Dangerous Games (Tempting SEALs)
by Lora Leigh
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Book Reviews of Dangerous Games (Tempting SEALs)
Book Review: This erotic romance has action, suspense and a lot of sex, but none of it very believable
Summary: 3 Stars
Morganna Chavez has always loved Clint McIntire, her brother's best friend. For years, however, he's been seemingly immune to her charms. Seemingly being the operative word. Clint is as attracted to Morganna even before it was appropriate for him to do so. He's never acted on it because he does not believe he can love anyone given his terrible childhood.
However, when Morganna, a newly minted DEA agent, is spotted at one of his favorite BDSM haunts and placed in danger, Clint is forced to confront his feelings for Morganna.
What makes this work, when it does work, is when Morganna is standing up for herself. She knows that Clint is attracted to her and she knows that he fights his attraction. She doesn't know why. She calls him on his emotional cowardice instead of being hurt by his intentional pushing her away from him. Morganna is a heroine you can get behind.
Where this book really stumbles is everywhere else. The DEA plot is convoluted and breaks every law out there. How a CIA operative can just rustle up his own team, take over a DEA sting operation, go around killing people and suffer no consequences (not to mention the club owner engaging in this operation) strains even the most generous suspension of disbelief.
Much is made of Clint's BDSM tendencies but it is never really acted upon with Morganna. A person so devoted to Clint's purported BDSM lifestyle to the point he retains the rights to an exclusive room in an high priced club but never once engages in BDSM activity made it seem like the author was playing at being Dangerous but never really following through.
Finally, Clint seemed to be quite whiny and at times I wondered why a strong and vibrant heroine like Morganna would want to tie her wagon to such a brooding horse.
This story has action, suspense and plenty of sex but requires the reader to completely give herself over to the author. I wasn't able to but others might.
Book Review: Tempting SEALs #2; The series is worthwhile
Summary: 5 Stars
The second Tempting SEALs is a novel, "Dangerous Games". As we learned in Tempting SEALs #1, Raven is the sister of Reno's best friend, Clint. Reno's sister, Morganna, is Raven's best friend. And just like Raven grew up loving Reno, Morganna grew up loving Clint. And Clint loved her back. But Clint had some dark secrets that he shared with no one, and he felt very strongly that he would be very, very bad for Morganna. So once Morganna was a grown woman, Clint concentrated on staying as far away from her as possible, hoping she would find someone else and be happy. Like Reno, alpha-alpha male Clint was a SEAL, and much of the time he spent away from Morganna was spent in the hot spots of the world doing dirty, dangerous work. What he didn't count on was that his little spitfire, Morganna, would join the DEA and get involved in a domestic mission that would eventually catch her up in an unresolved international bust in which Clint was instrumental. In spite of his best efforts, Clint was thrown together with Morganna for an extended period of time -- just the opportunity Morganna had been looking for.
Note: Explicit light BSDM, implied heavier BSDM. The erotic passages are fewer and briefer than in Leigh's Ellora's Cave books, but no less effective or explicit.
Even if you're put off by the BSDM in this book, please try the others: The novella "Reno's Chance" in Honk If You Love Real Men (Tempting SEALs, Book 1), the novella "For Maggie's Sake" in Real Men Do It Better (Tempting SEALs, Book 3), and Hidden Agendas (Tempting SEALs, Book 4).
Book Review: When it was good, it was great, but that wasn't the whole time
Summary: 3 Stars
Clint McIntyre is a tough as nails, seen it all Navy SEAL who uses his job, and the icy exterior it forces him to adopt, as an excuse to deny his attraction to his best friend's younger sister, Morganna. Morganna and Clint have always had a thing for each other. Even when she was a little girl, Morganna knew she wanted to grow up and be with Clint. Clint, on the other hand, always wanted to protect Morganna from his darker tendencies and pushed her away her whole life.
Now, years later, Morganna is all grown up and Clint can't help but notice her. Since he's tried his whole life to protect her, he's devastated when he learns that Morganna has accepted a law enforcement position wherein she will be used as bait to lure in suspected dealers of a new date rape drug. Clint can't stand to see Morganna in the line of fire, and is willing to do anything to keep her safe, even at his own expense. But when the two wind up working the case together, the passionate flame between them begins to burn at a feverish pace.
Dangerous Games was steamy, passionate, and exciting with enough action and drama to keep you entertained from start to finish. When I'm in the mood for erotic romance, generally I need look no further than Lora Leigh. That being said, sometimes she goes a little too far for me, and Dangerous Games was one of those times. As another reviewer mentioned, I am all for domination and submission in the proper time and place, but the lifestyle as a whole doesn't appeal to me. In that respect, there were large portions of this book where I was bored and just waiting for the action between the hero and heroine to pick up. Still, the parts of Dangerous Seals that were good, were great, and for that reason I'm able to look past the over-the-top backdrop in which the story took place.
Book Review: Overdone and overwrought....
Summary: 3 Stars
I haven't read the first story in this series, the short story Reno's Chance in the anthology, Honk If You Love Real Men so I felt a little lost when guys started popping up left and right. I just felt like I was inundated with too much information too fast. The plot also looked more intricate than it really was and when it finally unfolded, I felt let down. The bad guy and girl were just too pathetically stupid after all that buildup.
Clint McIntyre was the type of guy who was way more complicated than he needed to be. He had too much baggage for someone like me to want to hitch a ride on and his momma issues were particularly unsavory in light of his sexual preferences. It made me question whether he even liked women and made me wonder if he secretly substituted his mother whenever he was "disciplining" a submissive. Nasty. Morganna seemed a little flighty to me. I didn't dislike her, nor did I particularly care about her. She was just, eh.
The sex in Dangerous Games was overblown and at times, silly. Clint has an emergency overnight bag that just happens to have a butt plug in it? WTF? Who the heck travels with an emergency butt plug? The premiere Dom of Atlanta, that's who. Whatever.
This book was overdone and a little overwrought in my most humble opinion. It took itself waaay too seriously and felt like an absurd caricature. I just can't recommend it. It was just okay, it wasn't awful but nor can I see where this could have been better without stripping everything down and starting again. This was my first Tempting Seals book and now I'm no longer enthusiastic to try any more. I've read Wild Card, which I loved and while it too had a lot of emotions running around it worked for me, Dangerous Games just fell flat. :(
Book Review: Erotic activities in sex clubs with good guys and bad guys. Ok but not recommended for buying.
Summary: 2 Stars
I wasn't emotionally drawn into the story. It was easy to put down. The ending was happy but didn't elicit the emotions I like to feel at the end of the book. It was predictable. Nothing surprised or delighted me. The writing was ok. It didn't have any of my major pet peeves.
This was a typical good guys fighting bad guys with moles and spies in each others' camps. Clint and Reno are Navy SEALS. They grew up together and are best friends. Reno's sister Morganna is 9 years younger. She has been in love with Clint all her life. She pursued him, but he always kept a distance. There are 3 main dominant/submissive clubs in the area. Morganna knows Clint is a dominant and frequents those clubs. She has been going to the same clubs for three years, but doesn't go when Clint might be there to see her. She becomes an agent for the DEA and continues going to those clubs as bait in their efforts to get the bad guys involved with a new date rape drug. Clint discovers her there, and she and Clint finally get together. He has issues from his past due to abuse from his parents. The sex scenes in the story involve body piercings, rear door activity, exhibitionism, bondage and submission.
Story length: 344 pages. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: 14. Length of sex scenes: 4 short scenes (1 page or less) and 10 long scenes (average length 5.5 pages with 3 scenes 8 to 9 pages long). Setting: current day Atlanta, Georgia. Copyright: 2006. Genre: erotic contemporary romance.
For a list of my reviews of other Lora Leigh books, see my 4 star review of "Tempting the Beast" posted 6/30/08.