Navarro's Promise [Mass Market Paperback]

I am a big Lora Leigh fan. I own all the Breed books and anxiously await any new additions to the series. In fact, I bought "Navarro's Promise" and read it on the day it was released. However, I was very disappointed in this particular volume. What follows may contain SPOILERS, so reader beware!

Because other reviewers have described the characters' conflict which provides the basis for the romantic plot, I won't go into detail about that here. But I will say that Navarro and Mica never discussed the problem with one another in the book. There's no explicit resolution of the issue that has stood between the two of them during the entire novel. Navarro just suddenly "goes animal" and never explains his initial reluctance to Mica. Other people talk to Mica and other people talk to Navarro, but they never talk to one another about it.

What was extremely disconcerting, however, occurred at the end of the 300-some page novel. Or I should say, didn't occur. There's a confrontation between Mica and the villain in the labs some 10 floors under Sanctuary. She's left alone with him, and he's very threatening to her even though he's still contained in a cell. Navarro, along with Jonas & Co., burst into the room to "save" Mica. It becomes clear that Mica has been escorted to the lab, ostensibly to undergo the daily "mating progress" checks that Ely (the Lion Breeds' doctor) has been doing since Mica and Navarro mated, but the appointment was actually scheduled to occur later that afternoon. Conversation among all the people present clearly establishes that both Mica and the female Breed that escorted Mica to the lab received voice mail messages FROM ELY arranging for Mica's presence there at the wrong time, but the enforcers know Ely has left Sanctuary and will be in town all day. After this conversation, Mica loses her temper with all the questions and storms out of the lab. As she's heading down the hall toward the elevators, Navarro overtakes her and, PUSHING HER UP AGAINST A STEEL WALL, begins to kiss her. A description of the kiss continues for three or four paragraphs, taking the reader to the next page where, abruptly, Navarro and Mica CLIMAX, the villain bursts into the BEDROOM (no explanation of how he escaped from the cell he was in surrounded, as he was, by Jonas and a number of enforcers 10 floors below Mica's bedroom AND no explanation of how Navarro and Mica got from a kiss against a steel wall in a subterranean hallway to "in flagrante delicto" in her upstairs bedroom in the house). Stalling the villain from killing them, Navarro and Mica keep him talking. Along the way the villain implies that he has somehow captured Ely but couldn't bring himself to kill her for some reason. (I admit to a great deal of confusion here, so I may have misunderstood the implication that Ely was, again, in danger, because no one seems concerned about it once the villain is vanquished.) Following this confusion, there's an epilogue that, in passing, mentions that the last Council "mole" at Sanctuary was rooted out -- no mention of who it was or how that was done.

My apologies to the author if this was an omission by the publisher. Ms. Leigh needs to demand that her work be printed with more care, if the publisher is, indeed, to blame. (I will also note here that there are a number of typographical errors that weren't caught by the proofreader either, and it's a real irritation to run across them. Very distracting at times, in fact.) If this is the way Ms. Leigh chose to end this novel, however, I have to say I'm very disappointed in her. Sure, I have no illusions that this book is classic literature, but lack of continuity in a story and failure to tie up plot lines are pretty glaring mistakes.

After Mica is lured into the exam room and there's a confrontation with Bradenmore, who is behind a glass partition. Jonas, Navarro and Callan arrive to let her out of the locked exam room. Mica storms down the hall now that the exam room door has been unlocked. Navarro chases after her, kisses her against the wall and then tells her he loves her as they are cuddling in bed in the "afterglow". There is no mention of a) how they got from kissing in a hallway to being in a bed; b) where this bed is located; and c) what transpired to get them to the "afterglow" portion of the program. I had about 5 minutes of WTF as I kept going back and forth in my Kindle trying to figure out if it was glitching. Then I read several other reviews with the same complaint. So it was either the WORST editing job ever, or somehow pages got lost when the documen got converted to Kindle format. Either way, it sucks and pretty much made me get my hate on for this book. And I have been a Breeds devotee for years, so this is especially depressing. I want my money back or a free copy of the corrected book.

The first 19 pages of the book, which happens to be the prologue was centered mostly around cassie (which btw I will be glad when LL writes her story). There were some typos and some grammatical errors. In chapter 17, pg. 299, Navarro presses Mica back into a steel wall (mind you she was walking down a hallway to get to the elevator; however no mention if she or Navarro enters into the elevator. Then less than a half page later, N&M have finished their lovemaking (in her bed, and how they got there I don't know -- not unless when you turn the page you hit an unforseen fast forward button! -- plus, they are professing their love to each other. The big bag Brandenmore chooses this time to enter Mica's bedroom, with no one ever knowing there was a secret panel in the wall for this fool to frolic through! Ms. Leigh what happened?

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