Most Helpful Customer Reviews
68 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dead Bang Perfect!, August 8, 2005
This review is from: Elizabeth's Wolf (Wolf Breeds, Book 4) (Paperback)
I was recommended Lora Leigh by writer Kate Angell. She knows how I like powerful stories that grab the reader and won't let them go. I have three of the "Breed books" and am naturally reading them out of order, typical for me. Still, that is often a good lit test to see if the book is really stand alone. Though this is fourth in the Breed Series, this one truly stands alone well. The Feline books that I have read are super, but Lora Leigh is at TOP FORM with Elizbeth's Wolf. At points in the feline books, while I am really enjoying them, the romance is eschewed in favor of breed matings. While it's powerful writing, it loses the true romance in favor of animal traits. However, with Elizabeth's Wolf, the power of the romance is dead on target. This is Lora Leigh at sheer perfection. She is so concentrated, so in tune with her characters, on the power of a predator finding and protecting his mate.
In this case the "scent" comes through letters from a little girl to a soldier, Dash Sinclair, who has been injured. No one sends letters to Dash. He is truly a lone wolf, a man genetically engineered with wolf in is coding. Unlike the feline breeds, whose traits are more obvious, his wolf breed traits are recessive. As a man born in a test tube, he is so utterly alone. When he is injured, his sight nearly taken from him, his commander sees Dash needs a lifeline, and offers it when letters from Cassie comes in. She has picked his name off a list of soldiers who didn't get mail and began writing Dash. As his commanders reads the letters, Dash begins to think of Cassie and her mother Elizabeth as his.
It's clear to Dash almost immediately, there's problems in Cassie's life with her mother. Her mother is sad and scared. Quickly, Dash needs the letters, needs the woman and child. He arranges presents for Cassie of the year of receiving letters. As he is checking out of the hospital, he learns Cassie and her mother Elizabeth have been killed in an explosion that destroyed the apartment where they were living. So the wolf goes on the hunt to kill the people responsible. He soon gets a letter from Cassie. They escaped, she has another name and her mother and she are on the run for their lives once again. So the hunt switches for Dash, a race to find the child and mother and claim them before the men hunting them catch up kill Elizabeth and take the child. We guess the reason early on (especially so if you have read the other books), but it's not the plot that pulls you. It's the power of Dash's need to protect the woman he now claims and her child.
Lora Leigh is SO POWERFUL with this story. It alone marks her as a talent to watch. This story is just so emotional, so vivid that you won't be able to put it down. Few writers reach this level of craft. So if you haven't read Lora Leigh, this is the one to start with.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lora Leigh Knows How to Write HOT!, October 24, 2005
This review is from: Elizabeth's Wolf (Wolf Breeds, Book 4) (Paperback)
Put some plot in there along with all the hot stuff and you've got a really great book to curl up on the couch with. That's what you'll get when you pick up "Elizabeth's Wolf", book three in her Breed series. Since we're reading erotica here, know that the love scenes are up front and personal to say the least. If explicit details turn you off, don't open this one. If the thought of that makes you smile, by all means, pick it up and read on because Lora Leigh NEVER disappoints in that area.
Dash Sinclair (What a name - kind of debonaire, not what I'd have picked for the lead man) is a hardened soldier that has been wounded in combat. While in a coma, his superior reads letters penned to him by a little girl named Cassie. She tells Dash about herself, her pretty momma, Elizabeth and all the hardships in their lives. Through the haze of the coma, Dash can hear the anguish in Cassie's letters and soon begins to dream about her and Elizabeth, who is actually fighting to keep her and her daughter alive. When Dash comes out of his coma, he wastes no time in finding Cassie and Elizabeth and taking them under his protective wing. What Cassie and Elizabeth don't realize (and no one else he's come to know) is that Dash is one of the Breeds that have now been exposed to the world. He is a wolf Breed and very few of them have come forward with their secrets, choosing instead to trust no one.
Elizabeth and Cassie are on the run, fighting to stay one step ahead of some evil perps that want Cassie. Just when they can take it no longer, when the tough just can't go any further, in walks larger-than-life Dash. Somehow Cassie knows this is the man that's come to save them, while Elizabeth has trouble trusting him at first. All too soon, though, it becomes obvious to her and Dash that they have an attraction to one another that will not be denied. They team up after placing Cassie in a safe house and go after the bad guys together, along with many friends that Dash never expected to have.
Dash is undeniably sexy to say the least. Whew! Any woman would be lucky to have him panting after her. However, his alpha male attitude was a little overdone in some areas. I applauded Elizabeth for standing up to him, but her spunky attitude still wasn't enough to put Dash in place like it should have. I wanted their relationship to be more equal. After all, Elizabeth was on the run for a long time, keeping not only herself, but her small daughter alive as well. She made huge sacrifices, often foregoing any food so her daughter could eat. That is not the stuff of a heroine with no backbone, which is the way it seemed sometimes when they got together.
The only other obvious area this book is lacking in is the environment, the scenery in it. You are depending solely on interactions between characters to get a feel for this book. There is no interaction between the characters and the environment they are in, no rich descriptions of the areas surrounding them. If the characters hadn't been so vivid, this could have put the book in jeopardy.
All in all, another satisfying read from Lora Leigh's Breed series. So far, they seem to work out of order as well. I almost never read a series in order, and not having read the second book yet, I had no problem following Dash and Elizabeth's story. We do get a revisit from some of the characters in the first two books ( "Tempting the Beast" and "The Man Within" ), but they contributed well to the story instead of taking away from it. Lora Leigh has penned a series where animal instincts and traits mesh extremely well with the humans that posess them. If you've never read her Breed series, do so. You won't be disappointed.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An absolute must read for anyone who enjoys romance..., October 9, 2006
This review is from: Elizabeth's Wolf (Wolf Breeds, Book 4) (Paperback)
I have read some of the other Feline Breed stories by Lora Leigh, which got me interested in all of her work where I can find it, and while all of the Breed stories are hot and gritty with an intensity and dedication between the mated pairs that I really like, this one was different.
Dash is wounded and not expected to live, but he receives a letter from a little girl who writes to him after she, Cassie, and her mother, Elizabeth, pick his name off a list of wounded soldiers who would like to get mail. Cassie tells him about her life with her mother, that they have had to run away from her father and have been chased by bad men.
While Dash heals from his substantial injuries, he comes to consider Cassie and Elizabeth as his. Something inside him demands that he heal and find them, protect them, get them to safety and remove any and all threats from their lives so that Cassie can grow up in safety and he can have Elizabeth all to himself.
Once Dash is released from the hospital he goes in search of Elizabeth and her daughter, Cassie, using every avenue at his disposal, which is pretty substantial given his Breed connections and those of his regular unit in the armed forces.
As Elizabeth and Cassie are eating dinner in a small diner ( Cassie is eating because Elizabeth doesn't have enough money to pay for two meals) in a small, podunk town, Cassie chatters on and on to her mother about Dash and how she knew he was going to find them and help them... And moments later, Dash walks into the diner, and Elizabeth is no longer alone in her fight to protect her daughter.
While it is very understandable given the events surrounding her mad run with her daughter, Elizabeth is reluctant to truly trust Dash and his motives when he shows up to help. Knowing she has no one to turn to or to help her, she relents grudgingly and Dash puts his life on the line over and over as he tries to get Elizabeth and Cassie to safety in the Breed compound.
You don't have to read all of the previous books to get a handle on the Breed storyline, the way this story is written is completely different than the other romances between the mated pairs.
There are complex stories behind the main romantic content and Dash is one of those hot heroes that you wish would walk into your diner one night, and Elizabeth's character rings true with anyone who has maternal instincts.
I have enjoyed all of Lora Leigh's Breed stories, but this one isn't nearly as raw and gritty as they are, the sex scenes in this tome are toned down by comparison and fewer, but the overall story is an incredibly satisfying read.
Once I opened the first pages I was hooked and didn't put it down until I had reached the back cover. This is a wonderful book to tuck into your suitcase if you're headed off for a relaxing vacation or if you're taking a sick day to just relax.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
