Megan's Mark

Fundamentally, this book lacks consistency.

At first it seems to be about two strong alpha personalities and the sexual battle royale between them. Braden is a Breed - a genetically engineered blend of human and lion, battle trained, superhuman, but ruled by animal urges. Megan is a tough cop with extensive military training whose incredibly strong empathic powers prevent her from working in teams, or in large cities...forcing her to live and work as a lone wolf. The early action-packed sequences between the two are all about their powerful sexual attraction building through a contest of wills.

And then Megan turns into a fragile weakling and Braden takes on the role of a tutor or protector. After Megan fearlessly investigates a murder show more scene and twice fends off mysterious Breed assassins (killing a couple of them along the way) her character does a 180. We are expected to believe that actually, she can't continue the investigation because she is so averse to exposing herself to painful thoughts and emotions. Suddenly it's Braden's job to push her forward and encourage her and tell her she can do it, while Megan cowers in fear and whines shrilly about how crippling her empathic abilities are. Braden is going to protect her and teach her and deliver some tough love, while Megan resists and trembles and cringes her way through it.

Sexually, the contest of wills degenerates just as completely. Braden seems at all times totally sure of himself and his desires, a guy who's confident in the bedroom because experience has told him that he should be. Megan thinks that oral sex is really risque and whenever Braden brings up even minimally kinky sexual scenarious she calls him a pervert. She's clueless and naive. There's no contest at all, actually.

The thing is, long after it's screamingly obvious that Megan is a pretty weak and fragile sort of person, most characters in the book continue to act as though she's the tough, independent heroine she seemed to be in the beginning - Megan herself included. While she becomes weaker and more subservient by the page, everyone around her claims that she's a "warrior" or "impossible to subdue."

Braden seems to think he's imposing his will on Megan via his violent, dominent sexuality - but that's a hoax too. Mostly because Megan's resistence is a sham, but equally because Braden is so concerned about respecting her and encouraging her to be a free and independent woman. The brutal, dominating animal is mostly talk - deep down, he's a supportive partner, an idealized and bland mate of the 21st century.

MEGAN'S MARK is ultimately so confused, with so many glaring contractions between who its protagonists actually are and what they are supposed to be, that it's hard to enjoy. The positive elements of the book - like the gross yet hot sex hormone Braden secretes from a gland under his tongue - are lost in the wreckage. show less

Listened to audio narrated by Brianna Bronte. When I read this years ago, Megan came across as a strong woman with a problem with her abilities. The narrator makes her sound a lot more vulnerable and weak in the beginning, but does turn the narration around to the strong woman I remember.

Futuristic Paranormal bodice ripper kind of read. Not very politically correct in this era of Me Too.

Braden is all pushy alpha, lion Beed, he pushes Megan out of her comfort zone, making her confront her fears, as well as threaten her with spankings, but he also empowers her. Megan is an empath and after an incident in training she has been hiding. Braden pushes and bullies her into spreading her wings again, while trying to find the spy in her show more department and save her from those who would harm her. Jonas comes on the scene and makes even more trouble.

Lots of steamy, dominant sex, but our heroine proves herself a strong, capable fighter. I liked that about this story, even if I didn't always like Braden's tactics. We also get to learn more about the Breeds and other characters. Good read but if your not into bodice ripper type stories you may not enjoy this story.

More of my reviews can be found at https://wyldheartreads.wordpress.com/ show less

I say I like erotic romance, but now I wonder. I don't like Lauren Dane, Maya Banks or, apparently, Lora Leigh. My claim is looking kinda baseless. More research is in order.

Anyways, the book. Oh, the book.

Megan's Mark starts off well. Megan Fields is an empath working as a sheriff's deputy in the nice empty New Mexico desert. The blessed lack of people and action leaves her at peace, leaving her free from the overload of feeling other people's emotions.

When she checks on a SUV left in a washed out canyon, however, that quiet is gonzo.

Embroiled in a shoot-out after discovering the bullet-riddled vehicle contained two dead Breeds, Megan has to make a run for it with Braden Arness, a law enforcement agent of some sort, and a lion Breed. show more Someone's out to kill Megan, and Braden is the man assigned to keep her alive.

The world building relied on a bit more info dumping than I like. A few instances of POV from a lion Breed named Rothgar Bewcastle Jonas Wyatt provide long bursts of backstory on how the Breeds were forged of animal and human DNA in labs and treated inhumanely, long-winded descriptions of the Mating Heat, and so on. After each of these, I expected to see stardust, a rainbow and "The More You Know" emblazoned across my reader.

The first half of the book sets up the action plot. It's not quite suspense, as we know who the bad guy is. We know it's her father's friend, Senator Mac Cooley, and that he's got her surrounded. We're just waiting for Megan to learn how to control her empath abilities and figure out that Cooley's the bad guy.

All of a sudden, it's time for the sex plot. Have you seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail? You know that part of the climactic battle scene when it suddenly changes to the colorful screen that says INTERMISSION? The sex is like that. I kept humming that organ loop to myself while reading it.

The action just stops, and Tab A, Slot B sex commences for the bulk of the rest of the book. And, speaking of tabs:

Horror swept across his face as she felt the change. The swelling of the already thick crest, the extension reaching out, locking onto the back of the pulsing muscles that gripped him, feathering inside her, pressing firmly into a spot that sent sensation crashing through her mind.

Penile barb, ladies and gentlemen, penile barb.

Another common claim of mine, that I don't read for prose, might also be false. This took me days to read because the mechanical sex prose, coupled with some very purple metaphors, kept yanking me out of the book. One egregious example:

His hand landed on her ass once again as she felt the fiery head of his cock breach the virgin portal

This lead me to create a new game for roadtrips: "Sex metaphor, or World of Warcraft quest?" Certainly "breach the virgin portal" sounds like something I did in the Caverns of Time.

Then, as quckly as the Sex Phase began, it ended, and the action plot is wrapped up in a 10-15 page fury of action, leaving just enough dangling to seed a sequel. Um, WTF? WTB smooth transitions, PST.

I'm sad to say that I did not enjoy the book. I did enjoy the action sequences immensely in a Michael Bay things go A-SPLODE sort of way, but they weren't woven together well enough with the sexxoring to hold my interest. I have the next few books in the series, as I grabbed them all when they were free, so I may try the next one. As it stands, however, I did not like how she wrote the sex scenes, and they took up much of the book.

Note to Author: Vaginal lubrication is not opaque and white. Repeatedy calling it "cream" turned my stomach. Opaque and white means the girl's got an infection. Those do not make for sexy cunnilingus. Jus' sayin' is all. show less

The Breed series was new to me when I read this - I found the concept very interesting (note that I'm writing this review long afterward, though I remember it pretty well, I think). Genetically modified people (and their being people is a major part of the story!) make for very interesting situations. However. The characters acted inconsistently, as I recall - I remember yelling at Megan a couple times about "You're an empath, idiot! Use it!" (and not when she was shrinking from contact - that's a valid reason not to use her abilities). I also find the "overwhelming lust" trope quite annoying, and this was a very bad extension of it - they literally _could_ not control their lust for each other, _because_ of that genetically modified show more business. The sex was hot...but again, it seemed a copout - it was extra special hot because of the genetic modification (twoing!). Bah. At the end of the story, I was sufficiently intrigued that I wanted to read more of the Breeds (and find the earlier books - despite the cover info saying this was the first, it was clearly part of a continuing story. Now I know the earlier ones were published elsewhere). But this one was not a favorite. show less

Megan's Mark
4 Stars

Synopsis:
Megan Fields, an empath who has a hard time shielding herself from the emotions of others, finds solace in the peace and quiet of the New Mexico desert until the day she finds the bodies of two breeds. As a sheriff’s deputy, Megan is partnered with Braden Arness, an arrogant feline assassin, in the search for the killers. Megan and Braden clash in every way but must learn to trust each other because someone is out for Megan’s blood.

Review:
Definite improvement in terms of plot and writing over previous books in the series. The sex scenes are still steamy with a capital S but are not as overwhelming as before, more information is provided concerning the Breeds’ life in the labs and the story is more show more action than character driven.

Nevertheless, the characters are very appealing even if they could be more developed. Megan is a kick butt heroine and is a match to Braden in every way. They are both adrenaline junkies and their extrasensory powers are complimentary. One aspect of Megan’s character that bothered me was her constant rejection of her abilities and Braden’s attempts to help her in this area. While Braden is not my favorite Breed, he is still a super-hot alpha male and he truly cares about Megan. It did annoy me that he was constantly trying to dominate her but she could definitely hold her own against him.

Similar to Elizabeth’s Wolf, the villain is seriously sick and disturbed but once again there is not enough detail regarding his actions and his obsession with Megan as well as his spies at Sanctuary. The final confrontation with him is, however, quite satisfactory.

The character who interests me the most is Jonas and I really want to know more about him, especially following the cliffhanger at the end, which I hope will be developed in the next book.

This is a decent read and from all reports it is all uphill from here. show less

I've had this book in my TBR for what seemed like forever. This series was recommended to me by another paranormal romance lover so I bought it and several others in the series. It sat on my shelves for a long time because I kept hearing from fans of the genre opinions that greatly varied from LOVED IT!!!! to HATED IT!!!! with not a whole lot of in between feedback. I finally thought I'd take the plunge and this is what I thought of it. With some good and some bad I found this to be right in the middle on the enjoyability scale.

What didn't work for me: According to the back blurb this was marketed as the first in a new paranormal series yet after further research (which I wished I'd done before purchasing this book) I found this is show more actually the 6th full length novel in the Breeds series. The first 5 were released under the publishing company of Ellora's Cave which is an erotica publishing company. As this book was released by a more mainstream publishing company (Berkley) I thought it would be tamer than it's erotic book brethren. If this is indeed tamer I probably will not go back and read the EC books because I'm not a big fan of erotica.

I think pointing out this is NOT the first book in the series is important. I often read romances out of order but I do it by choice. To be misled by the publishing company irritates me beyond measure. There are other readers who absolutely will not read books out of order so use this as a gentle warning to potential Breed series readers.

Now for the sex....as I mentioned I'm not a fan of erotica but went into this book with an open mind and did not hold that against this book. What I am holding against it is that the sex completely overshadowed a very awesome kick butt suspenseful plot. It is entirely possible for an author to write an exceptional book using the sex to enhance the story without making the sex the purpose of the story. Each love scene was at least a dozen pages and there were quite a few of them. When the characters were not having sex they were talking about sex, thinking about sex or catching the scent of wet panties which we read about a lot. I'm actually surprised Megan didn't get some kind of infection from running around all the time wearing them.

So, lots of sex. Got it. It just could have been so freaking awesome to have had a stronger plot besides the destined Mated we have to have sex all the time or you'll practically die of horniness plot. Another aspect of the sex I did have issues with was that for paranormal romances and sex in particular to work for me and most women the characters have to essentially be humanoid in appearance (ie: the penis better look like a man's penis and not have some weird cocklebur that shoots out the end upon climax.) Braden is a Man with Lion DNA so even though he looks like a man he has some cat features (google cat barbed penis you'll get what I mean). In addition to that all the lionmen appear to have glands under their tongues that secrete stuff when kissing their mate. This completely grossed me out because all I could think of was secreting boils on his tongue and now, so will you.


Ok enough about that....What worked for me: Megan was actually an awesome character who was so strong despite her often debilitating empathic gift. She didn't need Braden to come to her rescue and was more than capable of defending herself and taking out enemies who were genetically far advanced than she. Her joy in utilizing her training and instincts was contagious and I loved reading about her in action in the field.

The action and suspense was excellent. I really wish Leigh would have used this as her primary plot device instead of the uncontrollable mating one.

The world building was satisfactory despite this not being the first book in the series. I had a firm grip on how the Breeds came to be and which groups were good and which ones were not. I did find I had some unanswered questions regarding a lot of Braden's background and what went on in the labs where they were created but I suspect that many of those questions are answered slowly throughout the entire series.

As secondary characters go, there is only one that really intrigued me because Jonas is extremely complex. Everyone he works with seems to be intimidated by him and the reader just can't get a grip on if he is a good guy or a bad guy. I'm hoping that we learn more about him throughout the rest of the series and because of this and the killer action I'm going to read more of the series. show less

Confined to working a dull and lifeless job as a cop in a small town because of her empathic abilities the heroine finds herself suddenly thrust into a murder investigation where she's now a target. The hero is calm, arrogant but completely level headed and together they immediately bond over adventure and excitement. Until, that is, she's forced to have him as her bodyguard. The heroine likes her independence and her smart mouth makes sure people are aware of that. The story had an unbalance ratio between a typical romance and an erotic romance. Most of the time they character went about their story lusting after one another. Then suddenly without any warning the word pussy and cunt flashed the pages with great frequency. I would have show more preferred to have the sexual scenes focus more on the bonding between the two characters rather than be reading a porno. That being sad, past the graphic sex they character had great chemistry that made me smile at their bantering and arguing. Every time the hero did something manly, or saved the heroine from danger he would immediately take to biting her neck. It made me giggle as the heroine would just sign and think ' not again'. show less