Gwen’s review of Mercury’s War (Breeds, Book 16) by Lora Leigh
Futuristic paranormal erotic romance released by Berkley Sensation 7 Oct 08

This is another excellent Breeds book.  It reads fine on its own, but you’ll get more from the story if you’re familiar with the Breeds world.  However, while excellent I have a few reservations about the development of the heroine’s story arc.  This is a complaint I rarely have with a Leigh book, so it surprised me to have it here. 

I love Mercury as a hero.  He is a standoff-ish, very controlled character when the story starts.  Due to trauma from the labs and chemicals they had him on, he’s suppressed his inner animal so ruthlessly that, while he looks more like a lion than his counterparts, he acts the least like one.  It’s no spoiler to say that by the end of the book, he’s come to recognize his beast and has come to a balance and peace with that side of his nature.

Mercury’s journey isn’t possible without meeting Ria.   She’s equally controlled and shut-down at the beginning of the book.  Her control results from wearing dowdy clothing and ruthlessly dressed hair. She only lets her true feminine nature come out when she’s alone, if then.  The circumstances of her life makes her want to blend in to the background, where it’s safe from rejection and attention.  She’s an expert code-breaker and this “gray” exterior allows her to be particularly effective when sent on assignments by the Leo, her boss.

Mercury makes it his mission to pull Ria out of her shell – let her be the woman outside that he knows she is on the inside.  The mating heat the two are going thru make it imperative that she accept her, and his, true natures.  This in turn causes Mercury to come to accept his true nature.  This reluctant blossoming is a sweet part of the story that we don’t always get in an intense Breeds book.  Breeds are hyper-sexual – this one is no exception – and full of action and adventure – we have that too – but seldom sweet.  It was a nice change and made for a really good story.

What bothered me, and it’s a small quibble now that I think about it, was that the heroine’s true nature isn’t really hinted at earlier in the story.  That made me doubt not trust it entirely when it was revealed.  It felt a little deus ex machina, but, again, didn’t detract too much from the story for me.

I found this Amazon.com review to be interesting.  If what it says is true, it explains a few things that I’ve seen in evidence in the last few Breeds books – namely, the lack of buttsecks.  Now, this could be simply because Leigh saves those particular tidbits (eww) for her non-Breeds books, or there could be some veracity to the reviewer’s opinion that Berkley wants a more “mainstream” erotic bent (heh) to the Breeds series.  Regardless, there is far less of the extreme sex in War than we’ve seen in the past.  Not that there isn’t some seriously hot action going on — Mercury is one seriously hawt hero.

Leigh has given us another hot Breeds story with trademark excellent action and good character development. I’m looking forward to Book 18, Coyote’s Mate, coming Feb 2009.

Grade: B+

Read reviews and other information on this series by following the Breeds series tag.

Summary:

Someone has been slipping the Sanctuary’s secure information to a pharmaceutical company. Now it’s up to Ria Rodriguez 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.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series (in rough reading order):