Lauren Dane: Standoff
March 27, 2008
Cascadia Wolves: Standoff by Lauren Dane
From: Samhain
From my review at The Good, The Bad and The Unread
First off, let’s get one thing straight here. If you have read the most excellent Cascadia Wolves eBook series, you are gonna buy this book. No question! You will get this book and read it because Enforcer and Tri Mates was Werewolf Romance crack. Read more
Tags: Grade D, Lauren Dane, Samhain Publishing, Werewolf RomanceWhat I Am Reading ~ Lauren Dane: Cascadia Wolves ~ Standoff
February 1, 2008
Cascadia Wolves: Standoff Read more
Ménage à Trois In Review
January 13, 2008
Ah the Ménage à Trois. What a great reason to start off with Samantha Kane. Don’t you think? Read more
Lauren Dane: Wolf Unbound
December 31, 2007
New review posted on The Good, The Bad & The Unread Read more
Publisher Printing Preferences
December 29, 2007
Dear ePublishers,
We here at The Naughty Bits are all about the preferential treatment and since discussion has come up about certain well known and well loved ePublishers displaying this preference in regards to taking eBooks to print we wish to lend our support for this briiliant idea.
It so rocks in a “fuck your competitor up the ass with a big one” way. If anything I myself can understand just that very compulsion. But.. I must say that there are times when I sit here wondering if I am the only one seeing some hellaciously talented authors not getting the sweet sweet “print it now” lovin that they so richly deserve.
So without further ado let me show you some eBooks that the Pig would be so buying for his keeper shelf if you just got off your fat ass and put them on the fast track to paperback as soon as these writers have handed you the whack crack they do so well.
With Love, Teddypig
New from J.L. Langley
November 15, 2007
With or Without: With Caution by J.L. Langley
From: Samhain Coming November 20th!
Read An Excerpt
A brother’s vow. A lover’s promise. Both could put them all at deadly risk.
Remington Lassiter is trying his best to stay out of trouble while he learns the ropes of being a werewolf. When his little brother turns up covered in bruises, he is driven to finally bring their abusive father to justice. To do it, he must face a past he hides behind his cocky, trouble-making attitude. A past so dark it haunts him only in dreams.
Jake Romero, a crack private investigator with a bad-boy biker image, realizes he has his work cut out for him when Remi asks for his help. From the first moment he turned Remi into a werewolf in order to save his life, Jake has been fighting to keep his inner demons at bay. He’s torn between the desire to tell Remi they are destined to be mates, and the need to first let Remi get used to the werewolf life.
Jake will do anything to protect Remi and help him break the cycle of abuse he has endured all his life, but his investigation is about to uncover something far more sinister and deadly than they ever imagined.
A past that could put all their lives at risk.
Cascadia Wolves: Wolf Unbound by Lauren Dane
From: Samhain Coming January 1st!
Read An Excerpt
Tags: J.L. Langley, Lauren Dane, Samhain Publishing, Werewolf RomanceTegan Warden has lost her heart and her mate. It’s a devastating thing for anyone, but for a werewolf, the consequences are even harsher without her anchor. She’s spent the last four years alone, putting all her energy into her job and protecting the Cascadia Pack.
Ben Stoner is a hard edged cop with a taste for sexual dominance but a need for a woman who’ll be his match.
Through happenstance, the two come into contact and the universe of the Cascadia wolves unites, challenges and threatens them both - as a couple and as individuals.
Lauren Dane: Cascadia Wolves
April 2, 2007
Lauren Dane and her Cascadia Wolves Series was one of the first to get me started buying eBooks. I found her werewolf world building to be fun and dark and her characters for the most part are damn sexy. I still am waiting patiently for the next book to come out but let’s review the ones you can pick-up from Ellora’s Cave.
Enforcer introduces us to Nina and her brother Gabriel Reyes. Gabriel has recently become a werewolf and joined the local Cascadia Pack. Nina being human stays well out of it till her brother asks her for money so he can hide saying that werewolves were trying to kill him. Nina of course thinks that he is on the run from the Cascadia Pack so when Alexander Warden shows up on her doorstep she sticks a shotgun to his balls and tells him to leave.
Lex Warden happens to be the second in charge of Cascadia Pack “The Enforcer”, his brother Cade Warden is “The Alpha” and as the book progresses we come to find out Nina Reyes is Lex’s mate. Magic werewolf love takes place in a story fraught with dark politics and Rogue packs and Mafia types galore.
This book was a mixed bag for me. Nina is written to be this head strong, smart mouthed, street fightin chick but… I swear instead she becomes progressively more and more annoying as the story goes on. I really wanted to like her, in fact I did at first, but things like Rushy McRushter, Floozy McSkank, Principal McGruff, Professor McLecture, Mister Shouty and last but not least Mayor McTouchy kept coming out of her god damned mouth. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
I wanted to kick her so hard if she said one more stupid, senseless thing. Fuck you Nina McDumbass! People who cuss, fucking cuss, they do not play at cussing like some five year old.
The other problem I had was minor in comparison. Character issues are more disruptive to me than story logic. The whole Tri-bond thing Lauren cooked up so Cade could have sex with his brother Lex’s mate Nina… OK, it was hot but… In essence it is explained as a sexual Pyramid Scheme. A higher ranked male wolf must be chosen to have sex with the female mate soon after mating occurs to create a Tri-bond or the two wolves mated go nuts. So easy-peasy, two for one, menage sex is to be had with every mating. That’s OK and all, but what does the guy at the top do?
See, my brain works this way and I just can’t turn it off. Maybe it’s just me. Grade B for this book but in some parts it’s annoying.
Oh, and Lauren wrote this short story for the series called Reluctant which is about Sid and Layla. Remember those idiots Tracy talked to Nina about when giving her the low-down on the ho-down werewolf Tri-bond deal?
I found the story it self to be so so… but I really thought it’s premise was all just a little far fetched. I can understand a human having trouble with the menage setup but a full blooded, born into a noble Alpha family, Alpha werewolf woman, who would have the slightest chance of even remotely having issue with the whole Tri-bond deal. I am sorry but Lauren Dane cannot have this type of thing both ways. Either these werewolves are still part animal and have come to some type of compromise between their wolf side and their human side so this type of thing comes as no surprise and they are raised to understand it or they are completely domesticated and have risen above their animal instincts and can subvert the base reactions they might feel so that Layla’s whole problem would be more understandable. Otherwise she really is TSTL (Too Stupid To Live). This story goes towards the domestication argument and yet Lauren then writes it different when it comes to mating. Ehhhhh, I don’t know, it seems a bit conflicted and confused in the long run. Grade D for this one.
Tri Mates, Ah so much better! Here we go, this was actually the first book I read in the series and I liked it. We meet Tracy Warden (Cade and Lex’s sister.) as she heads off to a meeting between the Cascadia Pack and the Pacific Pack to help mediate an agreement between the two. When we get there we run into Gabe Murphy, Mediator for the National Pack and Nick Lawrence, Enforcer for the Pacific Pack. Magic werewolf loving happens and Tracy gets not one but two stud muffins in a freak Tri-Mate accident.
Please note: I have discovered that werewolves have an intense need for glider swings on the front porch. This is an undocumented instinct that I have identified that must have some significance.
This book has it all. No nasty Nina nonsense! No Tri-bond angst-o-rama! Just hit me with that wolfee sex and lot’s of it and give me lot’s of dark wheeling and dealing and betrayal and everything I so like about a Lauren Dane werewolf story. Lauren delivers the goods here and does so with relish, spicy mustard and a wet wipe! In fact even Cade and Nina come across as having far more interesting feelings for each other in this book. In fact so much has changed there that I sent Lauren a quick email about it all asking if she was planning to do away with Lex and let Cade have some Nina lovin. See, that’s just how evil and wicked I really am. Anyway, the answer I got was not to my liking, but oh well. Grade A for this one.
Since the problems I had were in the earlier books I am gonna enjoy buying the next in this series. I hope to see Cade get his woman at some point, oh to hell with it, I gotta admit I would really want to see Cade on his hands and knees crying “deeper daddy!” as some mega Alpha werewolf male gets a piece of fine Cascadia Alpha ass.
I am a pig you know.
Grade B, but improving greatly with each book and at the very least you are not relying on formula. Thank you Lauren!
Tags: eBooks, Ellora's Cave, Grade B, Lauren Dane, Ménage à Trois, Straight, Werewolf Romance
