Her Best Friend's Lover by Shiloh Walker

Book description:

Dale loves women, and they love him. His love life is a revolving door. No one special, no one stays, except Lauren, his best friend. She's a sweet beautiful, talented woman. His rock, the steadying influence in his life. So why is he starting to see her differently, where are these lustful thoughts coming from? Guys don't sleep with their best friends.

Lauren has loved Dale for five years, from the moment she saw him. She loves his smile, his walk, his deep, sexy voice. But he isn't in love with her. She's his pal, his confidant. Until one hot, steamy night.

This is probably the most tame Ellora's Cave cover that I've seen. Still doesn't mean I like it, but it's a definite improvement over some covers.

Lauren Spencer luuuuuurves Dale Stoner. A lot. She hasn't done anything about it, nor does she intend to. See, Dale's what you call a man-whore. Lauren is a virgin (of course). Lauren being the smart virgin she is, knows better to get involved with Dale. That all changes on a dark and stormy night. Okay, not really. Dale sees finding someone for Ice Queen Lauren as his mission in life. After Dale set her up w/ someone that almost rapes her, Lauren decides she's had enough. Enough of being in love with her best friend. Enough of wanting something she'll never have. Enough of seeing Dale w/ other women. She's had ENOUGH! Which is kinda rough since they're next door neighbors.

After a few weeks of giving Dale the cold shoulder and being miserable, Lauren decides that she has to accept Dale for who he is. If that means having a man-whore as a best friend, so be it. She would rather have his friendship than nothing at all. Like a good friend, she whips up a nice batch of his favorite cookies and heads over to grovel apologize. What she doesn't know is that Dale just got some really depressing news and is drunk as a skunk. Trying to help him get in bed probably wasn't her wisest decision. Which is why she soon finds herself up against the wall getting screwed silly. At first she's shocked. Then she gets into it. That changes when Dale calls her another woman's name and passes out. Total cliché , right? Somehow it worked. Walker got just the amount of hurt and anger across the page.

What happened next is really going to shock you, so brace yourself. Lauren finds out a few weeks later that she's pregnant. She's overjoyed. Too bad Dale doesn't remember the hot sex against the wall. And she's too scared to tell him. Especially when Dale starts to show interest that he's never shown before. Pretty soon Lauren is in so deep that she has no idea how she'll tell Dale that the baby he's taken such an interest in is actually his.

I really enjoyed this book. Lots of hot sex didn't take away from the love story. And this is a love story. There was no suspense at all. What you have is a woman that was abandoned her whole life by people she loved. First her dad, then her mom. After that it was various foster homes. By the time Dale came along, her emotions were locked down tight. She doesn't do confrontation well, which Dale sees as lack of emotion rather than her protecting herself. Of course you have the various misunderstandings. Then as you would expect, it really hits the fan when Dale finds out about the baby. Especially since it didn't come from Lauren.

There was kind of a lame part where Dale kept dreaming about his "dream" woman who was Lauren, but he doesn't know it's Lauren. When Lauren realizeses that he's dreaming about another woman, she gets pissed not knowing that it's her he's dreaming about even though he doesn't know it's her. Make sense? Yup. Clear as mud.

I just liked the whole book, even the misunderstandings. Try it.

4 out of 5 stars.

Hunter's Salvation by Shiloh Walker

From the back cover:

HIS MISSION

Vax was once committed to his life as a Hunter, tracking down the evil beings who prey on humans, but he opted out of the game long ago. Until now—because somebody, somewhere, is in danger. And, despite his best efforts, Vax can't ignore his calling?

HER SACRIFICE

Jess Warren is determined to find the maniac who killed her sister. A gifted psychic and telekinetic, she will do anything to exact her vengeance. Even if it means putting herself in peril...
THEIR INSATIABLE DESIRE

Jess would rather not accept Vax's help—especially since letting him have his way could draw her deeper into his irresistibly sensuous realm. But then he saves her life—and they discover that the depraved madman they've been looking for is much closer than either of them could have imagined...

I'm really trying to think. I'm really trying to get motivated. What was I thinking coming back to work on a Friday? Gawd.

Hunter's Salvation is part of a series. I believe the series originally started with Samhain or EC. I started reading it when Berkley released Hunting the Hunter. Walker's website says that Hunting the Hunter stands alone and that Hunter's Salvation can stand alone as well. I don't recommend reading it as a stand alone. Vax was first introduced (to me) in Hunting the Hunter. It was published back in July 2006. I know authors have little control over publishing schedules, but I as rather annoyed it took a year to get the next book out. I barely remembered Vax and didn't have the time nor the desire to skim back through Hunting the Hunter.

Though Vax technically is a Hunter, he stopped all Hunter duties after his wife was brutally attacked and turned by a feral vampire. She was kidnapped from their home when he was out Hunting. Vax had to kill her himself. Those flashbacks were sad. Poor Vax. Oh, I forgot to mention he's a witch, too. See what I mean about being out of it?

So apparently when a call goes out to Hunters that one is needed, if you are in the general vicinity, it's basically a compulsion to answer. Even though Vax doesn't want anything to do w/ being a Hunter, he can't resist the call. Off he heads to Indiana. Btw, poor guy lives in Montana. That's worse than living in Idaho. Though he is somewhat of a loner, so it all works out. Anyway, he arrives in Indianapolis and goes straight to a club where it seems all the trouble is brewing. For the life of me, I can't remember the name of the club. Vax can feel the bad mojo pouring out of the place. It's pretty sickening stuff.

Jess Warren is at the club to bring down the owner. As an investigative reporter, Jess was doing a story on women who would go missing and turn up dead months later. She tied it back to said club, but that was as far as she got. The club's owner decided to send her a message, so he tortured and killed her younger sister. Then, nice guy that he is, he sent the whole thing on video to Jess. So Jess is also rather tortured. Oh the therapy bills these two could wrack up together. Jess knows a little about the paranormal world. A telekenetic, things tend to fly when she gets mad. Her sister was an empath (which makes what happened to her even worse). So she knows that something weird is going on, she just doesn't know exactly what.

Vax and Jess meet up when Vax steps in to save her from a bouncer. He soon realizes that Jess is the person he's supposed to protect and takes measures to do just that. How? By knocking her out and depositing her unconcious body in the car. No, I'm not kidding.

Unfortunately, neither Vax or Jess realize the magnitude of what is going on in the club. See, there's this evil vampire doctor who is stealing brain sereum from witches and injecting it into humans. Why? To make their own witch-y army, of course. Why else? Jess has no idea what she walked in the middle of. Neither does Vax. They soon learn when one of the "creatures" tries to kill Jess at her house. She gets away and sends an S.O.S. to Vax. Vax once again comes to her rescue, though she doesn't like it.

Like I said, I have been looking forward to this book for awhile. I kept putting it down, though. I'm not quite sure why b/c it wasn't a bad book. I just wasn't glued to it like I was when I read Hunting the Hunter. At the end of the book, Vax was turned mortal when the evil vampire doctor injected him with the sereum that was supposed to kill him. Vax almost died, decided he couldn't stay w/ Jess then changed his mind and begged her to take him back. Vax was a good hero, Jess was a good heroine. So maybe it's just me. Maybe.

One thing that did bother me was how this Masters guy who killed Jess' sister was made out to be such an evil villian. Then Vax just killed him and it was almost an afterthought. It was just a bit of a letdown. There was no confrontation. Just Vax remembering how easy it was to cut his head off or however he killed him.

I do plan on picking up Book 1.

3 out of 5 stars.