Dawn's Awakening

**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 show more 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 show less

The heroine is still so tormented by her experience in the breed camp and all the disgusting things done to her there that she's regressed her memories to deal with it. But she still has nightly vivid nightmares and is broken psychotically and breaking more every day. She's known the human breed supporter was her mate and though they did nothing more than touch for a brief time it was enough to start the mating heat. But she pushed him away. She's never felt good enough or strong enough to be what he needed. But when she finds out that not only has the mating heat disappeared from his body (something that should be impossible) but he's also engaged to another woman something inside her snaps. She reacts on pure instinct and becomes show more determined to make sure no other woman has any claim on her mate. She doesn't understand why the news changes her so severely but it does. She inserts herself back into his life-much to the displeasure of her pack mates and the hero himself. See, he's suffered a lot of heartache and pain when he decided to distances himself from the breed female but he's finally gotten his life back on track. Though he stills loves her, he knows he can't be around her else the mating heat flare up again. And he can't allow that to happen. He's seen the tapes of what she endured in the camps and he knows that after what she's been through- there's no way she could ever welcome a sexual encounter. Much to his shock however- she's back and she's thrown signals that she wants him as a woman should what her mate. I really enjoyed this book because it was such a different change of pace from the other books in the series. The sex was still hot but it wasn't porno hot and not nearly as graphic-which I was happy about. Instead it was tastefully done and therefore resulted in a deeper connections-I felt- between the characters. This book was super dramatic but fortunately that's something I like in my stories. The heroine was such a complex, tortured yet strong character. She's slowly remembered all that's happened to her but what pains her most is the idea of her mate seeing her like that. She kept her emotions tight to her chest and even when she felt like she would die from anguish, she found a way to keep her head up and power through. This is something I admired greatly and the fact that when she does in time lose it, the hero is there to comfort her. The hero was an amazing character as well. He's human which is something that would initially put me off but he's very in tune with the breed world and in fact shows signs of having a deeper animalistic nature himself. I thought this was so far one of the best books to the series and it give me hope that this author can actually write stories with some heart. show less

Dawn the cougar breed has had the worst done to her. She has come out of it with a tortured soul. Her memories are blanked out right now just enough to keep her sane. What will happen when they start to return? Will her love, her mate that she turned away be able to save her ?
Nothing is easy in this story of a tortured little girl. It is very dark. I did not enjoy it as much as I did the other breed book I have read, Bengal's Heart. It was more predictable. I did not develop a connection to the characters, and the child torture was awful to read. The sex, over written. 2.5 stars

I've been waiting and waiting for Dawn's story to come around! This story is an emotional roller coaster and only the third in this series to bring tears to my eyes. The journey Dawn had to go through to get to a good place with her mate was long and hard. I was happy to see Cassie come back into play as well. I love that character. The intrigue with the stranger is something I will look forward to as well.

This erotic romance had a pretty good plot and when there was action it was exciting but the rest of the story was just the heroine fighting her emotions or suppressing her inner animal or having sex, not much romance. Dawn's reconnects with her mate Seth after a ten year separation while she tried to heal from her childhood torture.

This is probably the hardest of the Breed books to read or at least for me it is. So keep the tissue close because I have found parts throughout the story that I needed them. There is so much going on in this story, Dawn and Seth as well as Cassie. When I first read this book I was surprised that Seth had been able to make the mating heat start to go away. I was so sad that Dawn was losing Seth. She needed him so bad. She was so broken and hurt. I was surprised that she had survived as long as she did. I remember her from the earlier books and what her pride brother had done to her. Seth was the perfect mate of the wound warrior. There are so many surprises at the end of the story and you just have to shake your head at what happens. I show more am sure the Council guard trying to kidnap Cassie and Dawn in front of so many influential people has helped the Breed place in society. Cassie is a much loved member of Breed community. Having her hurt by a madman will definitely make for some juicy headlines. I still wonder how much is going on in Ms. Leigh's head as far as the Council is concerned. There are so many things being hinted at and so many direction that the story could go. I am off to read the next story. show less

I'd spent some time apart from the Breeds and what a way to come back! Incredible gut wrenching hot and sexy book with some awesome characters and plot. I just have to say that this one has made its was to the top of my Breeds' favorites!