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Dark Taste Of Rapture (2011)

by Gena Showalter(Favorite Author)

4.37 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1439175780 (ISBN13: 9781439175781)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Pocket Star

series

Alien Huntress

review 1: Note: Even though this is Book 6, it works fine as a stand alone.Our two heroes of the story, Noelle Tremain & Hector Dean, each have deep, dark secrets and these secrets keep them separated for much of the book. They first meet at AIR (an acronym for the organization that hunts down misbehaving aliens on Earth) boot camp – Noelle is a trainee not expected to graduate and Dean is a bald, badass instructor who gives her no quarter. While we get a little time at boot camp, the story then jumps ahead several months to where Noelle is graduated, badged, and on the streets kicking ass. A prominent businessman dies in a nasty fashion and Noelle and Hector are paired up to fight evil, the kind of evil trafficking in slaves.This was another fun romp in the Alien Huntress series.... more The bad guys deserved a messy end, the good guys were sassy and dedicated, the tech was fun, and the sex scenes were sizzling. For much of the book, Noelle and her gal pal Eva provide plenty of snarky comedic relief. Everyone needs a friend like Eva who will tell you when you’re an idiot and threaten to smash the face in of anyone else who says it. Plus, she’s rather petite and travels well in a duffel bag. ;)Hector Dean has plenty of hang ups. His childhood was pretty gritty and he carries the guilt of having killed other children when he lashed out in pain, anger, and despair as a kid himself. Oh, and he has very sensitive arms. Yes, he has this wee little issue of setting things ablaze and turning people to ash whenever he feels a strong emotion, such as anger, fear, arousal. So he hasn’t really made time with the fairer sex. For years now I have believed that male virginity was a highly under rated quality in our society and I very much enjoyed how Showalter employed this aspect of Dean’s character.Noelle comes from a rich family, and one that has dismissed her as frivolous and useless (except as a trophy daughter) for years. Her decision to become an AIR agent and work for a living, of course, deeply embarrasses much of her family. She too has her secrets and one of them concerns her ability to withstand painful torture with a smile and snarky remark.The plot was fun, with Dean & Tremain closing in on the slavers, and then losing them again, only to come close yet again. In fact, it somewhat mirrored their own burgeoning relationship. As one moves forward, the other pulls away, and so forth. The draw between the two is palpable, creating plenty of tension for the reader. My one little criticism concerns Hector and his supposed lack of creativity when it comes to having sex without using his hands or arms. Let’s say Hector started thinking about girls when he was 15 and let’s say he is in his mid-20s for this book. Well, he’s had 10+ years to consider how to pleasure a woman and/or himself. Yet, he is rather daunted by how to go about this in the book, at first at least. He’s a planner, always considering possibilities, so I would think that he would have imagined how to get to business. And if he couldn’t imagine it, well there are plenty of videos out there.But once we finally get Noelle and Hector locked in a room together, sparks do fly. Don’t worry readers, Showalter doesn’t leave you feeling unsatisfied with this book.The Narration: Sebastian York did a very good job. He had several characters, some with accents, to pull off and they all came across as distinct.What I Liked: Cool fancy tech; aliens and their powers; the sexual tension between the main characters; Eva’s stalwart friendship; the sex scenes.What I Disliked: It was a little unbelievable that Hector had not figured out how to do the deed without using his hands and arms; the image on the cover seems to have odd proportions to me, especially in the upper arm to lower arm ratio.
review 2: Buff, head shaved, tattooed Hector Dean was raised on the wrong side of town and learned to fight and kill down low and dirty, only to become an A.I.R. agent who also helps in the training of new recruits. New recruit Noelle Tremain was raised with a silver spoon by some of the wealthiest people in town. But it was never enough, she could do nothing that would cause her parents to "love" her. Along came wise mouth kick-ass little Ava, Noelle and Ava became the best friends that were so unlikely, so when Ava joined A.I.R., so did Noelle. Having seen the little princess arrive Hector bets she'll be gone in a week. But Noelle beats the odds and becomes an agent and is assigned to work a case with, of all people, Hector. Hector wants Noelle, but has a deadly secret that could cause her death, and so he does his best to push her away. Noelle is trying her best to become perfect for Hector as she is drawn to him, but she is being pushed away the same as she was during her childhood. Nothing she does is good enough. Will Noelle be an agent who always gets her man? Or will her man be the last to see her smile when his secret becomes known? less

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