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A review by hmmreads
Tempting the Beast by Lora Leigh
2.0
2 stars
Okay... this book was kinda bad and a hot mess. The world building was weak and all over the place. FMC was a bitch and MMC wasn't that interesting. The sex was bleh.
We started the book with Merinus (the h, I can't get over how odd that name is for a girl/in general) arguing with her family of guys (in total seven bros and their dad) about wanting to get involved in Callan's story. Her dad's part of the National Forum and her and her brothers were also involved in the news cycle in some way. Out of the family, Kane, the eldest, and the dad were the only ones highlighted.
Their dad was sent scientific evidence of Callan's existence by his surrogate mother and proof of the violence he endured while he was in the lab. Apparently, a bunch of people that had soldiers, had this lab and were breeding human-feline species. The book did a piss-poor job explaining this too. They used "soldiers" in the same breath talking about the government (supposedly the good guys in this world) while both could've meant the same side of people, because government-army-soldier, you know? It was just a mess and confusing. Callan's surrogate mother and Merinus' whole family's idea was that exposing Callan to the world would get the bad guys locked up and so Callan didn't have to hide anymore from these soldiers. Callan thought this was a bad idea because the world would treat him as a freak and the gov would just run more tests on him instead, which fair point, what would've happened in the real world. But of course, Merinus was too naive and thought the gov was all good and great and exposing Callan would solve the problem for good. So besides the data, Merinus needed Callan to come out of hiding as evidence. So she was there tracking him. Kane, the eldest brother was supposedly well-connected and scary (I didn't really get what this job really was tbh) and super protective but somehow was the one that supported Merinus to approach Callan. And I don't think this was ever explained.
Turns out, Callan and Merinus were mates. She started going into heat and they mated, she lost her virginity. Callan's doctor had to take a bunch of test and Merinus was grouchy, uncooperative, and annoying about it all the damn time. She was hot and cold toward Callan, always needing her independence (bcs she's not like other girls. this was also noted at the beginning of the book with her not wearing makeup) but she was just so hot for him. Callan was a detached person so he kept her at arms-length at first but then he started to be protective of her because of their bond. At least he was consistent.
Callan wasn't the only Pride left and there were like idk 6 of them. Kane turned out to be an ex-soldier working for the labs and had to rape one of the shifter girls as an experiment. Kane turned out to be the mate of this girl. There was this side thing with one of the guy shifter where he betrayed Callan because he wanted to be alpha. It was stupid and unnecessary.
I so did not want Merinus's stupid exposee belief to be the endgame but of course it was. Callan willingly got exposed and things went all fine and dandy. We got a brief pov from the bad guy saying it wasn't over blablabla but the rest of the world was just basically, "yeah, whatever". Which was just SO realistic ugh.
I originally wanted to give this book a 3 stars, but the more I write the more the stars are going down. It's currently at a 1 but I guess I'll give it a 2.
Okay... this book was kinda bad and a hot mess. The world building was weak and all over the place. FMC was a bitch and MMC wasn't that interesting. The sex was bleh.
We started the book with Merinus (the h, I can't get over how odd that name is for a girl/in general) arguing with her family of guys (in total seven bros and their dad) about wanting to get involved in Callan's story. Her dad's part of the National Forum and her and her brothers were also involved in the news cycle in some way. Out of the family, Kane, the eldest, and the dad were the only ones highlighted.
Their dad was sent scientific evidence of Callan's existence by his surrogate mother and proof of the violence he endured while he was in the lab. Apparently, a bunch of people that had soldiers, had this lab and were breeding human-feline species. The book did a piss-poor job explaining this too. They used "soldiers" in the same breath talking about the government (supposedly the good guys in this world) while both could've meant the same side of people, because government-army-soldier, you know? It was just a mess and confusing. Callan's surrogate mother and Merinus' whole family's idea was that exposing Callan to the world would get the bad guys locked up and so Callan didn't have to hide anymore from these soldiers. Callan thought this was a bad idea because the world would treat him as a freak and the gov would just run more tests on him instead, which fair point, what would've happened in the real world. But of course, Merinus was too naive and thought the gov was all good and great and exposing Callan would solve the problem for good. So besides the data, Merinus needed Callan to come out of hiding as evidence. So she was there tracking him. Kane, the eldest brother was supposedly well-connected and scary (I didn't really get what this job really was tbh) and super protective but somehow was the one that supported Merinus to approach Callan. And I don't think this was ever explained.
Turns out, Callan and Merinus were mates. She started going into heat and they mated, she lost her virginity. Callan's doctor had to take a bunch of test and Merinus was grouchy, uncooperative, and annoying about it all the damn time. She was hot and cold toward Callan, always needing her independence (bcs she's not like other girls. this was also noted at the beginning of the book with her not wearing makeup) but she was just so hot for him. Callan was a detached person so he kept her at arms-length at first but then he started to be protective of her because of their bond. At least he was consistent.
Callan wasn't the only Pride left and there were like idk 6 of them. Kane turned out to be an ex-soldier working for the labs and had to rape one of the shifter girls as an experiment. Kane turned out to be the mate of this girl. There was this side thing with one of the guy shifter where he betrayed Callan because he wanted to be alpha. It was stupid and unnecessary.
I so did not want Merinus's stupid exposee belief to be the endgame but of course it was. Callan willingly got exposed and things went all fine and dandy. We got a brief pov from the bad guy saying it wasn't over blablabla but the rest of the world was just basically, "yeah, whatever". Which was just SO realistic ugh.
I originally wanted to give this book a 3 stars, but the more I write the more the stars are going down. It's currently at a 1 but I guess I'll give it a 2.