I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Lawe's Justice
by
Lora Leigh
It is part of the Breeds #26 series and is a erotic romance, paranormal romance in Paperback edition that was published by Berkley on December 6, 2011 and has 354 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Styx's Storm, Moving Violations, Cops and Cowboys, B.O.B.'s Fall, Manaconda, A Wish a Kiss a Dream, "Dragon Prime", Primal, Live Wire, Navarro's Promise, Forbidden Pleasure, Beyond the Dark, Black Jack, Tempting the Beast, Dangerous Pleasure, Maverick, Man Within, Midnight Sins, Wild Card, Tied with a Bow, Legally Hot, Deadly Sins, Stygian's Honor, Surrender to Fire, Nauti Temptress, Submission & Seduction, Wicked Sacrifice, Secret Sins, Nautier and Wilder, Shameless Embraces, Wicked Pleasure, Only Pleasure, Guilty Pleasure, Wicked Lies, Twin Passions, Nauti Enchantress, Shattered Legacy, Intense Pleasure, Knight Stalker, Enthralled, Secret Pleasure, Rule Breaker, "The One", Nauti Angel, Nauti Seductress, Wake a Sleeping Tiger, Collision Point, Cross Breed, One Tough Cowboy, Hot for the Holidays, Dawn's Awakening, "Night Hawk"
Twenty-fifth in the Breeds erotic paranormal-romance series revolving around a genetically enhanced group of humans. The couple focus here is on Diane Broen and Lawe Justice.
Tied with a Bow: “An Inconvenient Mate”, Breeds, 24.5 is a short story that takes place during Lawe’s Justice.
My Take
I really wish that Leigh had brought “An Inconvenient Mate” out after Lawe’s Justice as it was very confusing to have read that first and then read its events within this full-length novel.
It’s an interesting contest between a very alpha male wanting to protect his mate and a woman used to taking care of herself, her men, and others. Sort of an exaggerated 1950s male confronted by a liberated woman of the 1980s. It’s a long struggle for Lawe to come to accept that he has to accept Diane’s independence, that part of what he loves about her is her expertise and self-sufficiency, just as Diane too must learn compromise without surrender.
My only complaint is that we really haven’t gotten much further along the main storyline of finding help for Amber. Fortunately, I cannot complain that this is the same ol’, same ol’ as the details of Lawe’s Justice are different from most of the stories in this series with an independent human working as a soldier and her mate learning to accept this.
The Story
Diane and Lawe Justice have been fighting their attraction for years; Lawe doesn’t want the vulnerability of a mate and the need to step down to a less exposed role while Diane refuses to be protected when she’s used to doing the protecting.
Her current mission is finding the three people Gideon is hunting and bringing him in besides discovering the identity of the traitor on her team. There have been too many near misses and accidents besides Uncle Colt’s murder. In the meantime, Gideon is tracking Diane and her team for he also wants to know who the traitor is while he uses her to hunt down the three people responsible for keeping him alive so that Council scientists could cut him open time and again to the point of death. Bringing him back with screaming agony each time. For two years.
The mating imperative, however, refuses to be denied, and once Lawe tracks Diane to the Navajo Reservation, it’s all over as far as Lawe is concerned. A decision Diane forces him to reconsider.
A caution that goes out the window when Malachi’s mate, Isabelle Martinez, is attacked while Ashley Truing, a beloved Coyote, is almost killed (see Tied with a Bow: “An Inconvenient Mate”, 25).
The Characters
Lawe Justice is a Lion Breed and “being groomed to take the assistant director’s chair”. He refuses to mate Diane but is trying to “cage and restrain her as a pet”. A move that does not appeal to the fighting Diane Broen who leads a team of mercenaries helping the Breeds to clean up the Council and their scientists. Thor is their moneyman; Aaron is in charge of logistics, travel, and medical needs; Brick handles communications and supply; and, Malcolm provides their weapons. And one of them is a traitor.
Rule Breaker is Lawe’s brother and taunting him with the theory that a blood relative could take on another’s mate if he ignores her long enough which would allow the scent marker to dissipate. Seems Rule has found his mate but hasn’t told anyone or marked her yet for he is afraid of that connection. Meanwhile, Lawe wants Diane but he is also terrified of losing her. Morningstar Martinez was Lawe and Rule’s mother. The one who was dissected while she was still alive when the Council scientists discovered she was mated to Coyote Elder. Lessons Lawe and Rule learned in the labs are too deeply embedded for them to easily accept their own mates.
Jonas Wyatt is a Lion Breed and the Director of the Bureau of Breed Affairs. He’s married to Rachel Broen, Diane’s sister. He is quite passionate about finding Honor Roberts as she is his daughter Amber‘s best chance at surviving whatever it is that Phillip Brandenmore injected into the baby. Dane Vanderale is the son of the first Leo and his mate. Dog, Mutt, Mongrel, and Loki are Jonas’ Coyote double agents infiltrating the Genetics Council.
Gideon, a.k.a., the Executioner, is a Prime gone wrong. He was tortured and infected into madness and now the Breeds must hunt him down before the rest of the world discovers how cruelly he is killing the scientists of the Council. —Personally, I’m on Gideon’s side!
Unfortunately, Gideon is also hunting Judd, a Bengal tiger Breed; Honor Roberts, the daughter of General Horace Roberts of the Council; and, Fawn Corrigan.
The Genetics Council has spent over 100 years tinkering with the genes of animals and humans creating what we now know as the Breeds. They have not hesitated to use the most horrible torture and deprivation on their creations while denying them any rights at all. Phillip Brandenmore was one of its contributors. One of their scientists, Scott Connelly, is one of Gideon’s victims –I’m just sorry his death was so quick.
The Cover and Title
The cover is primarily red with touches of gray and black to barely touch up a bit of bondage play between Lawe and Diane with a lion’s profile at the bottom left.
It’s an interesting title as the story is all about Lawe’s idea of Justice.
