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Book Review of Lion's Heat (Breeds, Bk 20)

Lion's Heat (Breeds, Bk 20)
Lion's Heat (Breeds, Bk 20)
Author: Lora Leigh
Genre: Romance
Book Type: Paperback
Bookfanatic avatar reviewed on


I have mixed feelings about this book. I was so looking forward to the story of Jonas Wyatt, the engimatic director the Bureau of Breed Affairs. I really wanted him to have a mate that was his equal. This doesn't happen. I'm hoping the woman in this book is a false mate like Mercury and his mate in the labs.

In the previous Breed books, we've seen that Jonas Wyatt is an extremely intelligent, manipulative, power player who has a single focus. He wants to make sure his people, the genetically engineered animal/humans, survive and thrive in the world. He's one big bad alpha Breed who invokes fear in even the toughest of opponents. He deserved a mate who was equally tough and smart. I didn't feel he got a mate that was his equal. He needed someone similar to Ria who is Mercury's mate. Someone who wasn't weak or timid or hysterical. Even Dr. Ely would have been a better match for Jonas. Who does he get? Rachel, his secretary, who for nearly two thirds of the book won't even let him kiss her. Seriously, if an alpha male Breed were to ever come into my life and say I was his lifemate, I wouldn't hesitate to kiss him! Especially not if the Breed is Jonas Wyatt, the handsomest, biggest baddest Primal Lion Breed in the series. Who would turn down Jonas except a heroine who is too stupid to live?

There are so many scene continuity errors in this book that I wonder if the editor was asleep. It's also never explained how Rachel can control her emotions as well as a Breed. Is she a recessed Breed? If not, what is she? How does she have that control and who taught her that? She's able to fool Jonas a few times and you know that's not easy to do!

The character development was flat. I felt there needed to much more information on Rachel. We never get a good sense of her past, her family other than her sister, or what she's really like. She pops out of nowhere as a super efficient secretary/financial expert. If you didn't know Jonas from the previous books, you really wouldn't get a good sense of him in this book, but again most of us have read the previous 20 books so I'll give Leigh a pass on Jonas. Still, she should have done a better job with developing Rachel's character. Rachel came off as whiny, stupid, prudish, and inconsiderate.

I expected more gloating, teasing from the Breed Enforcers now that Jonas is under the Mating Heat. There's really nothing like that. No humor at all. Given how often Jonas manipulated the others into finding their mates, it's shocking that more isn't made of his past.

The actual sexual scenes between the two are pretty tame compared to say what's in Tanner's Scheme or Megan's Mark. Given how dominant he is in all other aspects of his life, it was a disappointment that he was so mushy and so not an alpha male. I expected to see more of his um..expertise in that aspect. I expected there to be something similar to the sink scene between Vishous and Jane in JR Ward's Lover Unbound book.

I give this book 2.5 stars.