst affected.

Saakshi
Imprisoned by the Ketaari Imperial Forces, a young Budheya rebel is sent to a distant space station to work in an alehouse. For a girl who has known only hardship in her short life, things could be worse. Until an old foe walks into the alehouse.

Zoran
Zoran is Hadari'Kor - notoriously fierce mercenaries who only fight for hire. Drawn to a weary-eyed server girl, Zoran is forced to confront age-old traditions and question his role in the war.

The Rebel & The Mercenary
Alone, friendless and far from home, Saakshi makes a desperate gamble to trust an enigmatic stranger whose hot gaze haunts her dreams. The echoes of this unlikely alliance reverberate across the quadrant. As a relentless enemy hunts Saakshi, Zoran must fight with everything in his arsenal to protect her. When passion ignites amidst the embers of a smoldering war, will a warrior's quest for justice bring a mighty Empire to its knees ...

Author's Note : A spirited and resilient girl, a fierce warrior with a mighty heart, a fiery passion that flares amidst the debris of a deadly war and a love that will alter the fate of an entire quadrant forms the tale of The Mercenary, a standalone story that sets the scene for The War Chronicles - a collection of SciFi Romance & Space Opera tales with romance, swashbuckling adventure & a sprinkling of action

REVIEW

The author offered me a review copy and I'd been reading along and enjoying it mightily. Very strong and likeable characters, slimy bad guys, great world building, romance, action, page turning plot – everything I love in a book. And then I ran into one of those traffic jams that occasionally appear on everyone's life highway and couldn't read for weeks! Yes, it was very painful but my point is this book lingered in my mind. I found myself thinking about the characters and what further facets will be revealed, what plot twists they had yet to face, how they might react and rooting for them to succeed.  When life untangled itself I finished it and loved every minute but the story still lingers in my mind. To me, this is the sign of a great book and a great author.

Currently there is only one in the series but it is obviously set up for more – can't wait! I'll definitely be getting the next one. I did pick up the other book she has out, The Prophecy (Saga of the Chosen, #1), which is at the top of my TBR list.

Thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

HOT SEAL Rescue (HOT SEAL Team #3) by Lynn Raye Harris

Amazon Buy Link

Synopsis from Amazon:
Abducted at gunpoint by a gorgeous woman…

Navy SEAL Cody “Cowboy” McCormick is in Las Vegas for a little R & R before his friend’s wedding when a beautiful blonde jams a gun in his side and abducts him from a casino in broad daylight. He could stop her, but he plays along because he’s intrigued—plus he’s convinced she’s in danger.

CIA agent Miranda Lockwood’s life is on the line when an undercover operation goes wrong. Little does she know when she sashays up to the biggest, baddest looking dude in the casino lobby that she’s kidnapping a Navy SEAL—or that she’ll be unable to resist his charm when he turns up the heat.

When the CIA labels her a rogue agent, Miranda’s faith in everything she believes in is shaken to the core. Cody’s the only one she can trust to help her find the traitor in the agency. But even though she’s forced to betray him, she can’t get over the SEAL who made her feel safe in his arms. Miranda will have to fight harder than she’s ever fought for anything if she wants his forgiveness—but Cody’s not in a forgiving mood in spite of the sparks that still fly when he’s forced to team up with her again.

When disaster strikes and they’re caught in the line of fire, Cody will do everything in his power to keep them both alive. Because if he doesn’t, he’ll never get to hold Miranda close again…

Review:

With a Lynn Raye Harris i expect several things:

·       There are going to be a lot of hot, alpha guys with protective instincts [many of whom you’ve met in previous books] in the plot and the hero will be front and center.

·       The heroine will be in jeopardy but NOT a shrinking violet or a whiner, she’ll be up front and doing her best – which is usually pretty damned good.

·       There will be bad guys who deserve what they get.

·       There are going to be a LOT of page turning action scenes, both in and out of the bedroom – scenes that keep you on the edge of your seat and up past your normal bedtime.

·       There will be stubborn refusals to admit the truths of their relationships and emotional, heart-touching moments between the hero and heroine when the light finally dawns.

So how does HOT SEAL Rescue stack up? It nails every one of them.

Our hero is Cody "Cowboy" McCormick and the heroine is CIA agent Miranda Lockwood. Miranda ‘kidnaps’ our hero by sticking a gun in his side and he goes along with it because she looks like she’s in trouble. And she is, of course, and some of the trouble is caused by her decisions throughout the book. Trying to avoid spoilers here but there are blown covers, hot sex, deaths [faked and otherwise], CIA moles, differing agendas, hurt feelings, and a truly satisfying happily ever after.

Thank you Ms. Harris, it’s another winner. I loved it.

Note: Apparently an abbreviated version of this story appeared in the anthology SEALs of Summer 3. This is the full story.

HOT SEAL Team series

1: Hot SEAL

2: Hot SEAL Lover

3: HOT SEAL

And, of course, there’s the original Hostile Operations Team series:

1: Hot Pursuit

2: Hot Mess

3: Hot Package

4: Dangerously Hot

5: Hot Shot

6: Hot Rebel

7: Hot Ice

8: Hot & Bothered

9: Hot Protector

“I received a copy from the Author in return for an honest review…”

The Lion's Prey (Chimera Chronicles #4) by Karin Shah

Buy It Here!

Amazon Synopsis:

On the run . . .

Attempting to flee from a bank robbery he was blackmailed into, Chimera-shifter and former Army Ranger Tyler Gunn is a desperate man. Reeling from what he believes is the death of his twin, he knows he can’t control his lion if he’s arrested and he fears killing innocent people. His only hope is to get somewhere far away, where he can safely surrender to the feral side that has gnawed away at his humanity and is now a whisker away from locking him in his lion, forever.

Reporter Zara Coventry is having a bad day. Her feet hurt, her mom is pressuring her to move back to California, her co-worker has snaked a story out from under her, and worst of all, she hasn’t had a date in so long, the mere picture of one of the escaped twins from the bank gets her all hot and bothered. What the hell is that all about? Then a tall stranger shields her from an explosion and things go completely downhill.

When Zara recognizes Ty, he has no choice. He must take her hostage. Too many lives are at stake. The plan is to release her as soon as it’s safe, but his lion is revealed and despite her fear, Zara smells the story of a lifetime. Their fates are not their own, however. A major snowstorm strands them in a tiny conservative village in the Ozarks and they are forced to pretend to be husband and wife.

Trapped together, Zara has to remind herself pretty much every time she looks at him that the sexy shapeshifter is a criminal. And though Ty knows she’s his mate, he believes he's too unstable to give in to the burning desire he feels when she’s near.

But forbidden longing and the FBI are not the only threats. The cartel has lost an airplane in the storm and they’ll do anything to get their product back. Even kill.

My Review:

Page turning. I use that phrase a lot when talking about Karin Shah’s books. The action is non-stop and really raises your heartbeat in a few spots. But Shah’s characters are real, at least in an emotional sense, not just cardboard cutout deliverers of mayhem. You care about them. All of this is why Karin Shah is on my ‘must buy’ list…

This book is a direct sequel of Lion’s Share, book three in this series. [If you haven’t read it yet, I really recommend reading it first.] In Lion’s Share the brothers split up in the last chapter and are supposed to meet at the heroine’s home. It doesn’t happen. In Lion’s Prey we find out why, and what happened then…

You’ve got to love the Gunn brothers, they sure know how to show a girl a good time. Con, the hero of book three, meets his mate when he takes her hostage during a bank robbery – and she just happens to be an FBI agent no less. Ty, the hero of this book kidnaps the reporter covering the bank robbery/hostage situation – and she turns out to be HIS mate.

The storyline covers their escape including blizzard conditions, an ‘armed and extremely dangerous’ dragnet, drug dealers, magic users, and of course tons of soul searching while the hero and heroine find their way to each other.

I really like the whole chimera concept. I mean they’re capable of shapeshifting into a lion or shapeshifting into a dragon – how could you not love that? Wrap this all in an extremely hot alpha male with protective instincts and oh my! No make that triple ‘oh mys!’…

The Chimera Chronicles series

In Like a Lion

Entity Mine

The Lion's Share

The Lion's Prey

There’s a teaser for the next book, The Dragon’s Flame, at the end and it sounds great as well.

An ARC of this book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

HOT SEAL Rescue (HOT SEAL Team #3) by Lynn Raye Harris

Amazon Buy Link

Synopsis from Amazon:
Abducted at gunpoint by a gorgeous woman…

Navy SEAL Cody “Cowboy” McCormick is in Las Vegas for a little R & R before his friend’s wedding when a beautiful blonde jams a gun in his side and abducts him from a casino in broad daylight. He could stop her, but he plays along because he’s intrigued—plus he’s convinced she’s in danger.

CIA agent Miranda Lockwood’s life is on the line when an undercover operation goes wrong. Little does she know when she sashays up to the biggest, baddest looking dude in the casino lobby that she’s kidnapping a Navy SEAL—or that she’ll be unable to resist his charm when he turns up the heat.

When the CIA labels her a rogue agent, Miranda’s faith in everything she believes in is shaken to the core. Cody’s the only one she can trust to help her find the traitor in the agency. But even though she’s forced to betray him, she can’t get over the SEAL who made her feel safe in his arms. Miranda will have to fight harder than she’s ever fought for anything if she wants his forgiveness—but Cody’s not in a forgiving mood in spite of the sparks that still fly when he’s forced to team up with her again.

When disaster strikes and they’re caught in the line of fire, Cody will do everything in his power to keep them both alive. Because if he doesn’t, he’ll never get to hold Miranda close again…

Review:

With a Lynn Raye Harris i expect several things:

·       There are going to be a lot of hot, alpha guys with protective instincts [many of whom you’ve met in previous books] in the plot and the hero will be front and center.

·       The heroine will be in jeopardy but NOT a shrinking violet or a whiner, she’ll be up front and doing her best – which is usually pretty damned good.

·       There will be bad guys who deserve what they get.

·       There are going to be a LOT of page turning action scenes, both in and out of the bedroom – scenes that keep you on the edge of your seat and up past your normal bedtime.

·       There will be stubborn refusals to admit the truths of their relationships and emotional, heart-touching moments between the hero and heroine when the light finally dawns.

So how does HOT SEAL Rescue stack up? It nails every one of them.

Our hero is Cody "Cowboy" McCormick and the heroine is CIA agent Miranda Lockwood. Miranda ‘kidnaps’ our hero by sticking a gun in his side and he goes along with it because she looks like she’s in trouble. And she is, of course, and some of the trouble is caused by her decisions throughout the book. Trying to avoid spoilers here but there are blown covers, hot sex, deaths [faked and otherwise], CIA moles, differing agendas, hurt feelings, and a truly satisfying happily ever after.

Thank you Ms. Harris, it’s another winner. I loved it.

Note: Apparently an abbreviated version of this story appeared in the anthology SEALs of Summer 3. This is the full story.

HOT SEAL Team series

1: Hot SEAL

2: Hot SEAL Lover

3: HOT SEAL

And, of course, there’s the original Hostile Operations Team series:

1: Hot Pursuit

2: Hot Mess

3: Hot Package

4: Dangerously Hot

5: Hot Shot

6: Hot Rebel

7: Hot Ice

8: Hot & Bothered

9: Hot Protector

“I received a copy from the Author in return for an honest review…”