Elizabeth's Wolf by Lora Leigh.

Should really be called. Elizabeth's Coyote. The most outrageous Breed plot yet. Although this is one of Lora's earlier Ellora's Cave books.

I'll start with the spoiler. The daughter Cassie turns out to be a Breed child. One of the evil coyote Breeds. And she knows it. So she makes endless efforts to be good. Poor kid. Only 8 yo. She'll have a breakdown for sure when she gets to her teens. Probably. She's been keeping a lot of secrets from her mother. I could have done without evil adults calling sweet damaged Cassie a 'monster' to her face too. Also. Readers need to ask themselves. What on earth is an 8 yo doing in a piece of erotica? Strictly speaking. This novel is more about her than about Dash and Elizabeth.

Amazingly. The smut totally gets in the way of the excellent plot that surrounds Cassie. As with all the Breed stories I have read, I had absolutely no emotional empathy with the main couple. Nevertheless. I rank them #1. Way before Megan and Braden. Because the hero, Dash, has some insecurities. While Braden came across like he thought he was god's gift. Despite what she repeatedly says. Elizabeth entrusts the care of her hunted child to acquaintances of a man she has known for about 1 day. tsk, tsk. I understand completely that the demands of the plot made that a necessity. Not least because she and Dash could hardly consumate their relationship in the usual noisy Breed manner with an 8 yo around in the next room. But it just meant there was a huge discontinuity between her intentions and her actions.

The novel ends rather abruptly. Like many of the books. In addition the author seemed to have to struggle to fit in the required anal scene. Ok. The heroine faints from the resulting ecstacy. But there should have been at least one more bedroom scene just to show that she felt happy in the relationship following that weird event.

I bought Elizabeth's Wolf as a $15 paperback. From the smut point of view. I don't think it was worth it. Not enough. Because understandably it can't really get going until Cassie is off-loaded at around page 170. From a 'good story' point of view the price was not a problem. On one level I suppose you could call this book 'good edgy fiction.' But I found it a bit too scary to enjoy as a novel. Obviously I guessed quite early on that Cassie was Breed. It's just that the details, and especially the ending were just too sad for me to cope with comfortably.

I'm going to add this to my recommended list though. Because this novel is very well plotted and written. And the cover is nice too. It will go below Dance With The Devil because even that is much more emotionally involving. imo

The next Lora novel I'll read will be one of her bodyguard series. This Breed schtick is getting to me.

I'm currently using the Detra Fitch profile on amazon to get ideas for further romance reading. So some more series romances are due to be reviewed in the near future. (Nice and cheap too).