Midnight Sins [Mass Market Paperback]

This wasn't a bad book, in fact, it was much better than recent LL releases, and in particular the dire Dangerous Pleasures. I had read a couple of less-than-positive reviews on amazon.com that made me think twice about getting this one (which was pre-ordered and paid for and already on its way by then) and making LL a `library-borrow' author rather than a `autobuy' one, but I did quite like this book. It also managed not to call characters by each other's names and there weren't that many typos that I could see - a major change! - but the lack of punctuation in a couple of long, descriptive paragraphs made me read and read again until I got what the author was aiming for, but still, that's only a small niggle in comparison to recent books. Another plus is that there weren't any missing pages, unlike in Navarro's Promise. There were however a few character name changes, including some of the future leads, who should all have been Callahans, as they were the sons of three Callahan brothers...so that made no sense at all. I have to ask, though, was there any editing or proof-reading done by any kind of professional? Anyway...

This is the tale of Rafer Callahan and Cambria Flannigan, and introduces a trilogy in which his cousins Logan and Crowe will have their own tales, and if I am not mistaken, we get to hear about both of their female leads briefly in this book; I think Crowe may end up with his tale next.

There wasn't much story to this tale, other than the fact that the guys are the three sons of Irish brothers who married the three richest and prettiest girls in the county, despite each girl already being engaged to guys of their parents' choosing. The whole town hated both the older and the younger generation of Callahan males, with each set of disapproving and unloving parents/grandparents hating them the most - but we get no explanation whatsoever for said hatred??. And each lot of Callahan parents had mysteriously met with untimely deaths and their sons were being forced to battle their grandparents, and seemingly the whole town, for their inheritance. But, hey, the guys are of Irish descent and determined not to give up on what is rightly theirs, so they come back to claim their inheritance and to break the Callahans' curse.

The book starts when Cambria - Cami - the female lead is 13, and when her older sister Jaymi, who has just lost her Najavo husband, Tye, the love of her life, in Afghanistan. Rafer was Tye's best friend and promised to be there for Jaymi and as her sleeping with him was apparently her way of keeping her ties to Tye (please excuse the pun), they were bed-buddies. Not lovers in the true sense according to either of them, but best friends who were there for each other (shades of Men of Summer, where Jazz performs the same role in Loving Lies, when Slade leaves Jesse. BTW, Jazz is soon to get his own tale; I just hope he has grown up a bit!). Cami was aware of her sister and Rafer being lovers, and Jaymi knew that Cami already loved Rafer at that young age and Jaymi didn't have an issue with sleeping with the guy her sister loved, as when she did, she always called him by her dead husband's name, and Rafer seemed to have no issues with this (??). Anyway, Jaymi is killed (shades of the movie Ghost when she sees her Tye waiting for her in The Light, as her life ebbs from her) and a few years later, Rafer and Cami become occasional lovers. I mean occasional as they seem to meet once a year, have sex, go their separate ways, but unknown to Rafer, the night that he took Cami's virginity, he left her pregnant, though she miscarried. And neither of them have ever discussed Jaymi and his sleeping with her and him now sleeping with Cami...hmmm...Also, their timeline is skewed, as there is mention of them having seen each other over 5 years, over 3 years and there is question of the number of times that they have actually been together in all of this time, none of which actually ties in with Cami's age.

Present day, Cami is in the same sort of danger that led to Jaymi's death and the three Callahans are there to protect her, in between her and Rafer having endless opportunities to have hot, descriptive, steamy sex (shades of Nauti boys when Kelly was being stalked in N Boy, and also shades of Men of August with the mysterious baddies in their own midst, but NO menage). And of course, none of the guys have to work, yet seemingly all have plenty of money, despite their fights for their inheritance, and all happen to be ex-Marine snipers....hmmm, seen that before?

The baddie in this tale very conveniently offed himself without even a fair fight and Cami, the damsel not quite in distress, finds her HEA with Rafer, but not before Crowe's possible future damsel is endangered slightly, and comes back into his life - cue his tale next?

Overall, this seemed to be endless bed-scenes, lots of `we are not lovers, we are not in a relationship' talk, lots of `everyone hates us without reason' talk, lots of `mystery surrounds the death of our three lots of parents in an off-the-cliffside-road-accident, but we haven't figured it out yet, and cannot see coincidences in all the deaths, the death threats, the cut brake-lines in various cars' talk, but we get no explanation of why the younger generation of Callahans are so hated and why their grandparents actually seem to have a valid claim on their inheritance. Baddies who roll over and die conveniently without an explanation of why they actually were the baddies, parents who conspire against the happiness of their own daughters (in both Cami's and Crowe's girl's cases), lots and lots of characters who are just name dropped to add to who is loyal and a true friend and who isn't, and this is definitely a Seen That, Read That LL tale. Overall, not bad, but definitely still not LL of Ellora's Cave days. I will still read the next, as there seems to be some heartache over why Crowe did not end up with his girl, and why she was forced into marriage with someone else, and there may be a touch more love and romance there, but I am still not convinced that LL needs to remain an `autobuy' author for me. In fact, after the next book, I will try one more Breeds tale out and if that's not up to scratch, it will be `reserve the pre-order LL book at the library' for me.

I won't go into the story(as the first reviewer has don so) or the inconsistencies which were very few and didn't really spoil the story I'm just going to say what I thought about it....I thought it could have been better if it had more action instead of just thinking aloud why everyone hated the callahan cousins from being children, I know LL was trying to lay the foundation of a trilogy and the next book will have a few answers in. (hopefully) Also the sex scenes went on and on and on I began just flicking through the pages, I love a book with sex scenes in I read all her breed books I just felt they got a bit monotonous. The story was ok and the characters were well written but would I buy the next book in the series??? I honestly don't know, I won't pre-order it If I buy it, it will probably be because I don't have anything else to read.

I had hoped that this one would be a bit better than her previous ones. Quite an involved story as you have seen from the other reviewer. Lora could use a good proof reader as there were quite a few inconsistencies in the plot, one were the Rafe and Cami's previous meetings. The next one Rafe's uncle Clyde Ramsey, one minute he's Rafe's mothers uncle, then he's her brother though his name should then have been Roberts not Ramsey and the other one is on page 315 Cami say that 'Amelia kept a diary' but later on say's that its her diary, please keep to the same plot. If Lora need a good proof reader I am willing to help. Deb the avid reader.