Lover Beware

Anthology


Magic in the Wind - Christine Feehan

Damon Wilder is a genius. He's spent years working for the D.o.D. on defense systems. This has gotten the attention of several terrorists groups and foreign governments. When Damon and his assistant are kidnapped and tortured for information, Damon manages to escape even though he was gravely injured, but not before his assistant is killed in an attempt to make Damon talk. He can't let go of the guilt over his assistants death. He retires to a small town looking to find peace and a place to call home, but the sense of impending doom follows him and he can't seem care about anything. Suddenly the town is abuzz because someone named Sarah is coming back and Damon find himself intently curious about this mystery woman and looking forward to her return.

Sarah Drake works for the government and has been assigned to protect Damon Wilder. She's also something of a witch, as are her sisters and all of their female ancestors before them. She finds Damon living in her home town and and if that isn't coincidental enough, the gate to their home opens for him, fulfilling the first part of a family prophecy that will lead all seven Drake sisters to their destiny. He's grumpy and a dark aura of death clings to him, but Sarah is drawn to him. If she can keep the bad guys from kidnapping Damon and if she can figure out how to get Death to stop following him, she just might be able to sit back and enjoy her fate.

Damon's character tickled me. He was like a crotchety old man in the beginning, then Sarah comes along and suddenly we begin to see him as a brilliant, attractive man who just isn't good with people and happens to have a physical impediment. Sarah's character is intriguing. She works for the government, protecting people from bad guys and kicking ass, but on the flip side she's a nurturing type who's kind to everyone in town and they all think she'd never hurt a fly. I'll be honest, though, there were parts there that were a little too syrupy for my taste.


Hot August Moon - Katherine Sutcliffe

Anna Travelli is a profiler for the F.B.I. She works with a secret unit of the F.B.I. that teaches people with certain psychic abilities to find serial killers and violent criminals. Now she's been assigned to a serial case that takes her back home to New Orleans and has her working with the Jerry Costos, D.A., ex-boyfriend, and the only man she's ever loved. The serial killer is torturing and killing prostitutes, but he knows who Anna is and he's thinking about setting his sights on her.

Jerry Costos has just lost his godson to a serial killer. He wants this guy bad enough to call in the F.B.I. The local cops are none to happy about it. When the profiler they send turns out to be Anna Travelli, the woman who broke his heart and whom he's never gotten over, he's not so sure he made the right call. She's keeps going in to dangerous situations without back up and wreaking havoc on his emotions. There's something going on that she's not telling him and he's determined to get to the bottom of it. Things between them are as electric as ever. If he can convince her to give them a second chance, he might get a chance at happiness.

This story was real interesting until I got to the end of it and realized there was no kind of resolution. Not for the romance between the lead characters and not with the serial killer. It was all a set up for the book Bad Moon Rising. I've never read it because the complete non-ending of this story just annoyed me no end. I thought the characters were interesting and I found the premise of psychics working as sort of profilers for the F.B.I. very interesting. This story just didn't deliver a satisfactory ending.


After Midnight - Fiona Brand

Jane O'Rilley is a widow. She spent the last seven years caring for her sick husband and the last four months of her widowhood avoiding Michael Rider, the man she's been secretly in love with since the moment she first laid eyes on him seven years ago. She feels she can't be with him because it would be like betraying her husband. She feels guilty enough that Michael kissed her once years ago before going off on a potentially deadly mission and that she spent months worried about him while her husband lay sick in bed. If she can avoid Michael and find out who's been secretly watching her and creeping around her property, everything will be fine.

Michael Rider is a retired S.A.S officer. When he met Jane O'Rilley all those years ago he was happily married and looking to start a family. Then, suddenly, all he could think about was Jane. His marriage ended and he took mission after mission, staying out of town and away from Jane as much as possible. Now Jane's husband has passed and he's retired so that he can finally claim Jane for his own. Someone is breaking in to people's homes and attacking women in his home town and Michael finds himself labeled as a suspect because he's got weapons and fighting skills, but it just might take those skills to catch the real criminal before he kills again.

I found this story a little hard to believe in places. Jane's character is very believable as the woman who avoids the man she loves because she feels guilty that when her husband was alive she was in love with another man and only staying with her husband out of duty because he needed her while he struggled with cancer. I found Michael's character a little harder to swallow. Here you have a man who stopped sleeping with his wife because he wanted another woman. He fell in love at first sight with this other woman and pretty much gave up on his marriage. Apparently he didn't love the woman he married enough to move away from the source of temptation and seek marriage counseling. Nice! Then he spends years celibate while patiently waiting for her husband to die. He's so hot that women are throwing themselves at him, but he's saving himself for Jane and never has so much as a hook up in seven years. Seriously?

Only Human - Eileen Wilks

Lily Yu is a homicide detective investigating a recent rash of murders apparently perpetrated by werewolves. She's no strange to the paranormal, but catching a killer who's DNA can't be reliably typed by forensics is going to be tough. Still, she's not sure if working with Rule Turner, poster boy for lycanthropy and prince of the local clan, is the best idea. Not only are his looks and charm a big distraction, but she's not sure she can trust him to tell her the truth about who the killer is.

Rule Turner is heir to the Chief of Clan Nokolai and the public face for lycanthropes in the area. He suspects that a rival clan is looking to not only cast suspicion for the murders on his clan, but scuttle a bill that will give lycanthropes certain rights while making them subject to human law. He's working with the police in hopes that he'll get to the killer before he causes any more problems for his clan. He's willing to lie and manipulate the police to make sure his clan gets a hold of the killer first. It would be easier if he wasn't absolutely sure that Lily Yu was meant to be his mate.

This was the precursor to the World of the Lupi series. I love Lily and Rule. Hell, I've loved the entire series! Go read it!