{Review} Rogue by Cheryl Brooks

ROGUE (Cat Star Chronicles, #3)
Cheryl Brooks
Published: Sourcebooks Casablanca, March 2009

Find It On: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Blurb:
No woman has ever tamed him before...
Enslaved for years, Tychar belongs to the Queen of Darconia. His feline gene gives him remarkable sexual powers and every female on the planet is in love with him. Then, the Queen gives him to Kyra...

Does she even stand a chance?
Or will she be just another one of his conquests? Why would he choose the modest piano teacher? Yet the two are drawn to each other with a powerful, magnetic attraction unlike any he's felt before... Then the palace is attacked in a coup, and Tychar has to choose between freedom and love...

My Thoughts:

The world-building found within the pages of ROGUE is amazing! Cheryl Brooks must have one heck of a character chart in order to keep up with the myriad of species in this sci-fi romance. ROGUE is the 3^rd in Ms. Brooks’ Cat Star Chronicles, and surprisingly, I wasn’t lost having not read the first two books.

Kyra has never traveled outside of Earth. When she gets a job as a piano teacher for the Queen of Darconia’s children, she doesn’t know what to expect from the far-off world and its natives. Once there, she feels very out-of-place in the land of lizards! And her love life is looking pretty glum until the Queen shows off two of her most-cherished possessions: Zetithian brothers, Tychar and Trag.  The brothers have been Queen Scalia’s exotic slaves (more like pets) for 20 years.  Their kind is believed to be extinct after Zetith was destroyed. Zetithian males are quite the Casanovas!  A unique feline gene gives them highly-extraordinary sexual powers! All I could think while reading this book is that they have some crazy magic penises! With a world full of these men, women could be very happy indeed.

Kyra’s immediate attraction – and orgasm – upon seeing Tychar was shocking. He smiled and she went off like a rocket. What’s interesting is that Zetithians are turned on by scent. Once they smell desire, they are full-on ready to play. It’s too bad for the Queen, Tychar and Trag are not aroused by Darconians. These beautifully sexual men have gone without for a looong time. The Queen is so pleased with the attraction between Kyra and Tychar, that she bestows him to Kyra as her personal attendant.

I thought the entire concept of the Cat Star Chronicles to be very good. I was very leery at first because it is written in first-person point-of-view. I've been known to pass up more than one book because of that. I prefer the depth attained by reading multiple (especially the hero’s) POVs. One POV just feels like you put a limit on the imagination. About halfway through, I became a bit bored sitting around in Kyra’s head, but I pushed through and I’m really glad I did!

Tychar’s subservience is a lot more endearing than I thought it would be. He truly worships Kyra in such adoring ways. He and Trag crave love just as much as sex. Despite what may have been said about this book, trust me when I say it is not a ménage story. There is one encounter, but it is an act of love more than anything else. Trag’s sexual-suffering afterwards is amusing. He’s so bold! I like that he respected the relationship between Tychar and Kyra so much.

ROGUE’s storyline gave way to action in the last third of the book. I was swept back in and wound-up enjoying it a lot more than I believed I would. A glimpse of previous characters has me intrigued just enough to add the other books to my TBR stack! I may have to skip ahead to read Trag’s book, HERO, first. He’s just too irresistible for me to wait.

GRADE: A

REVIEW: SURROUNDED BY WOODS by Mandy Harbin

SURROUNDED BY WOODS
Mandy Harbin

Published: Amira Press (July 22, 2010)


Blurb:
When Mikaela Patterson must take on a client with specific requirements that no single women be allowed on his property, she keeps her broken engagement a secret. She doesn’t realize her client and his sons are mountain lion shifters whose instinct to mate with any available woman turns deadly.

Josh Woods is her client's eldest son, and he is immediately drawn to Mikaela. Knowing his father would never allow an available woman on the property, Josh doesn't understand his fascination with her. Josh and Mikaela fight their attraction because of their own secrets, but when the truth comes out about Mikaela's true availability and Josh's animal instincts, they must be prepared to face the consequences.

Review:
Mandy Harbin's debut novella, SURROUNDED BY WOODS, spins a tale of exiled brothers -- mountain lion shifters -- who are powerless to resist the pull of mating with available women.  What makes this plot standout from the rest?  Done wrong and the results are deadly!  It's the black widow effect.  If a mating (not just sex, but claiming a mate by bite) is done without a woman's consent, she will shift and attack.  Man-lion will instinctively react and the two will fight to the death!   

Mikaela's stubborn pride kept her from telling anyone, including her boss, about her broken engagement.  She visits her firm's client despite the fact that Thomas, the brothers' father, specifically asks that only women who are taken be allowed on his property. At first, Josh comes off very aggressive and cocky.  He wants Mikaela from the get-go, and I can only surmise that the aggression is due to his animal instincts.  After a while, the need turns to love and Josh does his best to control his animal side.

Mikaela takes things a lot better than I would!  She's strong, but unafraid in a way that may seem naive.  I would've had a LOT of questions before jumping into mating with Josh!  Mating means becoming a shifter -- and likely leaving life as you know it behind.

This is an erotic romance, so let's talk sex for a moment.  No bondage, menage, or kinky sex.  But who cares when you have a thorough lover like Josh, and Mikaela gives as good as she gets!  The scenes were pretty hot, and I didn't think it was all thrown in there just or the sake of having sex.


The problems I had with the plot were mostly due to the word count.  It's a very short story (28,000 words!)  I did like the backstory that was given, and it made sense why all the men in the Woods family were timid about single women.  Ms. Harbin's idea is a solid one, and I hope that any future stories spun-off from this title will be fully elaborated on.  I look forward to keeping up with this author's work.

You can get SURROUNDED BY WOODS today (7.22.11) on Amira Press!  It will be available at Amazon and other eTailers in August.

Grade: C+

This ARC was provided for review by author.  Opinions are all my own!