Title: Hour of the Lion
Author: Cherise Sinclair
Source:
Publisher Request
Genre: Erotic Paranormal Romance
Format: eBook, 223 pgs
Release Date: June 15, 2011
Author Website
As a dedicated covert ops agent, Victoria Morgan follows two rules: accomplish the mission and protect the innocent. When bitten by a werecat -- yeah, that was a sucky day -- she must investigate beings that shouldn't exist and are hard as hell to identify. Just how can she tell if a person is human -- or an animal-shifter who enjoys Bambi-sized snacks?
During her investigation, she finds a real home and friends for the first time. Sweet, right? But there's a flip-side: the bad guys are waiting for her to turn into something four-legged with a tail, the shifters suspect her of spying, and she has fallen in love with a pair of Thumper-eating werecougar brothers.
Her duty is to expose their existence. Or she could follow her heart and protect them with all of her deadly skills.
Rating -
Sexual -
My Review:
Sinclair blends shifters (werecats, werebears, werewolves, oh my), OtherFolk (dwarfs, sprites,
"bush-thingies, tree-thingies ... fire-thingies", gnomes, pixies), a drug lord, a rogue ex-marine and a romance between a woman and two brothers to create a unique supernatural world in this paranormal romance. This might sound like a fantasy with all of the
OtherFolk, but it isn't ... well maybe a fantasy for me. {grin}
Tony Vidal, Seattle's vicious drug lord, has Parkinson's and is looking for an unconventional cure.
Vic, a foul mouthed marine-trained CIA covert ops agent on medical leave, wakes up in the middle of a solo rescue operation gone bad. She and the victim are tied up on the floor and there is a young naked teenage boy, Lachlan, in a cage in the corner. Kidnapper tortures kid with cattle prod until he shifts into a cougar - Vic is stunned, can't believe her eyes. She doesn't believe in
"woo-woo stuff". She's forced into the cage with the cat and it is made to bite and maul her. Lachlan tells her to go to his grandpa. She rents a house in Cold Creek
"and of all the men in town, she had to get horny over a cop and her new boss." Vic thinks,
"That was against the unwritten code — lusting after brothers, and so not like her."
I love the humor and great lines in this story such as:
"Act any dumber and I might as well be a guy."
"Werecat bites — not for the faint of heart."
"Knocking munchkins ass-over-teakettle just wasn't done."
"But hell, they were just men — another term for clueless..."
When Cold Creek Sheriff, Alec, meets Vic going through a window of the house she's just rented,
"everything inside him came to a halt". His brother, Calum, owner of Wild Hunt, the local pub, is just as blown away by her.
One night she walks into what she thinks is a private party at the bar she's working at and it is on! She and Alec are so into each other, he drapes her over his shoulder and takes her to a room upstairs. Alec is surprised at his reaction to having sex with Vic,
"...this joining felt different. ... under his hands [she] felt just right, his release more satisfying ... fulfilling... how could that be?" Vic is terrified, Alec
"satisfied her as no man had before, he'd touched a part of her she kept well-hidden."
The chemistry between Vic and the brothers, Alec and Calum, is explosive. There is a scene on the floor on cushions in front of the fireplace which is hot. And another steamy scene in a hot-springs fed pond in a cave with Calum - yummy ... a hot scene on the bar in the pub ... over the back of the couch in front of the fireplace, oh my ... a smokin' hot threesome - Vic and the brothers with some anal penetration.
The story line is great, the characters are vivid and the world is unusual in terms of the shifters. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and hope there will be more books set in this world with these characters.
Warning Spoiler Alert!!!
This has a HEA ending.
