Tanner's Scheme by Lora Leigh

Book description:

A sexy paranormal series set in a world where genetically altered Breeds and the humans who created them sometimes come together in the fiercest of passions.After the Feline Breeds’ main base is attacked, Tanner desires revenge. So he kidnaps Scheme Tallant-the daughter of a one-time high-ranking member of the Genetics Council. But when Tanner discovers that Scheme herself is a target of her father’s ruthless mission, his vengeance takes a back seat to saving the life of the woman he hopes to claim as his mate.

I luuuuuurve this cover. I think it's the best cover of the summer. Usually I don't like covers that have actual people on them, but this one really rocks my socks.

For the readers who have read this series from the beginning (Ellora's Cave), this is the long awaited story of Tanner Reynolds. First introduced in Tempting the Beast, Tanner and his brother Cabal were known for their penchant for sharing women. I was wondering how LL would spin Tanner's book b/c she's written Breedmates as unable to stand the touch of someone that is not their mate.

Scheme Tallant (I didn't even get the title until halfway through the book. *rolleyes*) is the daughter of the Breeds' most hated enemy. General Cyrus Tallant of the Genetic's Council has made it his mission in life to show the Breeds as they really are. Souless and empty. Not fit to be in society. Unfortunately for him, the world's view of the Breeds does not coincide with his own. So he takes them out one by one. He trusts no one, not even his own daughter. When he finds out that his daughter is working for the enemy, he can do nothing other than order her death. He sends his most trusted assassin to kill her quickly. Oh, his most trusted assassin is also Scheme's ex-lover and was the father of the baby her father had aborted against her will. Great father, isn't he?

While Scheme is waiting to get picked up by Jonas Wyatt, her contact, she's kidnapped by Tanner Reynolds. Tanner has been watching Scheme for years. Years and years. Like ten years. Tanner is sickened by his attraction to Scheme, whom he believes has ordered the deaths of innocent Breeds. After he kills the man sent to kill her, Tanner takes her and runs, realizing that she's not who he always thought she was.

Tanner takes Scheme to his underground lair where no one can ever find her. At first he took her because he wanted to punish her, but now he just wants to keep her. As the days go by and Scheme fights to get free, Tanner hopes that she is his mate. Unfortunately, there are no signs of the mating heat. Signs like enlarged taste buds on his tongue and a special barb that is in his penis and makes an appearance when mates do the nasty. Is it just me or does that sound weird to anyone? Anyway, because Tanner and his twin brother, Cabal, are genetically identical, Tanner starts thinking that Scheme is Cabal's mate. He can't do anything other that bring them together even though it's the last thing that he wants to do.

So while Tanner realizes that Scheme is not who he thought she was, he isn't 100% sure that she's the spy that Jonas had in the Genetics Council. Likewise, Scheme isn't sure that Tanner isn't the spy that her father has in Sanctuary, the Breed stronghold. One thing that I really liked about this book is that the Breed spy was finally outed. This spy has been in Sanctuary for over TEN YEARS. That's a long damn time.

So overall I really liked this book. I liked how LL didn't have Tanner and Scheme mate right away. It was really powerful how they eventually came together, which made the book that much better.

4 out of 5 stars.

Hidden Agendas by Lora Leigh

From the back cover:

SAVING LIVES IS HIS MISSION.

Tough-as-nails Navy SEAL Kell Kreiger is the best there is at searching, rescuing, and taking no prisoners…yet even the rush of ever-more dangerous missions isn’t enough to satisfy him. Haunted by a tortured past, Kell seeks distraction in a secret world of dark intimacies. But when Emily Stanton, the one ray of light in Kell’s shadowy existence, is pursued by a ruthless drug lord, the rules of the game suddenly change—and Kell will have to go deeper undercover than he ever imagined...

SAVING HER IS HIS PASSION.

Emily has loved Kell ever since her father, a prominent politician, rescued him from a brutal life on the streets. They were kids then, too young to act on what was growing between them…but now that Emily is ready, the handsome, headstrong SEAL has decided he’s no good for her. Ever since he rescued her from Diego Fuentes’ compound, Kell’s only duty has been to keep Emily safe. But Fuentes isn’t finished with Emily—or Kell. And to protect Emily, Kell has no choice but to lay himself—body, soul, and secrets—bare…and fight against evil with all his heart.

Okay, so as I was reading Hidden Agendas, I kept checking to make sure that the author really was Lora Leigh. There were no menages. Not even a reference to one. No BDSM. Only traditional sex. Not that this is a bad thing, but I've gotten so used to this from her that I was a little surprised.

Kell Kreiger is a hard ass mother-f-er. After getting his then-girlfriend pregnant at 17, Kell married her against his family's wishes. As sole heir to a prominant New Orleans family fortune, Kell did not meet expectations by marrying the girl he knocked up. Dude, but that was annoying. When he was cast out, Kell did what he could to support his new family. To save money for the impending arrival of his son, Kell started doing informant work for the NOPD. When he ended up having to testify against a well-known drug lord, he was warned that his wife would die if he testified. So Kell hid her in the swamp at an old family cabin. His mom, who saw him take the keys actually gave the location up. His wife and unborn baby were brutally murdered. So he is tortured. With good reason, too. After that, he left New Orleans and hasn't been back.

Emily Stanton hasn't been the same since she was kidnapped by Diego Fuentes. Nor has her father. A powerful man in his own right, Senator Stanton insists on Emily having bodyguards. He also plays matchmaker, which is a little strange. Sending man after man to his daughter hoping that she'll fall into bed with him seemed a little creepy to me. Emily is onto him, though, and wants nothing to do with it. She ends up running them off eventually. While that is not exactly her plan, she doesn't complain. This part of her character annoyed me. She had no backbone when it came to her father. Which did make sense in a way. The one time she refused a bodyguard, she got kidnapped. Aside from that, it was just little comments here and there that were made that she just took.

When the news reaches them that Fuentes will once again go after Emily, Kell steps in. For apperances, he insists on pretending to be her lover. Why? 'Cuz if Fuentes thinks she has no bodyguard, he'll try to snatch her not knowing that there is virtually a whole SEAL team in place to protect her. The team doesn't know a few things, though. They don't know that they have Fuentes' own son in their midst. We don't find out who he is until virtually the last page, but ho-boy. Shit will hit the fan in the next book.

So Emily and Kell decide to start playing house for real. One thing that is refreshing in Leigh's book is that the hero doesn't fight the attraction. It's not "I'll never fall in love again. I'll just f her and leave her. I'm not good enough for her". With Kell, he fully admits that he doesn't think he's good enough for her and he doesn't fucking care. He very craftily decides that while Emily will think he's pretending to be in relationship with her, he won't be pretending. But she'll still think he is pretending, even though he's serious.

Of course Emily still gets nabbed by the bad guy. Did you really doubt she would? Kell freaks out, of course. Kell finds her, of course. They also find one of their men that has been held captive for over 17 months. That's another story, for another time. That guy is so effed up, I'm not sure if he'll even get his own book.

There are several new characters introduced and several old characters that are re-introduced. Romantic suspense fans should enjoy this one.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

Forbidden Pleasure by Lora Leigh

From the back cover:

The Club is private, exclusive and only for those men whose fantasies run to the more forbidden side. . . People have heard only fleeting rumors about The Club. Located just outside Washington, D.C., only its members know where men go when they want to indulge the desire to share their women with a carefully selected male partner. Former FBI agent John ‘Mac’ McCoy resigned his membership from The Club when he married Keiley Hardin. Tempting and innocent, sweet and sexy, she would never accept Mac’s desires to share her with another man. However, Keiley’s growing curiosity and Mac’s own fantasies of sharing his wife haunt his dreams. And his passions.

Unable to wait any longer, Mac invites his best friend Jethro Riggs, to their home with the intention of drawing Keiley into the pleasures that can only be achieved when two men love the same woman. But there’s more going on in Mac’s neck of the woods than a little additional pleasure. A past case involving astalker who likes to play games has shown up again, but now Keiley is in the middle of it all. Passion and pleasure, danger and desire combine as the forbidden becomes an addiction none of them can escape.


I've been a Lora Leigh reader for years. I started with Marly's Choice. Since then she was always like a trainwreck for me. Some of the plots were eye rolling material. Literally. But I kept reading her. I'm very glad I did because she has gotten SO much better. I think one of my biggest problems was the plot holes. Like how the characters got from Point A to Point B. Stuff like that.

Before I start the review, I have to admit that I have no idea how to pronounce the name Keiley. For half the book I was pronouncing it as Keeley. The other half I was pronouncing it as Kiley. I still have no idea what her name really is.

This is the 5th or 6th book in Leigh's Bound Hearts series. All the books in the series revolve around the hero's need to share the heroine with another man. Forbidden Pleasure can be read as a stand alone. There is a brief mention of a former character, but that's it.

Mac McCoy gave up his sexual lifestyle when he met and married Keiley Hardin. After having a childhood where sex was forbidden and looked at as a sin, Mac rebelled. Shocking, huh? He realizes that he was lucky to find a mentor (character from a previous book) familiar with the lifestyle or he might have turned into a very sexually depraved man. Huh. I know that I'm totally judging, but wanting to share the woman you're in love with sounds kinda depraved to me. Just sayin'. I read erotica (meaning erotic romance) where there are ménages. I have no problem with them. I mean it is labeled as erotica. What I had a hard time with while I was reading this book was the fact that Mac wanted to share Keiley indefinitely. But I digress...

Mac retired from the FBI when he married Keiley. He moved to his hometown and bought the farm where he grew up. So now he's a bonified farmer. A couple problems with this. First of all, if he had such an awful childhood in this place, why the fuck would he go back? Especially to stay. Doesn't make sense to me. This is the place he despised growing up. But now he's back with his wife. Ooookay, then. Second, he already gave up the sexual lifestyle that he was used to living. Would he give up his career AND move back to his childhood home on top of that?

Jethro Riggs was always Mac's "third". It was up to Mac to find the women. Mac was the "gentler" one that wasn't afraid of showing his "emotions". I kid you not, that's how it was described. Jethro had a hard childhood himself, so he counted on Mac to keep the current woman happy emotionally. Through Mac, Jethro was able to express his emotions without really expressing his emotions. *snort* Just a small note here. Leigh VERY specifically made sure the reader knew that Mac and Jethro had absolutely no homosexual feelings for each other. None. Zip. Nada.

Keiley has always known that there is something that Mac is holding back. She figures it has to do with sex, but she's not sure. Now, three years after their marriage, she's decided that she wants to know what it is. Except she doesn't. Then she does. Girl can't decide what she wants. When she was eighteen, her dad went to prison for embezzling, then her mom died so she was guilty by association. Because of that, she's very aware of gossip about her and she really cares what people think. Not to mention that there is a woman who has never forgiven Mac for never sleeping with her before he left town. Keiley is now on her grudge list.

So you have Mac that has held back sexually from Keiley for three years. You have Keiley who can't decide if she can accept Mac's sexual needs. You have Jethro who has waited three years for the call from Mac that Keiley is ready. You have a a woman who will do anything to destroy Keiley. Oh, and you have a stalker from Mac's old FBI days that has suddenly (after three years) set his sights on Keiley.

Somehow Lora Leigh makes it all work. After doing this review, I have no idea how, but she really does.

3.5 out of 5 stars