Reading Assignment Challenge: Locke and Key by Sandrine Gasq Dion
Werewolf Locke Renfro has spent most of his life hunting and killing rogue werewolves--vicious murderers who take pleasure in causing misery and destroying lives. Including his own when they slaughtered his parents. After a rogue bites his lover, it triggers the process of turning him into a rogue also and Locke must kill the only man he ever thought he'd love. Years later, the fates have finally given him a mate--smart, funny and sexy Mitch Devan. Locke is afraid to seal their bond, though, terrified that it will make Mitch a target of rogues who despise him--who would love nothing better than to murder his soul mate.
Mitch Devon has spent so long waiting for Locke Renfro to claim him as his own that he's not sure everything will work properly wen the time finally arrives. But Locke has slain more than his share of rogues; he is convinced that mating with Mitch will put the human at the top of the rogues' revenge hit list. Mitch isn't sure that would be any worse than his platonic existence with the man he adores. When a simple business trip lands him in grave danger, Mitch finds out exactly how far Locke will go to retrieve the key to his heart.
Loyalties are tested and enemies revealed, as the Skull Blaster team comes together to rescue their own.
The last Assassin/Shifters book I read, Savage Love, felt incredibly convoluted and too busy. I am happy to report that Locke and Key was much more enjoyable as it revolved mainly around the main couple and only towards the end did a lot more of the cast join in the fun.
Locke has not had an easy time of it and when he finds his mate, his past causes him to fear the worst: losing Mitch to the rogues. He keeps Mitch at arms length and refuses to listen to his friends who assure him that keeping Mitch close will keep him safe. What I didn't get is why Locke was so worried--Mitch was made immortal in an earlier book. Wouldn't an immortal man be fairly safe from rogues? Maybe even safer than a werewolf? Regardless, Locke is committed to his keep-Mitch-safe-and-at-arms-length plan.
Mitch is an incredibly patient man. He knows that man he loves him loves him back but he is not allowed to show his love in any way. They aren't even roommates for the longest time. Then Mitch and Locke travel to Boston to refurbish a house that Locke owns and Mitch is finally able to wear down Locke's resistance. They get closer as a couple and Mitch finally gets some of the happiness he has desired for so long. And then it all hits the fan...
The bad guys and the good guys all came out in force in this one (except for the Olympians)...we also added in yet another facet of evilness and the good guys discovered that those leading the rogues were closer than they ever imagined. The end of the book left me with the knowledge that the war between good and evil has gotten even more intense--it feels as if we are not at all close to an end and I have to admit I am wondering if there are any more mythologies or paranormals that might be added into the mix. I am looking forward to the next book in the series--but I worry that not all of the good guys are going to make it out alive. Odds would suggest that we will lose at least one of them before this whole thing is over!
Reading Assignment Challenge: Viper Game by Christine Feehan
GhostWalker Wyatt Fontenot knows the price he paid for the secret military experiments that gave him his special catlike abilities. After all, he left his bayou home a healer and came back a killer. While Wyatt and his GhostWalker brother Gator may have known exactly the sort of game they were getting into, Wyatt never anticipated where it would lead--or to whom.
The swamps hold many mysteries, but few as sinuously seductive as Le Poivre de Cayenne. The woman the locals call Pepper is every bit as enigmatic as the three little girls she's desperately trying to protect. From what, Wyatt is soon to discover. Right now Pepper needs a man like Wyatt. Passionately. But her secrets are about to take them both deeper into the bayou than either imagined--where desire is the deadliest poison of all.
Wyatt feels guilt that he let himself believe he was heartbroken by a woman he thought he loved since he was four...in his desperation to get away from the bayou and all of its bad memories, he allowed himself to get involved with the GhostWalker project--something he should have known better than to do based on his brother's experiences. It is too late to reverse the changes in his body, but it isn't too late to go back to the bayou and help his Nonny. He brings with him friends who are more like brothers after the experiences they have shared. I loved the newest members to be introduced as Ghostwalkers, especially Malachai with his bottomless stomach!!
Nonny has called Wyatt back to the bayou because of some strange doings centered around a plastics plant situated on the site of an old asylum. When Nonny is accosted by a guard while harvesting plants for medicine, she decides to get reinforcements. Wyatt is PISSED that any man dared lay hands on his beloved Nonny and he makes it very clear in a hands on way that the guards will not make that mistake again. It is after this altercation when he returns home that he meets Pepper and one of the three babies she is desperately trying to protect from elimination. The other two are still being held within the confines of the plastic plant which is a front for another of Dr. Peter Whitney's experiments.
There are, as always, a lot of machinations happening on the part of Dr. Whitney, but he seemed to take it a whole nother step further in this book. I was both surprised and not by the revelation about the babys' parentage. This book seemed to take a step back from the start-to-finish, action-packed plot lines of the last couple of books and instead focused a lot of time on the developing relationship between Pepper and Wyatt as Pepper recovered from injuries sustained during their first meeting. I loved the relationship between Wyatt and Pepper up until one particular scene when Wyatt just went WAY TOO FAR in his possessiveness over Pepper. His over the top reaction to a scene that just didn't even seem to be that romantic or sexy really affected my feelings for Wyatt over all, especially as this scene takes place close to the end of the book and he never really is given a chance to recover all the points he loses during that incident. He all but calls Pepper a whore and it really jarred me and colored my overall enjoyment of the HEA. I just don't know that I feel sure he won't jump to outlandish conclusions again in the future and he never grovelled much at all when MAJOR grovelling was called for. I still liked the book, but don't know that it will be one I reread often as so many others in this series are.
