Review: Mating to 5 Alpha Werewolves with Hero complexes is a pain when you have a job to do.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 5, 2011
First book in "The Men of Five-O" series. The second book "SWAT Team Two and Miss Robin Hood" is not available on Amazon at the time of this review.Plot:Samantha (Sam) is a Social Worker in New York. The Valdamar brothers are 5 Shifter (wolf) brothers, all Alpha, and members of Swat Team 1. For the last year they have been keeping an eye on Sam, coming to her rescue as needed. But things are starting to get out of hand. They are her mates, Sam doesn't know it (being human), but they're wolves are demanding they mark her. And that's only the start of their problems. Someone is trying to get at Sam, there's a mysterious death in her past, her father is acting strange and Sam is feeling just plain weird. Her life is never going to be the same again.Comments:- A long book (5030 kindle locations, 70606 words). This book is *epic*. So much happens, so much sex, violence and action. It just keeps on going... There is a lot of story to cover (over a fairly short timeline). *gasp* Definitely need a breather after this book. (As Sam cries during various bedroom scenes "it's just too much!").- This is a paranormal Shifter/werewolf book. Sam is "mated" to five Alpha wolves. Which means they can't keep their hands off each other, Sam is constantly after sex (even when she wishes she doesn't), and they don't explain this is "normal" and "imperative" and part of the mating thing. (Which gets my goat. If they just told her what was going on...!) And we have partial shifting during sex (claws grip, teeth elongate etc) as well as sex in wolf form.- Sex is m/f, m/f/m and m/f/m/m/m/m (1 woman, five men). It's hot and caring but often the males are "in control" (as in, she likes to be told what to do, held still). But still frequent and enjoyable. It isn't particularly varied, and is mostly in bed.- Violence against Sam by Bad Guys (she's beaten up a number of times, attempted rape as human and wolf).- Sam is very strong, intelligent, caring. It is such a shame we don't get to see it because her Mates are so busy having sex with her. (Okay, perhaps the book annoyed me more than I thought. Sorry. Don't mean to be petty.)- Although this is book 1 in a series, it would standalone. Book 2 picks up the story of the cousins in SWAT Team 2. So much happens to Sam in Book 1, you can only hope she gets some time to breathe and get her life back together before being thrown into another book!- Some editing/proofreading issues on my electronic version. Makes reading slightly irritating.Opinion:A really nice aspect of the serialised erotica Siren Publishing are putting out, is they aren't skimping on the length of the books, or the quality of the writing. The books are filled with sex and plot (or as much as would be expected from the book's synopsis), while understanding this is a story arc that is expected to take multiple books. It is not clear how many books are in this series.This book is alright. I think because it was so long, because there were editing issues and some other things [see SPOILER], I didn't enjoy it as much as other books in the LoveXtreme series. It could have done with tighter editing and less focus on her breasts. But it does set the series up nicely.***SPOILER***Why, after she's been badly hurt (cheek, eye, arm) is she having rockin' sex with 5 men? One I'd understand, but all five? And oral too? Sounds uncomfortable if not painful. And it keeps on happening. She gets beaten up? We have sex. Aggressive, alpha sex. When does she get a chance to heal? We also seem to have dropped Brandy's story. Possibly picked up in Book 2?