Tempting The Beast by Lora Leigh
Aug. 11th, 2006 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsWithout input, there is no output. For a writer, reading is essential. And although erotic furry writers are regarded as the Java programmers of fandom, I still like writing, and reading, that kind of stuff. I was mildly pleased by a witches-verses-werecreatures story by Christine Warren that disappointed me mostly because, although the sex was great, there was never any were-jaguar-on-girl sex and, dammit, there should have been.
So I gave it a second shot. Lora Leigh has written Tempting The Beast, and my feelings about it are mixed. It's better written than much of their skiffy, but the final product is just off-kilter.
Our hero is Callan, our heroine Merinus. (I get the feeling our writer was desperate for "unique" names). Callan is an escaped genetic experiment to breed a super soldier, a mixture of human and lion genes, and although he's mostly human he has a lot of leonine characteristics. Merinus is a reporter (and, not coincidentally, daughter of a newspaper dynastic scion) who's hot on his trail. They end up having a lot of very hot sex. The progression of oral-vaginal-anal over the course of the book is silly; there's no reason for Callan to want to sodomize Merinus; it sorta comes out of nowhere.
But that seems to be par for this book. There's a really silly teleological "nature found a way" argument in this book for why Merinus, despite being 100% human, ends up physically "bonded" to Callan for all of eternity. Merinus' brothers are basically Doc, Hank, Monk, Renny, Long Tom, and Johnny[?], (if you get that without following the link, you're very, very old), except Doc is named "Kane", is ex-special-forces, has a team of twelve others on hand (who all get names, despite never getting roles!) who follow him everywhere and apparently do... what? Dirty work for the newspaper industry? Callan is the product of a private enterprise of mad scientists known only as "The Council," and they have their own mercenaries who, depending upon the scene, either know nothing or more than can be explained by the plot. Oh, and Callan's tongue ejaculates an aphrodisiac. And you can tell when the author ran out of ideas (or wordcount headspace), because the epilogue basically wraps up the mad scientists' evil scheme in four paragraphs.
But if you want lots of hot almost-furry sex, it's a fine book.
So I gave it a second shot. Lora Leigh has written Tempting The Beast, and my feelings about it are mixed. It's better written than much of their skiffy, but the final product is just off-kilter.
Our hero is Callan, our heroine Merinus. (I get the feeling our writer was desperate for "unique" names). Callan is an escaped genetic experiment to breed a super soldier, a mixture of human and lion genes, and although he's mostly human he has a lot of leonine characteristics. Merinus is a reporter (and, not coincidentally, daughter of a newspaper dynastic scion) who's hot on his trail. They end up having a lot of very hot sex. The progression of oral-vaginal-anal over the course of the book is silly; there's no reason for Callan to want to sodomize Merinus; it sorta comes out of nowhere.
But that seems to be par for this book. There's a really silly teleological "nature found a way" argument in this book for why Merinus, despite being 100% human, ends up physically "bonded" to Callan for all of eternity. Merinus' brothers are basically Doc, Hank, Monk, Renny, Long Tom, and Johnny[?], (if you get that without following the link, you're very, very old), except Doc is named "Kane", is ex-special-forces, has a team of twelve others on hand (who all get names, despite never getting roles!) who follow him everywhere and apparently do... what? Dirty work for the newspaper industry? Callan is the product of a private enterprise of mad scientists known only as "The Council," and they have their own mercenaries who, depending upon the scene, either know nothing or more than can be explained by the plot. Oh, and Callan's tongue ejaculates an aphrodisiac. And you can tell when the author ran out of ideas (or wordcount headspace), because the epilogue basically wraps up the mad scientists' evil scheme in four paragraphs.
But if you want lots of hot almost-furry sex, it's a fine book.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-12 04:39 pm (UTC)So, in my opinion, she ripped off that anthology, big-time. They paid good money for her name, and that's _all_ they got from her. She couldn't even be bothered to take the time to actually write a 20 page shortstory, and copped out with yet another generic, vanilla sex scene. I have absolutely no respect for her after that, and I don't care how desperate I am for reading material, I won't buy her books. Truly... I threw that one across the room and was pissed off enough that I'd probably avoid any con she's going to be at any time in the near future, because I'm quite likely, upon seeing adoring fancreatures cozying up to her, to tell her exactly what I think of her. So best I stay away. :)
For _good_ authors in that genre, check out Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, Carrie Vaughn, and possibly Charlene Harris' 'Southern Vampire' series... that last gets better as you get further into it, though, and starts a bit rough. Simon Green's 'Nightside' books are good, too, but awfully short for normal paperback prices.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 03:03 am (UTC)