Advance Review- Taken

Taken
by Lora Leigh

I received an ARC of this book from the Publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This book comes out 07/22/2014. It appears to be a collection of previously released short stories and novellas. I don't think it's any secret to say that when you are talking about Lora Leigh, you're talking about alpha heroes, kinky potentially BDSM sex, and likely some element of non-con.

Reno's Chance (Tempting SEALs #1)

Reno and Raven have been in love with and dancing around each other for years, she's been avoiding him because of his kink and his career as a SEAL and he's just finally pursuing her because in his alpha-ness he's finally decided she's "grown-up" enough.

For Maggie's Sake (Tempting SEALs #3)

Maggie and Joe were once a couple and he basically dumped her by showing up with another woman on his arm. Later she ends up a widow with a price on her head and the authorities breathing down her neck due to get dead husband's misdeeds, and Joe ends up guarding her and trying to get information from her. Joe's a little more emotionally open than the average alpha hero.

Atlanta Heat (Tempting SEALs #6)

Macey is a real dog but he's been avoiding Emerson for two years because she's the one woman he wants most. Emerson is his admiral's goddaughter and despite the fact that the admiral knows how Macey feels toward her, when she's kidnapped he sends Macey to get her back and hide her.

Night Hawk (Elite Ops #1.5)

Lillian Belle AKA Night Hawk and Black Jack have both signed their lives away for 12 years to Elite Ops for a second chance to live. This is an incredibly short story that's merely a teaser for the series. It really had nothing of plot and very little of characterization. It teases about what might be a very interesting worlds and concept, but I find myself irritated because this is already available for free.

Cooper's Fall (Wounded Warriors #1)

Ex-Army Ranger Ethan Cooper is the town bad boy and bar owner. Timid Sarah Fox is as naughty on the inside as she is prim on the outside, and man does she have some secrets. It's a very sweet, sexy, naughty romance.

Sheila's Passion (Wounded Warriors #2)

Sheila and Casey have a major problem with communication. It doesn't help that both their jobs and their lives have exacerbated the issue. So it takes some extreme danger to force these two hard headed individuals to the sticking point.

Overall, I really enjoyed this collection and i am rating it 4 stars. I don't think I had read many of them previously, or if I had it was quite some time ago so I didn't really remember them. However, 2-4 were mid series novellas that seemed to feel like you should know a bit more about the characters and backgrounds. Additionally, they were just all so similar in content and tone (they were all alpha male military types with long-standing connections to the heroines that they are just addressing romantically) that without the content background they tended to run together in my mind as I read them all in one sitting. Admittedly, I do tend to prefer novellas where the main characters already have a history together, so that wasn't the problem. Overall, I say either read these novellas one at a time with some space between them (either for individual enjoyment or to get a taste to see if you want to pursue the series), or read them as part of their respective series and in their proper orders. I actually enjoyed the Wounded Warriors ones the best, however, the second one was published in 2012 and I am not finding anything to suggest that new stories are on the horizon so this may be a defunct series. And' I'll admit that while Tempting SEALs and Elite Ops had been on my radar since their inception, this was finally what prompted me to start those series, so I suppose that this collection has done its job on that count.