A Bloody Good Read

Ever read something that just sideswipes your emotions and you find yourself crying, laughing, cheering or sighing with contentment ALL the way through the book? Hang on to it if you have - they're a "keeper".

The "keepers" on my bookshelf are growing. I'm pretty ruthless these days when I add one as I have limited shelf space, so when I read something it really has to impact me and be a book I can go back and read more than once or twice.

I was over at Writers' Gone Wild Blog late last week and Maree Anderson posted a great blog on "That Scene I Just Can't Seem to Forget" and it got me really thinking about what has grabbed me in the past.

I discovered paranormal romance author, Lora Leigh's, Breed series before I realised she wrote for Ellora's Cave in their Romantica genre. Checking out her back-list I found her Men of August and Bound Hearts series and bought every single one I could lay my hands on.

Marly's Choice was the first book in the Men of August series and the first Romantica book I read. Forbidden Pleasure in the Bound Heart series was the second.

MC was hot as it was dark in it content, dealing with a pretty unpleasant issue (the issue brought out in this book was one I never thought to see in a "romance", especially considering how some people would find it objectionable). FP was hotter and the premise of a stalker preying on the heroine was pretty creepy. Full kudos to Ms.Leigh for handling both in such an amazing way. The emotion in both grabbed you from the start and ripped you through to the end.

For those of you who've read either of these books, you'll understand what I mean.

For those of you who haven't here are the blurbs...

Marly's Choice
Marly's love for Cade has spanned her teenage years, and survived strong, and intact into womanhood. Her fantasies and daydreams have sustained her, but she's no longer content with merely imagining the touch of his hands, the taste of his kiss. It's time to seduce the tough, sexy cowboy.
She's heard the rumours for years, the tales of his sexual preferences. She's prepared herself to accept his desires. Prepared her body for his touch. But she wasn't prepared for the choice to come...
Cade's dark desires, his sexual excesses are based in the past. In a time where pain, shame and blood stains his very soul. He carries a secret shared only with his brothers. A secret that has scarred the bond, the ability to be a brother or to accept the love of the men he was raised with. He knows the only way to prove his loyalty, his love for those brothers...and Marly will be the key.
She has a choice. She can surrender to Cade's needs, his soul deep desires, or she can walk away. A choice only Marly can make. A choice that will change her life forever.

Forbidden Pleasure
People have heard rumours about The Club, located just outside Washington, DC. And only its members know where men fo when they want to indulge the desire to share their women with a carefully selected male partner...
Former FBI agent John "Mac" McCoy resigned his membership from The Club when he married Keiley Hardin. Tenpting and innocent, sweet and secy, she would never accept Mac's desire to share her with another man. However, Keiley's growing curousite and Mac's own fantasies of sharing his wife haunt his dreams. And his passions.
Unable to wait any longer, Mac invites his best friend, Jethro Riggs, to their home with the intention of drawing Keiley into the pleasures that can only be achieved when two men love the same woman. But there's more going on in Mac's neck of the woods than a little additional pleasure. A past case involving a stalker who likes to play games has turned up again, but now Keiley is in the middle of it all. Passion and pleasure, danger and desire comine as the forbidden landscape becomes an addiction none of them can escape.


As I said, it was the emotion imbedded in books, the way Ms.Leigh used it within and between her characters to such astounding effect that captured me and left me so wrung out by the end.

I didn't just shelve the books afterwards - I ended up rereading both of them again straight away - they were so powerful I wanted to experience it all again and pick up on the bits I'd missed.

After visiting Maree's blog I decided I would reread both again - for the umpteenth time.

So, do you have a "keeper" on your shelf?