Wow.
I have to say that again.
Wow.
I’ve reviewed enough Laurann Dohner books to have established my fangirl status and I’ve waxed poetic about New Species Series often enough to show my bias to it as well. When Laura from Ellora’s Cave emailed me the synopsis for this book as an ARC that was available for review I sent her a reply that said, “Please! Please! Please!” I might have fallen in love with her a little when she sent me the book. ~Yes, I am one of those women who love you for what you can give me and not for who you are. =P

This might be my favorite book of the New Species series. That could be True (get the pun?), except I say that everytime I read a new NS book so my statement might have to be taken with a grain of salt. Fact remains still that I am totally crushing on True though. He’s one Species male that I wouldn’t mind snuggling up with during a long winter night. Of course, again, I have also said that about every NS male I get to know (especially my love muffin Brass–Laurann don’t forget I’m his heroine. We have a deal.)  Giving this more thought… It might be be an error to think I’m someone who will have an impartial opinion of this book considering the fact that I want a New Species male for Christmas. (I prefer one that comes in Brass.)

True’s time at the Drackwood Research Facility wasn’t any more remarkable than any other Species for the most part. He was a lab rat for new drug formula testing everything from healing to cognition. The only silverlining to his day was when Technician Shiver would come to his cell to draw blood. She was gentle and just being near him was soothing. She didn’t treat him like the other humans did. There was a kindness and compassion to her that reached inside him. He trusted her. Until the day when the director of Drackwood offered Shiver to him for breeding and suggested she had gentled him as part of an elaborate scheme of the facility researches just to gain his trust to exploit his vulnerability.

Falling in love with one of the Species she had to watch being tortured day in and day out was not the most fortunate thing Jeannie Shiver had done in her life. Compounding that misfortune by making a deal to save his life by becoming a test subject just like him only dragged her down lower. When Drackwood was liberated Jeannie knew that her best way to honor that love for him was to continue saving his kind. Which meant staying undercover and risking her life to care for the Species as researchers and guards tortured and test on them daily. She offers the friendship and hope for herself and all the Species she encounters until they can both one day be free.

When the new test facility Jeannie works at is due to be raided, Jeannie knows that that too many fail-safes exist at Cornas Research Facility to destroy the Species if she doesn’t step in and interrupt the defense of the facility. Against the order to stay home, Jeannie goes into work the day of the raid and she dismantles the alarms and the traps and makes it impossible for the guards to kill the Species who are held at Cornas.

The price of the sacrifice? She is shot, assumed to be the enemy, abused and nearly dies.
The reward? She sees the face of the Species male she has always loved again. As she feels her life slipping away, she believes it is for the last time.

I really liked the dynamic of this book. It had some parallels to other stories in the series but this book really held on to the character of the two characters involved in this particular title. True and Fury may have both met their mates in facilities but they are vastly different Species males. Ellie and Jeannie may have both been techs who were working to free Species but again, the two women were different people and although the two books might sound similar in the synopsis the tale once told brings a refreshingly new Species experience. True and Jeannie almost have the foundation of the relationship built before they have even left Drackwood. When they are reunited it feels very much like two lovers who are merely overcoming a very bad misunderstanding rather than the story of Fury and Ellie where it is two unknowns facing one another after a betrayal.

Jeannie most definitely is one of my favorite Species mates. I really liked Zandy , Jessie and Beauty because they were strong female characters who really made things happen for themselves. Heroines who aren’t afraid of taking risks and putting it all on the line make things interesting and I love reading their stories. Don’t get me wrong, there is a thin line there where independent and strong becomes reckless and stupid and Jessie really rode that line a lot of times and made me GRRRR a whole lot, but I love it when women aren’t afraid to take a bull by the balls–the horns? The horny balls!

This book is pure gold. The entire New Species series is like the greatest hits of the decade and I suggest that you buy this book as soon as it comes out in case Amazon should fold and books should no longer be available or the international monetary system should fail and money should lose all value. You would hate it if you waited and then you were screwed later. Does anyone remember the Duck Tales when bottlecaps became the monetary form. Do you honestly have enough bottlecaps squirreled away at home to buy the entire series in the case of an emergency? I thought not!

AND… for every book you buy a homeless baby elephant is adopted by an oxpecker. Why would you take a baby elephant’s chance for an oxpecker away?

Lovely, Lady Laurann keeps her website up to date with the hot news about up and comings (And she posts BIG photos of her covers and the man meat that graces them. It’s a little like acceptable near porn that you can stare at in the office.) Goodreads, Facebook, and Amazon Author Pages.

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