My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Title: Bengal’s Quest
Author: Lora Leigh
Series: Breeds, #30
Pages: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Date: June 23, 2015
Summary:
New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh tells a story of two Breeds who are united by animal desires, only to find it’s vengeance that stirs the mating heat…
He was a shadow, ever shifting and insinuating, able to blend in everywhere and anywhere. The elusive ideal conceived and created by the Genetics Council, he went by just as many names as he had identities—the last one being Gideon.
Now calling himself Graeme, he hides in plain sight, terrifyingly close to his goal. A rogue Bengal Breed, he has loyalties to no one but himself. And he has a need for vengeance that surges hot and swift through his veins.
Graeme plans to exact an extreme and ruthless vendetta against those who wronged him—Breed and human alike. All will suffer his wrath: those who created him, those who pretended to love him, and those who betrayed him.
That includes the one at the center of it all: a seductive, enigmatic woman helpless against the man whose desire is just as desperate as his need to destroy.
And he’s on her scent…
Review:
Okay, the good and the bad.
THE GOOD
I love the Breed books. I have loved them since the first, Tempting the Beast, was published a decade ago. There is something about a human/animal mix that is fascinating, yet they are not shifters. The sex in these books is amazing and the differences the animal genetics bring to it heats it up even further.
I love the Breeds and their mates whether Breed or human. I even love the ones that irritate me to no end. Yes, Jonah, I’m talking about you.
My heart breaks for the suffering the Breeds have and are still enduring, but it also soars for the strength they exhibit even after all that suffering.
The storylines are wonderful and characters from previous books are integral to later books.
Bengal’s Quest is not exception.
I have been waiting for G’s book whether he is Graham or Gideon. He has suffered so much and deserves a happy ending. With Cat, he finally gets that ending.
But man does he have to work for it.
G has done so much to protect Cat, he almost loses her. She doesn’t trust him and she can’t believe he really cares for her. Her tiger has been suppressed for so long that she doesn’t trust her instincts either.
G only seems to know how to keep secrets. He does it to protect Cat, but she only knows that he doesn’t trust her with his secrets. How is she supposed to trust him?
Of course, it works out in the end. This is a romance after all, but the heartbreak along the way is painful.
THE BAD
There is nothing bad about the story itself. It’s just this is book thirty (that’s right, 30!) in the series which makes it confusing to keep straight. I have read all of the books in this series and I still have problems remembering the things that happened in the past. Unfortunately, these things are critical to the storyline of Bengal’s Quest. The author tries to give enough backstory to help the reader, but there is just so much going on.
This is definitely NOT a book that can be read as a standalone.
The other “bad” thing about this book is something that I have found in many of Lora Leigh’s recent books. The lack of editing is painful. I realize I have an advance reader’s copy, so it is not the final version, but this one should never have made it to the publisher’s desk. Because it is an ARC, I would not normally mention it in a review, but I have other published books by LL which have the same problems with editing. In all honesty, I no longer buy anything but her Breed books due to that.
I hate that this problem with the mechanics of writing takes so much away from my enjoyment of her books. The stories, this one included, are wonderful. The writing is wonderful. All it would take is a proofreader to make the books themselves wonderful.
Will I recommend this book to other readers? Of course, but only with the caveats regarding the backstory and editing issues.
This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Elaine Reads . . . constantly! 