I've been waiting for Dawn and Seth's story ever since they met in The Man Within (second in Leigh's Breed Series.)

Well worth the wait! It was emotional, gripping, sexy, and I even had a little chuckle there at the end.

Here's the send up:

Scarred from their horrific time in the labs that created genetically engineered man/ animal cross breeds- and from the treacherous dealings of a breed she had once considered brother- Dawn is the most emotionally vulnerable of all of them.

Having met when Seth turned up looking for Roni (The Man Within), his long lost sister and Dawn's sister-in-Law; Seth and Dawn are destined to be mates. Callan, head of the feline Breeds located at the Sanctuary compound, makes the decision to share with Seth her tortured background at the hands of their creators, knowing that Dawn was not ready for the demands of the mating heat- an unforeseen phenomenon with the breeds and a well guarded secret.

After seeing the evidence of her abuse, Seth makes the decision to stay far away from her until such time she would be ready to come to him.

Ten years later, Dawn is awakening, and a situation has come up that places her mate in imminent peril. Someone is trying to kill Seth, and despite all the conflict between them, she's letting no one else protect him.

No longer the shy, wounded girl he once knew, she is ready to go toe to toe with him- and is angered over the fact that he left her alone all these years, even while knowing she was in no way ready for the heat between them.

Oh yes someone's out to destroy, but no one guesses who the true target is until it's almost too late.

Dawn's story wrenched my heart, but I cheered her courage when she laid aside all her misgivings and went after him- especially knowing she wasn't quite healed from all her past experiences. What else could she do after she found out he had conquered the ravages of the mating heat and was ready to propose marriage to another woman? She'd have to fight her inner demons- and him!- to win him back ... and that's exactly what she did.

DA didn't get into all the kink that LL is known for, but it still delivered enough steam to fog my reading glasses- well, it would have if I had them!

I just loved the intrigue plot line of someone sniping at them from under cover (nothing new but somehow it worked), as well as the side family issues going on between she and Callan. (I think Callan suffering self-imposed guilt on not being able to protect Dawn as he felt he should have wrenched my heart just as much as Dawn and Seth's tale!)

Many of the characters we've come to know and love appeared in this one, Callan, Merc, Dash, Elizabeth & Cassie, to name just a few, as well as some of the breeds we hope to see get their own story's- JONAS!

If you gave up on the Breeds after Harmony's Way, you need to pick it back up again. Tanner's Scheme and Dawn's Awakening are not to be missed! And if you've never read a Breed, DA's is as good as any to start with- although I do suggest reading Tempting The Beast (1st in the Series) as soon as possible! ( )

I felt as if the story of Dawn and Seth was overshadowed by all the other story arches occurring in the book. Honestly, I got a little lost at one point because I thought Leigh had slipped in a story within a story. ( )

**Courtesy of CK2S Kwips & Kritiques**

Tortured mercilessly in the Breed labs, Dawn’s nightmare should have ended when her Pride escaped the evil Council and left the labs behind. But her torment continued afterwards, at the hands of a Pride brother she should have been able to trust, a Breed who would betray his entire Pride.

Years have passed since their escape from the labs and the discovery of the traitorous Breed. Dawn has grown strong, into a Breed Enforcer to be reckoned with, but is not without enduring pain. The torture she experienced has kept her from the Mate she found ten years earlier. But the Mating Heat grows unbearable for Dawn, and she is determined to do whatever it takes to claim Seth Lawrence as her Mate once and for all.

Seth has suffered too, although hormonally the Mating Heat is not as difficult for males as for females. But it is more than the Mating Heat that causes Seth’s pain – his heart is breaking without the woman he loves, although he would do anything to prevent Dawn’s pain – even if that means he must deny himself to prevent her nightmares from returning.

Nothing can prevent those nightmares from returning, both in Dawn’s dreams and in the waking world. She’ll need Seth more than ever to handle the horror she is about to face.

Just how many favorite books can I have in one series? If you had asked me before I read Dawn’s Awakening which of Lora Leigh’s Breeds books was my favorite, I would have debated between Tanner’s Scheme and Elizabeth’s Wolf, finally settling on a tie. With this new edition in her gripping saga of genetically manipulated people whose DNA is spliced with animal DNA, Dawn’s Awakening has unexpectedly earned its place in my top three favorite Breeds stories.

When we first met Seth Lawrence in The Man Within, he was kind and noble. In Dawn’s Awakening, he is still both, but we finally see the man underneath, as Ms. Leigh delivers a human hero to rival any Breed male we have yet seen in terms of sex appeal and sheer Alpha dominance. Make no mistake, this ex-military man turned head of international conglomerate Lawrence Industries is no pushover, despite his devotion to Dawn and the sacrifices he has made in regards to her well-being. Now that he sees her again, he understands what she needs more than anything is not the distance he has given her for so many years, but to be pushed to her limits, to face her pain and take control of it. And he is the man who will be there with her every step of the way.

Dawn’s pain is so strong you can feel it emanating from the very pages of this book. How a person, even a Breed, could survive the traumas she has sustained and remain as sane as Dawn has is amazing. But that sanity is near its breaking point as both the Mating Heat and the nightmares from her past bubble to the surface, threatening to consume her once and for all. Digging deep for the strength she has within, Dawn finally finds it within her to reach for the things she wants most, and what she wants most is Seth. Seeing her allow him inside her considerable defenses without losing that inner strength she has built so meticulously over the years is heartwarming and heartrending all at once.

You will want to have a big box of tissue handy when you sit down to read Dawn’s Awakening. I highly recommend Puff’s Plus, as the lotion prevents skin chafing from the numerous times you will be wiping the tears from your eyes and face. But this isn’t just a tearjerker of a romance, it is also a riveting suspense-filled story as Seth and Dawn work together to ferret out the person or persons threatening their lives.

Of course, through it all, our couple find time for some searing sex scenes guaranteed to leave readers hot and bothered during and after reading Dawn’s Awakening! I have said it before and I will say it again – no one knows how to turn me on like Lora Leigh! With her books, of course… LOL ( )