Series: BREEDS
Plot Type: SMR
Ratings: V4, S5, H1
Publishers and Titles: From Lora Leigh’s web site, here is a chronological list of the 28 BREEDS books, novellas, and short stories, along with the names of each happy couple and a brief summary of the plot. As Leigh notes, “the Breeds at one time or another have been separated by three publishers. I never imagined the series would be so popular or that it would go so far. Now that it has, we have a few discrepancies that I hope you’ll overlook....The BREEDS were originally written out of order chronologically, so that and a change in publishers is why there are chronological discrepancies in Jacob’s Faith and Aiden’s Charity.”
Scroll down past this bibliography to read my reviews
1. Tempting the Beast: Callan Lyons (lion) and Merinus Tyler (human)
Merinus Tyler discovers a secret in the Kentucky mountains—that shape-shifting men and women were created in and escaped from the labs of their creators. Human, with the genetics of the predators of the world. Callan Lyons, the leader of this small Pride, will change all life in ways Merinus never imagined possible.
2. The Man Within: Taber Williams (panther) and Roni Andres (human)
Roni had once loved Taber Williams until he broke her heart and left their small Kentucky town amid the shocking news that he and his “family” weren’t exactly human. But he marked her before he left, and that mark now endangers her life and the dreams she had of finding love after Taber. Taber, part man, part animal, now has to face the fact that the woman he couldn’t forget knows exactly what he is.
3. Elizabeth’s Wolf: Dash Sinclair (wolf) and Elizabeth Colder (human)
Elizabeth is running for her young daughter’s life, and losing the race. But when her daughter begins corresponding with a Special Forces soldier overseas and he learns the danger they’re in, all the fury of a Wolf Breed fighting for his mate is unleashed, and secrets are revealed that could destroy a child’s life.
4. Kiss of Heat: Sherra Callahan (snow leopard) and Kane Tyler (human)
Sherra has kept the natural mating heat that Breeds and their mates experience under control for far too many years. It has been ten years since the lover she was torn from in the labs returned. Ten years that she’s been forced to confront him on a daily basis. And the heat is growing out of control. Her emotions and fears are tearing through her. Now, she won’t be able to run from her mate much longer as old fears and deceptions begin to fade away beneath the love and aching need she never forgot for one man.
5. Soul Deep: Kiowa Bear (coyote) and Amanda Marion (human)
Kiowa was just supposed to watch the President’s daughter from afar. But when an attempted kidnapping nearly succeeds, he finds himself with much more on his hands than he ever imagined.
6. “The Breed Next Door” in Hot Spell anthology: Tarek Jordan (lion) and Lyra Mason (human)
Undercover breed enforcer, Tarek, is searching for a soldier who tormented Breeds in the labs. There’s a bounty on the man’s head, and the Bureau wants him, bad. His next-door neighbor is hindering that process—with home-baked bread, a tempting little boy, and more emotions than he ever dreamed he could feel. But when his mission endangers her, Tarek learns, there’s much more to those emotions than he could have ever imagined.
7. Megan’s Mark: Braden Arness (lion) and Megan Marks (human)
When breeds start turning up dead in her desert, Deputy Sheriff Megan Marks is forced to confront Breed enforcer Braden as he tries to take over her investigation. And as desire that she hadn’t envisioned begins to sear them, she learns that love is just a heartbeat away in the arms of the most incredible man she’s ever known.
8. Harmony’s Way: Harmony Lancaster (lion) and Lance Jacobs (human)
Lance, Megan’s cousin, finds himself enmeshed in a manipulation and a desire he can’t resist when the director of Breed Affairs assigns his own sister to the sheriff’s office, in an attempt to save her from Breed law. Assassin Harmony has been alone, wild and free for too many years and filled with too much rage. Council members are dying unsanctioned and those deaths are being laid at her feet. But when Breed opponents in Lance’s county begin showing up dead as well, Lance knows Harmony has to be innocent. There’s no other choice, because she’s stolen his soul, and he can’t allow anyone or anything to harm what is his. Complicating this is the information Harmony holds, that her enemies want—information that get them both killed.
9. Tanner’s Scheme: Tanner Reynolds (Bengal tiger) and Scheme Tallant (human)
After the Feline Breeds’ main base is attacked, Tanner wants revenge so he kidnaps Scheme, the daughter of a one-time high-ranking member of the Genetics Council. But when Tanner discovers that Scheme herself is a target of her father’s ruthless mission, his vengeance takes a back seat to saving the life of the woman he hopes to claim as his mate.
10. Wolf’s Hope in anthology Primal Heat anthology: Wolfe Gunnar (wolf) and Hope Bainesmith (human)
Hope believed Wolfe was dead, but he was only waiting for the right time to claim her. The scientist who created him, Hope’s mother, has forced his hand. She wants her creation back, and she wants any children he may breed on her daughter. He is a man whose DNA was altered, infused with the genetic code of the wolf. His unique genetic makeup has created a male unlike any other and will make itself known in the most surprising ways. Now Hope must convince her mate she hasn’t betrayed him, and they must defeat the plans of a scientist gone mad.
11. Jacob’s Faith: Jacob Arlington (wolf) and Faith Chance (wolf)
Jacob left Faith six years before, unaware that the mark he left on her also left her in an agony of sexual heat that never dimmed. Now Jacob and Faith are together again, but surprises lurk around every corner and dangers as dark and deadly as their very creation surround them in more ways than one.
12. Aiden’s Charity: Aiden Chance (wolf) and Charity Dunmore (human)
The forces of survival and destruction swirl in the darkest corners of men's minds. The nature of the beast cannot be harnessed, and survival is the purest of all instincts. Survival of the species itself goes soul deep. But can the human heart accept and adapt as easily? Can Charity bestow the love and the acceptance that has always been a part of her, to the man whose very survival depended on the hardening of his heart, of his soul? And can Aiden maintain that cruelty now, in the face of the sacrifices she made? Only time and nature can tell.
13. “In a Wolf’s Embrace” in Beyond the Dark anthology: Matthais Slaughter (wolf) and Grace Anderson (human)
Grace had no idea the man who rescued her from a mugging was a Breed assassin, until she catches him in the act of assassinating a known Genetics Council member. Now Matthias has kidnapped her, but rather than threatening her, rather than harming her, Matthias shows her a love she could have never imagined, and the true horror of the Council catches up with them, nearly destroying the life she dreams of having with him.
14. Dawn’s Awakening: Dawn Daniels (cougar) and Seth Lawrence (human)
The runt of the lab she was created in, Dawn endured years of torture by her pride brother and the Council soldiers. Finally freed from her torment, she’s now a Breed Enforcer, in control of her own life—until she’s assigned to protect the one man destined to be her mate and realizes that it’s far too easy to lose total control.
15. “A Jaguar’s Kiss” in Shifter anthology: Saban Broussard (black jaguar) and Natalie Ricci (human)
Natalie is hired to teach Breed children. She wasn’t aware the job came with the all too sexy, too exasperating Breed bodyguard, Saban. Saban is Cajun and too hot to handle, but once his kisses fill her senses, she’s lost in the man she’s learning he truly is.
16. Mercury’s War: Mercury Warrant (lion) and Ria Rodriguez (lion/human)
Someone has been slipping the Sanctuary’s secure information to a pharmaceutical company. Now it’s up to Ria to pose as a clerk and uncover the leak. Yet she has no idea of the danger she’s about to encounter—or the passion she’s about to ignite in one of the greatest Breeds ever created.
17. “Christmas Heat” in The Magical Christmas Cat anthology: Noble Chavin (jaguar) and Haley McQuire (human)
Haley has witnessed a spy in Sanctuary and now her life is in danger. Now it is up to Noble to keep his mate alive as death and destruction follow her every move.
18. Coyote’s Mate: Del Rey Delgato (coyote) and Anya Korbin (human)
For six years Anya worked with Del-Rey—the genetically altered rebel known as the Coyote Ghost—to free a group of coyote women kept in her father’s lab. As Anya matured into a woman, she and Del-Rey grew close…but then he broke his promise and wounded her father. Now she must deal with her animalistic desire for the one who betrayed her.
19. “A Christmas Kiss” in Hot for the Holidays anthology: Hawke Esteban (wolf) and Jessica Raines (human)
After Jessica is caught betraying the Breeds, she is arrested and awaiting her fate. Hawk has to find a way to clear Jessica’s name as mating heat scorches them both
Cabal has to deal with his mate in a very interesting way. Reporter Cassa is investigating a series of murders suspected to have been committed by a Breed. Six of the rumored Deadly Dozen, a hunting party that once preyed upon escaped Breeds, has been murdered. The crime scene photos suggest a Breed killer. The problem is, those crime scene photos are the only evidence that a murder was ever committed. Someone is drawing Cassa and Cabal together in the small town of Glen Ferri, West Virginia, and they don’t have mating on their mind. The past is on their mind—a past rife with spilled blood and the horror of a death that still screams out for vengeance. Cassa’s voice could very well be added to those screams, unless Cabal finds a way to save her
21. Lion’s Heat: Jonas Wyatt (lion) and Rachel Broen (human) and Rachel's daughter Amber Broen (human)
The story you’ve been waiting for. It’s time Jonas, that bad boy Lion, to be brought to his knees. Or at least forced to have weak knees. Would he tremble for his mate? Would he bow before her? Is there anything or anyone that could actually be considered a weakness for our arrogant Director.
To save innocent young Storme from the claws of Breed slave traders, Styx is forced to claim her himself—on the condition that Storme will no longer be a virgin by night's end. And though Storme's defenses are up, Styx will free her—in ways she never expects.
23. Primal Kiss in Primal anthology: Creed Raines (lion) and Kita Engalls (human)
When the bad boy lion breed, Creed, crashes the family cabin while Pharmaceutical CEO Horace Engalls' daughter is vacationing, he sets off a series of events that even Creed couldn't have imagined. Mating Heat blows sky high—hot and overwhelming and reminding him of all the reasons he had fought to avoid it. Especially with the shy, though incredibly stubborn, decidedly willful, much loved and cherished Engalls Princess, Kita.
24. Navarro's Promise: Navarro Blaine (wolf) and Mica Toler (human)
Mica Toler’s best friend is the wolf/coyote hybrid breed, Cassie Sinclair. And now Mica is being drawn into her world in ways she had prayed she never would be when the charming wolf Breed Navarro makes good on the promise he made her on a dark, explosive night.
25. “An Inconvenient Mate” in Tied with a Bow anthology: Malachi Morgan (coyote) and Isabelle Martinez (human)
Isabelle Martinez was instantly fascinated by the sexy Coyote Breed she met at the bar, but her sensual flirtation with him was cut short when she saw the man who'd attacked her walk in the door of that same bar.
26. Lawe's Justice: Lawe Justice (lion) and Diane Broen (human)
Diane has lived to protect her younger sister Rachel from harm. But now that Rachel has been mated off, Diane has occupied herself with less fulfilling tasks at the Genetics Council, until she's paired with a new team member, a Breed male notorious for his attitude and a touch that makes her recoil. Lawe isn't thrilled with Diane either. A lion at heart, he prefers a lair of solitude. When it comes to females, he'd rather snarl than purr. And while fate may have paired them to fight on the same team, neither is willing to admit to the obvious: the mating heat between them is positively incinerating
27. Stygian's Honor: Stygian Black (wolf) and Liza Johnson (human)
Window Rock, Arizona, is the last known location of Honor Roberts, who vanished when she was just thirteen. It was her only sanctuary from the Breed research that would surely have ended in her death—one such insidious experiment should, indeed, have killed her. That she lived is both a miracle and a great mystery. Stygian’s mission is to find Honor, no matter the cost. Now, with the help of Liza Johnson, assistant to the chief of the Navajo Nation, he is closer than ever to his goal. But will the discovery of Honor mean the destruction of the mating heat that has developed between Stygian and Liza.
This blog post was revised and updated on 10/8/12 to include a review of the latest FELINE BREEDS book: Stygian's Honor. That review appears first, followed by an overview of the BREEDS world and a review of Lawe's Justice.Window Rock, Arizona, is the last known location of Honor Roberts, who vanished when she was just thirteen. It was her only sanctuary from the Breed research that would surely have ended in her death—one such insidious experiment should, indeed, have killed her. That she lived is both a miracle and a great mystery. Stygian’s mission is to find Honor, no matter the cost. Now, with the help of Liza Johnson, assistant to the chief of the Navajo Nation, he is closer than ever to his goal. But will the discovery of Honor mean the destruction of the mating heat that has developed between Stygian and Liza.
The book is set in Window Rock, New Mexico, where Jonas has moved temporarily to be close to the action and where he is becoming more and more frustrated with the Navajo leaders. He is sure that he is close to finding the escapees, but the Navajo won't cooperate or share information. In the meantime, more and more Genetics Council thugs are gathering in Window Rock, and they appear to have their sights set on the daughters of two of the Navajo leaders: Liza Johnson and her friend, Claire. This book tells Liza's story as she comes to terms with her inner self and falls in love with a Wolf Breed—Stygian Black, who was created in the labs from a combination of DNA from Attila the Hun and a Haitian voodoo priestess. Stygian realizes almost immediately that Liza is his mate, but she has heard stories about the mating heat and is not willing to give up her independence. Their romance is fraught with the usual amount of high drama, graphic sex, and long, anguished interior monologues. By the end of the book, we learn the identities of both of the escaped women (although we guessed their identities several books ago), but the second woman's story is still to be told.
Like other recent books in this series, this one has many copy-proofing and continuity errors. Sometimes a character will ask a question, and another character will give an entirely unrelated answer. For example, at one point Liza asks, "Is Claire okay? Was she hurt?" Jonas answers, "She did." (p. 124) Huh? This kind of disconnect happens over and over again, forcing the reader to go back and reread paragraphs and conversations, desperately trying to make sense of it all. I hate to say it, but perhaps after 27 books, this series has gone on too long. The overworked mating-heat love scenes, which used to be mesmerizing in the early books, are now so mechanical and repetitious that I find myself paging quickly through them to get back to the action. The current plot line (i.e., Gideon and the escapees) is way too thin to have been spread over multiple books, and it still isn't completely resolved. So...we're in for more of the same in the next book, which will probably pair up Claire (aka Fawn) and Gideon.
WORLD-BUILDING
All of the BREEDS books revolve around the outcomes of the activities of the evil Genetics Council, which operated secret labs in which twisted scientists created genetic beings from a mix of human DNA and animal DNA. Their purpose was to create ruthless, disposable soldiers called Breeds. When the scientists found that they could not totally control the Breeds, they tried to destroy them all. The series begins after some of the Breeds escape and go public, creating an uproar among the populace and engendering a variety of responses from government officials. Each book tells the story of one couple’s journey from first meeting to soul-mate status, with explicit sex as their major activity. Each couple has one Breed and one human.
All of the BREEDS books revolve around the outcomes of the activities of the evil Genetics Council, which operated secret labs in which twisted scientists created genetic beings from a mix of human DNA and animal DNA. Their purpose was to create ruthless, disposable soldiers called Breeds. When the scientists found that they could not totally control the Breeds, they tried to destroy them all. The series begins after some of the Breeds escape and go public, creating an uproar among the populace and engendering a variety of responses from government officials. Each book tells the story of one couple’s journey from first meeting to soul-mate status, with explicit sex as their major activity. Each couple has one Breed and one human.
Plots include attempts by various scientists and hunters to recapture individual Breeds and mean-spirited attempts to completely dehumanize the Breeds’ lives. By this point in the series, Breed scientists have come a long way in their study of the characteristics that make the Breeds different from humans (for example, the mating heat, the aging delay, immunity to disease, the long-term effects of mating on the female mates). One of the Breeds' primary problems is keeping all of these differences hidden from the general public. Many people already consider the Breeds to be animals, and if people discover these differences, huge problems could result.
Many characters appear in multiple books. Most of the Breeds appear to be more ethical, moral, and intelligent than the humans. In general, each soul-mate couple includes one very alpha male, one strong but somewhat subservient female, and lots of extremely graphic sex, which always includes one incredible male sexual characteristic that occurs only when a male Breed makes love to his one and only soul mate.
WOLF BREEDS, BOOK 5: Navarro's Promise
WOLF BREEDS, BOOK 5: Navarro's Promise
Navarro's Promise tells the story of Navarro Blaine, a wolf Breed with recessive Breed traits, and Mica Toler, a young human woman who has grown up among the Breeds. (I always love Leigh's characters' names.) The plot is foreshadowed by a vision that Mica's friend, Cassie Sinclair, has in the Prologue:
Cassie sees that Mica will achieve contentment, "but it was a potential contentment. A maybe thing. One of the many paths Mica could take. And beside that path was deceit and rage, to the other side was agony and heartache. The path would depend on too many things. It would depend on Mica and on a Breed....Mica was Navarro's mate, but her friend's happiness would lie in another Breed's hands. A Breed other than her mate." (pp. 18-19)
Although this is the typically steamy SMR story one expects from this series, I was disturbed by the huge number of typographical and editing errors (particularly in continuity) that turned up again and again. For example, one momentous scene begins with Navarro and Mica, fully clothed, confronting each other in a subterranean hallway and ends with them naked in their bedroom a few paragraphs later, never having left the hallway or cast off their clothing—at least not to the reader's knowledge. Missing pages? Editing error? Careless writing? Whatever it was, something definitely went wrong here.
The plot also has a few holes in it. For example, why were the bad guys so intent on capturing Mica that they sent multiple heavily armed teams of men to search Manhattan for her? Who really knows? (Not the reader, that's for sure.) And why don't Navarro and Mica ever talk through their problems—just once? Never happens—even after they decide that they love each other. The "love thing" just falls into place with absolutely no discussion whatsoever.
Another problem is the unbelievability of the climax. I was reading along, came to that part, and said, "Huh?" (I might have said something a bit stronger.) It was as if Leigh had to wind it up quickly so she threw in...well I can't tell you what she threw in or I'd spoil it for you. Suffice it to say that it's the kind of hokey scene you'd find in a Nancy Drew mystery, like The Hidden Staircase, for instance. Anyhow, Leigh still writes the best erotic sex scenes in paranormal fiction, so if you love that earth-shattering moment when the mating heat takes hold, this one's for you.
FELINE BREEDS, BOOK 11: Lawe's Justice
FELINE BREEDS, BOOK 11: Lawe's Justice
Lawe's Justice overlaps the novella, "An Inconvenient Mate," in Tied with a Bow anthology. Click HERE to read my review of "An Inconvenient Mate."
Lawe's Justice begins with a prologue that finds Lawe, a Lion Breed, and his brother, Rule Breaker, in the cages of Phillip Brandenmore's "scientific" laboratories, listening to the dying screams of their mother, Morningstar Martinez, as she is being vivisected. Flash forward to the present and we have Lawe and Rule working for Jonas Wyatt and the Bureau of Breed Affairs. Lawe is now second in command to Jonas. He has pulled out of active field work because he has discovered that he has a mate, and mated Breeds generally take behind-the-scenes jobs so that they don't risk death to themselves and their mates. Lawe's potential mate is Diane Broen, the human niece of Phillip Brandenmore, who died in a previous book after spending many years capturing and experimenting on Breeds. Diane has been working as a mercenary commander for years, lately for Jonas and the Breeds. Neither Lawe nor Diane want to complete the mating bond. Lawe keeps remembering his mother's screams as she died, and he doesn't want to put Diane in danger by becoming her full mate. If he does mate with her, though, he wants her to quite her job and stay at home. Diane, on the other hand, sees herself as a warrior, and she's afraid that Lawe will force her to live in the Sanctuary, barefoot and pregnant, as the saying goes. All through the book, they agonize over this problem in endless interior monologues and argue it out in many verbal battles.
The secondary plot line involves Gideon, and this is the plot that is related to "An Inconvenient Mate." Gideon is the Breed suspected of going feral. He was driven mad by Brandenmore's experiments and has been tracking down Brandenmore's scientists, mutilating each one before he kills them. He is also trying to find three Breeds who escaped from the cages with him, one of whom infected him with her blood when she gave him a transfusion to save his life before leaving him behind. Gideon believes that her blood is the cause of his feral fever, and he's determined to punish her for what she did to him. (I'm thinking that the odds are pretty good that she will turn out to be his bond mate.) As the tension builds, both Gideon and the not-so-happy couple wind up on the Navajo Reservation shortly after the events depicted in "An Inconvenient Mate." At that point, a climactic scene resolves the mate-bond situation between Lawe and Diane, but leaves Gideon's task uncompleted.
Once again, this book is filled with editing errors. Sometimes I actually felt that paragraphs were in the wrong order or that sentences were missing. Other times, the narrative was so jumbled that I found myself going back to re-read a page or two so that I could understand exactly what just happened. In addition, the repetition of information drags down the narrative—and the action. I found myself paging past these scenes, anxious to get on with the action. For example, in one two-page segment of a lengthy internal monologue, Gideon feels the need to tell us three times that he has identified the traitor on Diane's team of mercenaries, including twice stating that he discovered the traitor's identity in the past 24 hours. I truly believe that the average reader understood this after reading it once.
¿Which the next books of Breeds? I cant´t find any news
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