Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Review: Claiming His Fire by Ellis Leigh

Title: Claiming His Fire
Series: Feral Breed Motorcycle Club
Author: Ellis Leigh
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: June 16, 2015
Publisher: Kinship Press
ASIN: B00XZ0SNJ2

A shifter with a secret that could destroy his world...
A witch without a coven to keep her grounded...
A fated destiny they'll have to fight to begin.


Shadow of the Feral Breed earned his road name by being a sneaky combatant—quite fitting considering he's been hiding the truth about his heritage for decades. With his life wrapped in secrets and lies to protect himself from the judgment of other shifters, he's become a master at keeping people at a distance. He's got a job to do, one that could potentially save the lives of the missing Omega females, and he refuses to let a little thing like honesty get in his way.

Fire witch Scarlett left her coven voluntarily after her sister's banishment, but she can't get over the pain of being shunned by the people she saw as her extended family. She keeps her relationships casual, avoiding any real commitment on the chance others may let her down again. But with her powers out of control and her element burning her from the inside out, she's on a path that can only end in ash.

After a chance meeting leads to a fiery clash, Shadow and Scarlett work hard to break themselves apart as the thread of destiny pulls them closer together. But secrets and lies aren't a stable foundation for a relationship, and the walls between them are easier to build higher than to tear down. When the truth comes out and the smoke clears, will their fragile connection be burnt through or tempered by the heat? And can their fated bond survive the war brewing in their world?


My rating:

What the hell just happened???!!!

Scarlett, having lived through betrayal, and by family to boot, has no intention of leaving anything to Fate. She's capable of making her own decisions. She's capable of choosing a man for herself, she doesn't need any red threads. And she has no intention of succumbing to a possible red thread crossing her path. No!

That's what Shadow of the Feral Breed hears when he meets his mate. No! But, being quite used to rejection and keeping his feelings hidden, he doesn't show how much her rejection hurts. If the woman doesn't want him, he's not about to force her. He's more than willing to leave town, and leave her be...But what if she doesn't want to let him be? What if Fate is stronger than anything else?


This series is getting better and better. And the stories are getting better and better as well. Stories, characters, conflict, reactions, interactions...And now we have suspense joining the fray. For reals. Yay!

I loved Shadow, yes, I know, I love (most) wolfies in this series, I can't help it. Where can I get one? He was such a gentleman, so kind, polite, and with impeccable manners, that completely belayed the beasts (yes, plural!) that moved underneath his skin. I like it when protective wolves come out to play, but that last shift...Ooh, boy, tingles all the way.
But as much as I loved Shadow, despite his top-secret crap (he can keep secrets) and his martyr complex (he's been dealt one bad hand too many in his life), I really disliked Scarlett at the beginning. The way she acted toward him, toward anybody that might want to come close, actually, the way she pushed people away...I felt she went to far in her bitchiness. She wasn't distrusting and jittery, she was downright mean at times, and it quickly started to jar with the story. Whenever she was in a scene, the natural flow of the story stopped. But once she snapped out of her funk, it was all smooth sailing.

In the character, their interactions and romance department that is. Everything else wasn't as smooth. And I loved the hell out of it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about story elements, flow, voice, or pacing. That was great all around. I'm talking about the bumps the story brought along, the bigger picture slowly, but surely forming, yet still eluding. The suspense came out to play and it brought the big guns. That solitary scene from Claiming His Beauty came out to haunt Beast (and this reader), providing a short reprieve, but that lucky retrieval was just the calm before a storm.
The entire story, the whole series before this one, was one hell of calm before a storm. Until chapter twenty rolled along (aptly subtitled and so it begins...) when all hell broke loose, along with a fiery tornado...And then abruptly ended, prompting the exclamation that is written at the beginning of this review.

I was all goose-bumpy and ready to fight when it all ended. Thank the Goddess I have the next book on my Kindle and I don't have to wait to read it. Binge-reading is sometimes a blessing.

As I was saying...Now we're talking. Great characters, lovely romance, engaging story, wonderful pacing, a whole lot of foreshadowing, intriguing suspense and mystery, and one hell of a fightus-interruptus at the end. I can't wait to see what happens next. God, I'm goose-bumpy all over again.



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