Navarro's Promise (Breeds Novels) [Mass Market Paperback]

I am a fan of Lora Leigh's breed series and of her books in general. However this book was a big disappointment. I have read all the previous books and am familiar with all the preceding characters but for anyone reading this book as their intro to the breeds they would be very confused. Characters are referred to with little reference to their context. Annoyingly she does refer to the feline leaders Merinus and Callan on numerous occasions with the same reference on how they 'announced' the breed presence to the world each time.
The plot is very thin with very little action happening, the book has very long rambling and repetitive 'love' scenes and an awful lot of the hero and heroines thoughts and angst which are again very repetitive. Some of the set pieces are ridiculous, for example the bad guy escapes from his 'impenetrable' cell twice with no real explanation of how he did it. The editing is also dire, at one point the main characters Mica and Navarro aregetting it on in a lift then in the next sentence he is getting out of bed.
I think Ms Leigh and her team have seriously gone off the boil, perhaps she has milked this particular series dry. I would like to read Cassie's story and there are a couple of other characters I would like to read about such as Rule and Lawe but I wont be pre ordering any other of Ms Leighs books as I have done in the past, I will wait for the release and reviews before committing.

After reading this book I went back and re-read the first three novels in the series, which were published under Ellora's Cave, and I realised that other than certain recurring characters, the tales, the writing style, the 'heat' and the content are nothing like the Lora Leigh of old.

Yes, she's found a fanbase and is making more money now that she's with a mainstream i.e. more 'respectable' publisher, but the books are just being churned out, they're not as hot nor as interesting, not do they move the tale on that much. I find myself not really caring enough about many of the characters, other than Cassie and her mystery man, whose book is still a few years off. I do think, that many of the changes are due to the author's break-up with her husband, whom she'd described as her rock, and acrimonious divorce, as the change in her style came about around the same time.

This book had the same usual typos, characters being called by other characters' names, Merinus being a certain age on one page, and having aged several years a few pages (and only a few days in the novel) later. IM, was there no proof-reading or editing?. If you've read the book entirely and come away puzzled about continuity and how a snogging session in a hall suddenly morphs into sex on a bed without anyone moving and without explanation, you'll realise that there are in fact several pages missing. I was puzzling over this and then found blogs where it 'seems' that 'Lora Leigh' has apologised for this, as the book skips some 10-15 pages and whole events have been wiped out. There's no mention on any of the internet blogs nor on her website as to how this may be resolved (nor does she have any mention of this, let alone a formal apology on her website), but there's supposedly an expression of 'her disappointment and an apology on her behalf and that of her publishers'...

What annoyed me most is that the No1 baddie that they'd managed to capture in the last book escaped several times in this novel, despite supposedly being guarded by the most bad-a** of the bad-a** Breeds around, and yet no explanation whatsoever was given. The tale barely moved on from the last book, other than said baddie meeting his end, and typically, without revealing his dastardly secret. So of course, we see Jonas still worrying about his child and lots of testerone and anger etc. etc. And Ely is behaving erratically, yet we get no explanation for her actions nor her supposed actions, and I was wondering whether there was a point to all of this - maybe I missed it in the missing pages of the book.

The scene in the van where Navarro is forced to lie on top of Micah as they are being tracked by baddies using their heat signatures is totally ridiculous - he's not even allowed to shift by an inch to make either of them more comfortable, as that could give their presence away. IM, they're lying on the floor of a speeding van, which is swaying whilst the driver is dodging baddies and we're meant to believe that they're both managing to keep themselves immobile for several miles, despite him being aroused and her suffering from damaged ribs? Suspension of disbelief, much?...

These days, the Breeds seem to be full of 'will they/won't they' get together, and too much angst over the mating heat and I'm actually getting a little tired of hearing about all the testing of blood, semen and female arousal etc. It's like a routine screening at your GP! The characters themselves don't seem to be that important to the series nor that interesting, yet more and more names are being dropped, simply IMHO, to be able to expand the series. And their names are getting as silly as those of the characters from JR Ward's BDB series!

To give the author her due, she's had a hard time of it and yes, she's a single parent now so needs all the money she can make, and has several existing series on the go, as well as starting new ones, so clearly, she's not totally out of ideas, but the Breeds are getting a bit 'been there, seen that, read that'...

I will continue to read her, but as my local library now gets all of her books in, I think I'd rather pay the minimal reservation fee, rather than forking out for the paperback - they're not quite worth it any more.

i have read all of lora leigh's breed books & am a fan.however,this lastest offering was a let down.the story dragged on and had very little action.for those who have read her previous books will probably be let down the most.there was barely a mention of the long running story lines and what was mentioned wasn't worth that much!!the love scenes were nothing special either!rather they seemed to be merely a repetition of other's before it.
if your a avid Breed fan,you will more than likely want to read this just to see for yourself,but i would advise that you either borrow a copy, or buy one cheaply.
i would normally recommend LL's books,but sadly this time i can't.i do however,recommend that you look at other books in her breed series (esp coyotes mate imo!!lol!!).2.5*