#NEBT - "Saving Suki" by Sierra Brave

Blurb:

An abusive childhood and an accident in his teens left stallion-shifter, Malcolm Patterson, with a distrust for his father and a lot of holes in his memory. When his dad passes away, Malcolm returns to Horse Mountain to fulfill his obligation to settle his old man’s affairs but finds the shifter community’s near hero-worship of the late doctor disquieting. He’s further shaken to meet a curvy beauty at the funeral who makes his heart gallop and his primal instincts take over.
Suki Marks has been in love with handsome and noble Malcolm Patterson ever since he saved her from bullies who called her an abomination when she was ten. He was the first person to be straight with her about the reasons some people shunned her family and he was quick to debunk those prejudices as the ignorant folktales and stupid superstitions they were. Even after Malcolm graduated high school and left town, she couldn’t forget him, but becoming Doctor Patterson’s live-in nurse in his last year of life was a coincidence. She never expected to be named in the wealthy physician’s will.
Malcolm assumed he’d be disinherited, but even from the after-life, his father continues to turn the knife, using his will to set up an elaborate scheme to taint Malcolm's feelings for the woman who might be his fated mate. To make matters worse, a dangerous shifter-purist movement is brewing among a small segment of the Horse Mountain Clan, and they’re determined to prevent Suki from passing on her genes to a new generation. Will Malcolm be able to work through his past in time to secure his and Suki’s future?

Disclaimer: Saving Suki is a smoking hot romance with graphic, put-you-in-the-moment love scenes. Themes include explicitly sexual situations. If such content might offend you, please do not buy this book.
Saving Suki can be read as a standalone but Horse Mountain Shifters books 1-3, will add to the enjoyment of the experience.

Buy link: Amazon

Excerpt:

“Suki, I’m coming in.” The words to make him halt lingered on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t make a sound as her door flung open and the tall, broad-shouldered man she’d been dreaming of since she was a kid came rushing through the entrance. “Just what the hell are you doing up here?” His eyes were wide and darkened by his expanded pupils while a rosy hue stained his cheeks. He stared at her, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
Her lips parted and she shook her head. Unintelligible noises filled the air between them but none that expressed her indignation at his question. She swallowed back the lump in her throat. “Me? I haven’t done anything but rest on my bed.”
He eyed her, his tongue absently brushing across his bottom lip as he moved closer, circling her like prey. “You sure?” He sucked air in through his nose before heading straight to her hamper and placing his fingers on the lid. Her jaw dropped and she screamed as she rushed forward to stop him, reaching out and smacking the top. As gravity and momentum closed the hamper, Mal snatched his hand back, and to Suki’s utter horror, her arousal-drenched underwear had been hooked by his thumb.
She snatched her undies out of his hand before he had a chance to examine them more closely. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
He lifted his chin and looked down at her, a smirk playing on his lips as he shifted his weight and widened his stance, making his already considerable height and musculature take up more space. “Were you fantasizing?”
The beating of her heart seemed to jump up into her throat as her cheeks burned. She shook her head adamantly. “As if? No way.”
“Bullshit.” Your skin is flushed.” His perfectly straight teeth showed as he grinned. “And those panties—” He lifted his fingers to his nose and sniffed. “Did you touch yourself?”
The fluttering in her stomach and her trembling legs made her indignity harder to sell, but she tried, pointing at her door. “Get out!”
He shrugged, taking a step backward. “You sure? I won’t force you.” He touched his chest before waving his hand toward her and back at himself. “This thing between us—in the air we breathe, muddling our thoughts and taking control of our bodies—it’s primal, thousands of years of survival instinct pushing us to pass on our genes.” He clenched his jaw, creases forming on his forehead. “I can’t fight it, and I won’t try. You want me to leave? Fine, but if I walk out the door, I’ll go straight to my car, leave Horse Mountain, and you will never see me again.”
Suki’s heart dropped and her stomach tensed, her chest heaving as she struggled with how to respond. His intense stare shook her to her core as if his eyes were demanding an answer. She glanced down at the floor. “Don’t go.”

Other Books in the Horse Mountain Shifters Series:

Horse Mountain Heat

Real Cowboys Love Cats

Bridling Lucy

More about Sierra Brave

Sierra Brave is a multi-published author of smoking hot romance. Her love of erotic fiction started in her last year of high school when she read the sensual classic, Fanny Hill. She felt so naughty yet liberated with her copy tucked away in her book bag and hopes her work will have the same delicious effect on her readers.

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#BookReview – “Dark Possession” by Christine Feehan

Blurb

Manolito De La Cruz knew he was dangerously close to turning into a vampire. The last thing he expected after being called back to his Carpathian homeland by Prince Mikhail was to catch the scent of his destined lifemate in MaryAnn Delaney. MaryAnn is human, but she knows all too well the overwhelmingly aggressive instincts of Carpathian males. And they're not exactly the kind of men she'd prefer to be bound to for life.

A dedicated counselor for battered women, MaryAnn has a fulfilling life with no room for someone like Manolito, born and bred in the Carpathian Mountains, a law unto himself. But when MaryAnn agrees to go to South America to offer guidance to a brutalized young woman, she has no idea of the trap that awaits her in the sweltering thick of the jungle. She has been lured there by Manolito himself, who has seductive plans for the unaware, irresistibly human female.

Once there, she will be his. Once his, she never will be released. He is her lover, her predator, her lifemate. She is his dark possession.
 
Review

In the fifteen book of the Dark/Carpathian series, abuse counselor MaryAnn Delaney attended the Carpathian Christmas celebration in the last book and agrees to accompany the De La Cruz brothers to South America in order to help Jasmine, a brutalized young Jaguar woman. MaryAnn is very depressed but doesn’t know why. Sure, she witnessed one of the brothers nearly dying, but she doesn’t know the man. Yet, she feels as though her heart and soul has been torn in two.

Manolito De La Cruz’s spirit left his body, but his brothers and the famed Carpathian healer Gregori saved his life. After Rafael, Riordan, and Nicolas take him back to Brazil and place him in the ground to heal, the unthinkable happens. Manolito awakens too soon and his spirit is still trapped between the living and the dead. Plus, he claims he has a lifemate.

Unfortunately, I found the spirit/shadow world very confusing, and much of the book takes place there. I just don’t understand how it works. I did enjoy, however, the scene when Manolito meets Vlad and Sarantha Dubrinsky again. They’ve been dead for several centuries, but Manolito still respects his former prince and finally has the chance to apologize for a grave transgression.

Manolito is controlling and demanding as all the Carpathian males are, but he’s not as bad as some of his brothers.

I definitely liked MaryAnn when she was first introduced in Dark Destiny. She’s also the first person of color to be featured as a main character in this series. MaryAnn is obsessed with designer clothes and dislikes bugs and nature, and that grew tiresome after a while. Her inner Lycan was struggling to break free, but she doesn’t know about her secret heritage. There wasn’t a lot of information about the Lycans or werewolves, which I found disappointing.

I love Luiz! He’s a Jaguar, but unlike most of the Jaguar males featured in the series, he’s kind and respectful of women. He’s also my favorite character in the book.

Carpathians are the most powerful species in Ms. Feehan’s Dark series, so it’s the heroines who always convert to Carpathian to be with their men. This book finally switches that up! Since Lycans are just as strong, both Manolito and MaryAnn partially convert into each other’s species. I really loved that! Overall, the story is good, but I would’ve liked it more if I better understood the spirit/shadow world.

3 Stars