Nauti And Wild [Paperback]

"Nauti Kisses", by Lora Leigh

New York Times Bestselling Author Lora Leigh indicates in the dedication of this novella that it is the finale of her "Nauti" series of stories. I'm late to the party. lol In fact, this is the first Lora Leigh book I've read despite the fact there are a number of her books languishing here in the stacks and on my e-reader. I will say, that even though I haven't read the series I think "Nauti Kisses" can be enjoyed as a standalone because I had no problem following the story.

John Calvin Walker Jr. is a member of an affluent Boston family and a successful lawyer in his father's law firm. John is engaged to Boston socialite Marlena, a gold digging bitch from hell who cheats on him with his soon to be ex best friend Gerard. While the passion in John and Marlena's relationship has been waning for some time he was unaware of her betrayal until it is revealed by Sierra Lucas a lovely fey like woman who he has known all his life. John has long suppressed a physical attraction for Sierra because his father is her godfather and he sees his feelings as highly inappropriate.

After a nasty confrontation with Marlena and Gerard, John retreats to his penthouse apartment where he proceeds to get thoroughly sloshed. Sierra turns up at his door to offer support and one thing leads to another. After a passionate encounter John passes out cold. Mortified and heartbroken Sierra exits the scene and refuses to return John's calls or see him following their tryst.

Fast forward a year and readers find John has returned to his family's roots in Kentucky and made his home on the "Nauti Wet Dreams" a two story houseboat that he moors on Lake Cumberland. John feels at peace for the most part, but Sierra and what he remembers of their night together (which isn't much) is never far from his thoughts. Then he gets a call from his father indicating that Sierra is in hospital recovering after a brutal and vicious attack, and she is asking for John. John Walker Sr. is convinced the attempt on Sierra's life was premeditated and her assailant will find her and finish what he started unless they are able to hide and protect her. It is under these unfortunate circumstances that John and Sierra are reunited.

"John couldn't handle the emotions rising inside him at the moment, the thought of the attempt that had been made to hurt her. To destroy her. The pure anger. The need to go to his knees before her and kiss every inch of bruised flesh, to beg for her forgiveness for not being there to protect her. The need to demand explanations, to beg that she stay, to simply hold her, was tearing him apart.

He'd never had so many emotions surging through him. For a man that prided himself on his control, he was growing close to losing it. Because despite the bruises, he wanted her.

Nauti & Wild © Lora Leigh"

I've read a lot of reviews of Ms. Leigh's books and from what I've gleaned she is known for penning exceptionally strong Alpha heroes and sensual, sexually explicit love scenes into her suspenseful stories. "Nauti Kisses", fits the bill. John Walker is one strong Alpha who feels an overwhelming need to protect 'his woman', he doesn't just make love to Sierra, he consumes her and she him. As in,'get out the ice water and fan' while reading this one if you intend to. Ms. Leigh also wrote plenty of conflict into Sierra and John's story which amplifies the sexual tension exponentially.

"Nauti Kisses", isn't just steamy sex. Sierra and John are drawn into an undercover investigation of one of the largest crime families in the nation. The story is suspenseful with an action packed conclusion that had me sitting on the edge of my seat. I don't think followers of Ms. Leigh's "Nauti" series will be disappointed because the MacKay brothers make appearances and assist John to protect Sierra from a cunning and lethal adversary.


"Riding the Edge" by Jaci Burton

As any of you know who have visited here in the past, I'm a huge fan of National Best Selling Author Jaci Burton's work and especially her "Wild Riders" series which was my favorite romantic suspense series of 2009. I've been waiting impatiently for this novella and for "Riding the Night" which is to be published in September. I've always found that Ms. Burton does her homework when writing her books and she is especially knowledgeable about motorcycle enthusiasts because she and her husband own a Harley motorcycle and attend rallies etc.. She therefore understands the psyche of the men and women who enjoy motorcycles as a hobby or choose to join "the life". I've read all 3 of the Wild Riders stories and Ms. Burton writes a good foundation into the narrative of "Riding the Edge" so IMHO readers would have no difficulty enjoying this novella as a standalone.

The Wild Riders are a group of covert US government operatives recruited from the streets as young, in trouble youths by General Grange Lee. Members of the team work deep undercover on assignments suited to their history and ability to infiltrate many criminal elements with chameleon like efficiency. This is Rick Benetti's story and he is none too happy when given what he considers a babysitting assignment to find a Nevada Senator's daughter who is thought to have joined the Hellraisers biker gang. Rick had a history with the Hellraisers 10 years previously and would have gone to prison if not for Grange's intervention. Rick therefore reluctantly rides to Las Vegas where a bike rally is being held and his cousin Bo is leader of the gang. Rick has to insinuate himself back into his old life as a Hellraiser to find the senator's daughter. His assignment, however, turns into much more then babysitting. And, Ava Vargas, is the exact opposite of what he is expecting.

Ava is a graduate student who has just finished her Master's in Social Work, and is planning to her complete Doctoral thesis when she finds the right college and program. She is brilliant, kind, intuitive, and worried sick about her best friend Lacey who abandoned college and her graduate studies to be with Bo and the Hellraisers. Ava is determined to find out if Lacey is okay and try to persuade her to return to her studies. Lacey however has no intention of leaving Bo, in fact she appears to have undergone a complete personality change which further alarms Ava.

Rick quite easily gains Bo and the gang's trust again and Ava literally falls into his lap when she is paired with him to ride for the duration of the weekend rally. Ava is quite surprised by Rick when they are introduced.

"Hey, Ava." Rick held out his hand. Polite, too. She hadn't expected that. She slid her hand in his and felt the sizzle of . . . something electric and very warm.

"Nice to meet you, Rick."

"This is just perfect, isn't it?" Lacey said, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "I was hoping you would find someone to ride with. With Bo's cousin here, you have a seat now."

"Yes. Perfect." Ava couldn't help staring at Rick. She supposed she had these preconceived notions of bikers. Dirty, scruffy, mean, and scary looking. None of those characteristics fit Rick. Or, for that matter, Lacey's boyfriend, Bo, who was tall, lean, and very attractive. He resembled his cousin in many ways."

Nauti & Wild © Jaci Burton"

It doesn't take long for Rick to figure out that Ava is quite out of her element with the Hellraisers and he can't understand what she is doing there. As he is unsure of her involvement with the gang and must maintain his cover he has to be very careful how he elicits information regarding why she is hanging out with the Hellraisers. Try as he might, Rick can't stop himself from being attracted to Ava, and despite his covert status things heat up between them.

This is a story of opposites attract. Rick endured a horrific childhood, being bounced from foster home to foster home. He has no love of social workers and considers them `do gooders'. Rick is a very strong, independent guy. He lives at the Wild Riders compound enjoying his anonymity and a no strings attached life with respect to relationships. Ava is a serious, meticulous, hard working graduate student who is immersed in academia. IMHO Ms. Burton's characterization of these two people is perfect. The sexual tension just crackles and it is further amplified by the conflict related to their backgrounds and situation.

Ms. Burton is known for penning off the charts hot love scenes in her erotic romances and "Riding the Edge" is no exception. Rick, needless to say, is sexually experienced, he shows the somewhat inexperienced Ava new heights of pleasure. Sensuality permeates the love scenes of this story. There is a scene with exhibitionism, voyeurism and an orgy, however I have to say in keeping with Ms. Burton's style I did not find it offensive in the least and it was woven perfectly into the narrative.

Rick's assignment takes an unexpected turn when he discovers his cousin is importing and trafficking cocaine. Rick is then tasked with the dangerous and difficult mission of discovering who the supplier is and how Bo is moving the drugs into the country, in addition to keeping Ava safe. Ms. Burton pens a clever, suspenseful plot twist into conclusion of "Riding the Edge", and I was certainly kept on the 'edge' of my seat.

The question is can Rick give up his no strings attached lifestyle to be with Ava? Or will he let her go?

I found this anthology compulsively readable and am looking forward to reading more of Ms. Leigh and Ms. Burton's work.

Nauti and Wild by Lora Leigh and Jaci Burton
Contemporary Anthology- Aug. 3, 2010
4 1/2 stars

Lora Leigh and Jaci Burton really know how to turn on the heat in this blazing yet rough and tumble anthology.

In Nauti Kisses, Lora Leigh again brings her super alpha hero who comes to the rescue and the woman who he thinks can't handle him but instead turns the tables and takes him on!
Sierra has always loved John. When she realizes that his fiancée and his best friend have been having an affair behind his back. She knows she must tell him, even if he hates her for it. But what results is a drunken night of passion that John can't exactly remember. Humiliated, Sierra flees. But what she doesn't know is that John has always cared for her but thought she was too young and innocent for a man of his sexual hungers. (Oh, yeah!) He is determined to stay away from her until he hears that she has been attacked. His protective instincts in full gear John is determined to show Sierra how much he really cares.

In the next story Jaci Burton brings together suspense and hot blooded passion in Riding the Edge.
Agent Rick Benetti is on assignment to guard the spoiled daughter of a senator. He must infiltrate a biker gang that Ava has just joined. But soon he realizes that she is not a brat who only wants thrills. Ava is intent on trying to save her best friend, Lacey. Lacey is falling into a downward spiral since she joined the bikers. The more Rick knows about Ava, the more he begins to care for her and lust for her luscious body. And once is definitely not enough! But drugs and money soon endanger them both and Rick fears his broken cover may make Ava hate him. Something he can't accept.

If you have weakness for sexy bad boys who rush to save the day then you will devour this anthology. Both stories were well written and easy to read. The heat between the 2 main characters will be guaranteed to get your engines all fired up! Between the 2 stories I enjoyed Jaci Burton's more because I felt she developed the relationship between the main characters more thoroughly and I really grew to know and love them. Lora Leigh's book while still a great read uses a familiar storyline (and characters) that her readers will definitely enjoy but lacked the same originality.

If you love smokin' HOT men and super-charged, racy stories this book will be sure to light your fire!

Reviewed by Steph from Bookaholics Romance Book Club

What to do? I didn't like Lora Leigh's story enough for three stars, but I didn't dislike Jaci Burton's enough to give it two. I'm giving this three on behalf of Jaci Burton.

Nauti Kisses - Lora Leigh

This wasn't the worst thing Lora Leigh's written, but it's not her best either.

Worst thing about the story? This:

He stepped confidently from the floating walkway to the deck of a two-storey houseboat whose side was emblazoned with the words NAUTI WET DREAMS.


Ick.

It was always going to be fighting an uphill battle with me. For starters, it's Lora Leigh, and I'll never be recognised as her greatest fan. Secondly, it's in the Nauti series - the incestuous, partner-sharing spankorama show. If that wasn't enough, the hero calls the heroine `Lollipop'!!

But it's nice to start on a positive. Here the first thing I liked about this one:
The hero's called `John'!! Yes, that shouldn't be a cause for excitement, but seeing as the other men in this series have names like Rowdy, Dawg and Natches, it was quite impressive to meet a regular man. She didn't even spell his name `Jahwn' or anything.
Of course, that excellent achievement was nearly destroyed by the likes of:

"You make me hungry, lollipop."
A slow smile curled the lips beneath his. "Your lollipop?"
..."My lollipop." And he'd be damned if he let another man have a taste of it now.

Damn. He was going to enjoy this. He was going to make sure she enjoyed it.
This was his sweet. His treat.


In turn, Sierra calls John `Dummy'. There was a disturbingly childish edge to it.

The first thing I noticed was that I was basically reading the same story as Nauti Boy. How can someone write the same story twice and get away with it?! Virginal heroine who is destined to be with older `Nauti' hero. She loses her virginity to him and he acts like a caveman. Well, that's basically every Lora Leigh book, but the reason this one is so similar to Nauti Boy is because the hero goes off somewhere and when he returns he finds out someone broke into the heroine's room, beat her and nearly raped her. Then he's upset he wasn't there to stop it. He immediately establishes himself in her bed, and they never spend another moment apart.
The heroes of both books seem to think the cure for sexual trauma is to force lots and lots of crazy sex on the heroine. Immediately.
It's unclear to me why an author of erotic romance would want to use sexual assault as a plot device so often. We all know the book is going to have sex in it, so why not introduce a conflict that makes the heroine's porn star performances and forgotten trauma more believable? It's something I find very strange.
In this one, John forces Sierra to sleep with him in his bed from the first morning on. He has this to say:

"Sweet Sierra," he sighed as though with relish. "You think you can sleep in my bed night after night, put up with me holding you, touching you, and still deny me?"
"I'm not sleeping in your bed." The very thought of it was more dangerous than she wanted to contemplate.
"Sorry, but that's exactly where you're sleeping."

"You think only weeks after that attack that I want any man in my bed?"

"No, I don't think you want any man at all," he agreed much too easily. "But I'm not just any man, lollipop, I'm the man you actually want."

"Once I have you in my bed and I see how deep those bruises are, how much loving you can take. But be prepared, Sierra, you're sharing my bed, and I'll touch you when I want to, when I need to. You might have run before, but I think we both know your running days are over here."


By bruises, he literally means bruises. She's still having trouble moving because she's so badly bruised by her attack and surviving on painkillers. How considerate of the hero to ease her into it.

Of course, the heroine - in between nearly being raped, nearly being killed, hiding from her attacker and moving to the Nauti Wet Dreams - has had time to go to the salon and have her pubic hair waxed off. Lora Leigh just isn't Lora Leigh until the pubic hair's gone.


"Strip." He could see her intent to lie down in that bed fully clothed.

She wore no bra, nothing to hide the bruises that still marked her flesh.

With the backs of his fingers, he stroked down the underside of her arms and the purple marks that led to her full, hard-tipped breasts. Harsh finger marks marred her flesh,

Below her breasts were fainter bruises, where she'd been struck, though the blows hadn't connected as hard as he knew they were meant to. He could tell by the placement that the son of a bitch had been trying to damage her ribs.
Lower, along her rounded thighs, was heavier bruising. Finger marks, thumb imprints.


Yep. Sounds like she's primed and raring to go.

The hero was drunk a year earlier when he took the heroine's virginity, and he doesn't remember doing it, and assumes she's slept with loads of men. That pisses her off, but instead of telling him the truth, she decides to let him think whatever he wants. I was moderately annoyed by that plot device. I was even more annoyed by the implication a man can miraculously remember some things about that night a year after the event. Sure, some memories from a drunken night might return after a little while, but after a year of what is basically amnesia? Seemed weird to me.

I'm well aware the point of Lora Leigh's books is for the characters to get it on, over and over and over (and almost always in the order of: woman gets man off, man gets woman off, and they missionary position each other off together), but it was weird how they all just waited around for the bad guys to come and get them. Couldn't they have been a little more active in trying to track down Sierra's attacker, instead of hosting brief family barbeques and following them up with sex?!

The first book in the Nauti series read as dirty porn, and I felt gross just reading it. I did think this one was better in that respect; I thought John considered Sierra to be something other than a sex toy, which was so much better than the other book I read.

There's no 'Who licked my butt?' mystery in this one either.

If you're a fan of the series, you might enjoy the catch-ups with the heroes' and heroines' sickeningly white picket fencey, happy endings. I'm talking diabetes-inducing.
Just make sure you love lotsa babies.

I might have given this story a higher rating if it wasn't for the weird logic. I find it offensive that so many of Lora Leigh's heroes force sex on traumatised heroines.

Number of times one of them damned the other in conversation (often during sex) - as in, "Damn you!": 18
Number of times someone had a conversation about their soul: 5
(Not really that many for this writer!)



Riding The Edge - Jaci Burton

What I liked about this story was that it was a whole lot less sordid than the Lora Leigh entry.
It was a decent little story with the requisite steamy stuff, and held up well enough for me, even though I've never read anything else from this author, let alone anything else in this series. It's not going to change my life, but at least there weren't any cringeworthy moments - or any characters called `Lollipop' or `Dummy'.

The outlandish concept of federal agents who spend their lives working undercover in motorcycle gangs - or something like that - is one of those, `just go with it and don't question it' things. So I went with it.
But I'm not entirely sure why we had to have a big long scene where the hero and heroine sit there watching an orgy...

Rick is sent to look after a senator's daughter, Ava, who has suddenly decided to join a bikie gang. Of course there's a lot more to the story than that, and of course she isn't some crazy, drug-addicted criminal as it's presumed she is at the beginning. She's a good girl with a heart of gold who's out to save her friend. And of course there's time for lots of Rick/Ava stuff. Private stuff.

I liked that the hero in this book was `such a man' rather than an arrogant, pushy, dominant bastard. He felt far more like a real person than Lora Leigh's alternately mean and sappy John. The same goes for the heroine - Lora Leigh's women are often frighteningly childish when they're not being dirty in the bedroom. The heroine of this book wasn't some mightily experienced dominatrix, but I actually believed she'd matured enough to graduate from school and was legal enough to have a relationship with the hero.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't a federal agent read up on a case before he took it? How in the world did Rick not know Ava had a master's in social work if he was there specifically for her?

But there definitely was some super-clunky dialogue throughout:

"A little tight here."
"Um. Yes."
She seemed to try to make herself smaller, as if pushing her shoulders forward could make her breasts smaller.
"Honey, you can't downsize them. They are what they are." He pulled the jacket edges closer, then finished zipping her up. "They're really nice, by the way."
She seemed to relax, then, because she laughed. "Thanks. They get in the way a lot."
"Yeah, but I'll bet they're a lot of fun to play with."

They've just met, and he's complimenting her on her breasts - and she's thanking him politely - like they're talking about the weather!

On the plus side, at least Burton's more creative with the love stuff.

On the other hand, this relationship is really rushed! But then another positive is that the author actually convinced me this couple could stay together.

So for me, Jaci Burton's contribution was the stronger of the two. It kept me entertained and I had a connection with both Rick and Ava. It's more than I can say for the other one.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 22 reviews  4.6 out of 5 stars