Customer Rating:
Summary: A scorching, yet somehow, tender romance from Lora Leigh!
Comment: There are only two series the prolific Lora Leigh writes I continue to follow: that being the Breeds and her Tempting SEALs series.

By far the Breeds are my favs, but the latest- and I believe the last Tempting SEALs team entry as well as the first in a band new one called Elite Ops, - reminded me so much of the Breeds, I enjoyed it much more than the previous entries.

Sure, there wasn't fated mating heat or animal "instincts" popping up everywhere, but the hero is uber alpha and that coupled with a scorching love story, almost matched it for me!

PLUS, for my fellow paranormal romance fans, there was just a touch of magic in the Hero's Irish eyes to appease even me!

In this story we finally get Nathan Malone's story. In previous novels, Nathan was captured by the mostly evil but certainly morally bankrupt Diego Fuentes. He was pumped full of a drug called Whore's Dust- sorta like a hyper ruffie- tortured, and generally soul scarred by the time he managed to survive an explosion that set him free.

Because of all he endured, he went along with the governments decision to allow Nathan Malone to be declared dead so he could join a covert ops team as a new man- one Noah "Wild Card" Blake. (DING DING! We have a title!)

One problem- Nathan is married. And though his love for his wife, Bella, kept him chaste while being tortured under Fuentes, he didn't believe for one second his soft-hearted wife could handle the hardened man Noah has become.

Only Bella isn't as soft as he thinks. For though it almost killed her when she lost him, she did eventually manage to pull not only herself together but also her husband's all but defunct auto mechanic business.

Up until now Noah has ruthlessly excised his former existence from his life- when his uncle gave him reports on Bella, he trashed them satisfied with the knowledge she was alive and well.

Things change when Noah's uncle lets him in on some bad things going down in his hometown. A mysterious militia group is targeting illegal immigrants and are now focusing on Noah's garage as well as Bella.

Noah can't resist the mission because, of course, Bella still owns his soul and he's can't fight the urge to protect her. When he returns, riding into town on his Harley with a new hardened visage, Bella has no idea it's the husband she's grieved for these many years. But something about him reawakens a part of her she thought lost forever and though she feels she's betraying her late husband, she finds herself helplessly falling for him.

Of course they eventually bust the Militia ring but not before they both learn what they thought they knew of each other is nothing like what they truly are!

I LOVED Nathan/Noah. Sure he's a jerk for letting the wife he supposedly still loved and longed for believe he was dead for 6 years- but hey, some guys just have no faith in the inner strength of a woman! And too, Sabella Malone hid her spine of steel from him. (She's was young when they got married, and stupid enough to believe that a wilting hothouse flower of a wife was what her in-control husband needed.)

Personally I liked the changed Bella and Nathan much more than their earlier persona's. They were much more intense and, hooooo boy, when they get together again? The pages sizzle with heat!

Yep it's a scorcher, but it also has an almost poignant tenderness about it that will melt the heart of any romantic reader out there!

This one gets a 4.5 out of 5 from me. The editor on this one- AGAIN- needs their hands slapped- different times whole sections were repeated like it was copy and pasted from later in the book and then forgotten to be deleted from it's original spot- but I easily overlooked it because I enjoyed this couple so much!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Conflicting feelings about Wild Card
Comment: I don't know what it is about this book, but I can't get it out of my thoughts. I have very conflicting feelings about it. I know that it is considered erotica and it is that, but I realized it would have been a better romance had it not been. She focused so much on the sex, I wanted more adventure/romantic suspense. I feel like had she gone that route with the story then it would have been more of a 5 star read for me. As for the hero, I liked him and then I didn't like him at times. I won't go into the whole plot, but it infuriated me that he wanted his wife to move on with Noah yet he didn't "really" want her to get over Nathan. Sure, he had the whole alpha-male thing going on, but at times it felt like he was a brute/jerk to the heroine. As for the sex scenes, I wanted him to be more loving/gentle with the heroine. As for the story, it felt believable to a point, but the whole whore's dust and lasting effects on Noah (he had a raging hard-on most of the time) pissed me off as did the female villian. It knocked the believability factor (which attracted me to the book in the first place) down for me. I will say one thing, scenes from this book will stay with you long after reading it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Wild Card
Comment: Sabella Malone had been incredibly happy married to her SEAL husband Nathan until the day came when she was told he wasn't coming home from his latest mission. For the first three years, she couldn't function. She kept having these horrific nightmares that were filled with blood and death, but always had the feeling Nathan hadn't perished. She felt he was hurting and that she was his lifeline, but never that he had actually died. When the garage was in danger of going under, she was forced to pull herself up, and start functioning again. Belle couldn't allow something that Nathan loved be taken from her. She had already lost too much.

Nathan Malone had been to hell, and when rescued, he wasn't sure he could survive the torture he had endured. Only the thought of his soul mate Sabella, and his memories of their short two years together got him through. A part of him wanted to go to her, and be with her, but he didn't think she could handle the changes in him. Due to the physical torture, he had undergone so many surgeries that he lost count. He barely resembled his former self. The mental torture had changed him also. He was no longer Nathan Malone.

It had been six long years since he had seen his Bella, but when his team was notified of the danger surrounding her, he was about to confront the past he had forced behind him. Nathan was shocked when he saw Bella. He had expected her to grieve, and then move on with her life, but obviously she hadn't. She was still missing her husband. Apparently she like he, remembered the vows they exchanged Go siorai - forever...................

I have read all the books in this series, and this is my favorite by far. Bella and Nathan make such an appealing couple. Even though they got to spend only a couple of years together, and didn't know each other as well as they thought, the love was so powerful - was a bond that could not be broken. Even though it may sound like an old cliché, in this emotional story love does conquer all. Very erotic and sensual read with enough suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Best Lora Leigh book yet!
Comment: This is my favorite Lora Leigh book yet! The story was very endearing, emotionally charged, and contained just the right amount of eroticism. I have read all the books in the series, but I think the main characters of this novel were the most developed of all the books. Once I started reading the book I couldn't put it down, and even when I finished reading it, I didn't want it to end. This is a great read.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Loved It!!!!!!!!
Comment: This was by far one of the best books I have read!I couldn't stop reading it and stayed up well into the night to finish.Steamy,exciting,well written!!!Lora Leigh has become one of my all time favorite writers!!!

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