Elizabeth’s Wolf
(Breeds #3)
by Lora Leigh
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Publication date: Jan. 2, 2018 (revised edition)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:
From New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh comes a new, revised edition of a beloved classic in the passionate Breed series–Elizabeth’s Wolf won the hearts of readers everywhere when it was first released, and now experience the magic again in this special, expanded edition!
Special-Forces solider Dash has all but given up his will to live until an innocent letter from a little girl brings him back to life. Cassie writes to him every week, strengthening his resolve to recover from the devastating loss of his unit. But when the letters suddenly stop arriving, Dash instinctively knows Cassie and her mother are in critical danger.
Elizabeth and her daughter are on the run from a dark and bloody past that refuses to let them go. The stakes are too high for her to fall for this dangerous man who’s just walked into her life, but now more than ever she needs help.
Saving his mate and her daughter calls Dash’s beast to the forefront and transforms the lone wolf into an alpha protector–he becomes Elizabeth’s wolf.
When little Cassie signs up to become a pen pal to a military member through a school program, she immediately chooses Dash. There’s something about his name that speaks to her. It’s a good sounding name for a daddy, a solid name, a name that says protect instead of hurt… something that Cassie is all too familiar with. So, she writes to Dash. She tells him all her little girl dreams, her fears, and even provides snippets of the danger her and her mother are in. Meanwhile, Dash is in a coma after he and his men are taken out by the enemy while on a mission. He’s ready to just let go and fade away. He’s had a long and hard life and with the loss of his men, he’s just given up on life. However, his commander comes in and reads him letters from a little girl named Cassie. Upon hearing the fear in the little girl’s words, he decides there’s something worth fighting for. He has to fight and get back up to health in order to save this little girl. Why? He has no idea, but there is a pull there that makes him want to protect not only her, but her mother as well.
The author starts the book by talking about receiving an email to become pen pals with a service member who doesn’t have anyone to get mail from. That right there breaks my heart. There is someone out there fighting for our country, and they don’t get so much as a letter from home. So, before I even started the story, I was already aching for Dash. Then the author starts Dash’s story with him getting blown out of the sky and him remembering all the men that were on his team. The guys who would get care packages and letters from home. They’d get holiday packages and cute things from their loved ones… and he’d get nothing. He had no family since he was created in a facility. He has no friends because he has to keep his Breed status a secret. Honestly, it just hurt to picture this grown man sitting in a tent all alone, surrounded by his comrades as they open up care packages with joy on their faces. Ugh! So, yeah, I fell for Dash right from the start.
“He had no one. He was a man alone in the world and he had thought this was the way he wanted it, until Cassie’s letters. Until a little girl introduced herself and her mother to a man literally dying of the loneliness that filled his world.”
Elizabeth, man, she was like She-Hulk or something. Here she is, a single mother on the run for two years with her little girl. Why? Because her ex-husband thought it was a great idea to try to bargain his daughter away to some sadistic guy that he owed. A guy who, of course, is well-connected and has friends in all corners of the world. Thankfully, Elizabeth had a sixth sense to go back to her ex’s house to check up on her little girl, which is when she witnessed what was going on and took the first opportunity to sneak her baby girl out of there. I call her She-Hulk because against all odds, she’s managed to keep them both safe. They’re always on the move, never stay at a place for more than a few weeks, and even thought there have been some really close calls, they’ve managed to get away. Elizabeth has no training, no skill sets, and yet she does the impossible time after time and gets her baby out of there before the bad guys can get them. However, she’s running on fumes and is darn lucky when Dash finally catches up with them. If it weren’t for him showing up when he did, she may not have had any fight left in her to escape. However, I have to give mad props to Elizabeth for keeping them safe for so long. Most would call Elizabeth a mama bear protecting her cub, but I call her She-Hulk.
I love that these two don’t start off in love. In fact, Elizabeth is not thrilled that Dash has seamlessly popped in from nowhere to “save them”. She’s not putting her daughter’s life, or her own for that matter, in the hands of some stranger that her daughter used to write letters to. However, she slowly learns to trust Dash and when that moment came… I tell you what, Lora Leigh sure knows how to write some steamy scenes. Wowza! I’m not joking with you, I’m pretty sure I saw the pages of my book actually smoking. I honestly wasn’t expecting those bedroom scenes when I picked up this book, but yeah, I’m glad they were there.
Another thing that I love about this book is that Cassie plays a rather large role in the story. She’s the catalyst for Dash existing today. She helped heal him and gave him something to fight for. She brought him and her mother together. She is the reason why Elizabeth’s Wolf exists. So, when I finish this story and you give me a snippet of Cassie’s story when she’s an adult. Mind blown! Granted this is the third book in the series, and Cassie’s book is the 33rd book in the series. Something tells me I will be skipping right to Cassie’s book after this one. Which brings me to the fact that this is the first Lora Leigh book I’ve read. So, if this story tickles your fancy, hop aboard because you don’t have to read the previous books in order to know what’s going on. Were we introduced to some of the characters we would’ve come across in the previous two books? Probably. Did Dash make an appearance in their books? It seems very likely since there’s reference to him saving some of theirs or their mate’s lives. However, Elizabeth doesn’t know these people or their back stories. She doesn’t know about those times that Dash saved their lives, and I loved that the author took the time to sort of quickly break it down via conversation for those of us who didn’t read the previous books. Like Elizabeth, I was a bit clueless as to what was going on and why, but Dash and some of the others explain it to her and thus explained it to me.
I really enjoyed my time reading Elizabeth’s Wolf. There was suspense, lovable characters, not a whole lot of outside drama, and some pretty steamy scenes. I have to say, if you are a fan of shifter books or paranormal romances, then you have got to give this one a go. I’m really glad the book was revised and re-released because it may not have been put on my radar otherwise… and that would have been really sad.
Favorite quote…
“I was dying. Aware but not awake. […] I’d never received a letter in my life until Cassie. And never had I received a Christmas card or gift until your ‘Santa’ visited. She forced me to fight to live; now I’ll fight to keep her alive. It’s that simple.”
I just LOVE this book so much, its one of my favorites from the series. There is something so charming about the relationship between the three here. I hope you enjoy the rest of the series here!!
Great review! I remember reading this the first time around and thought it was a really good book. Glad to see it’s back for others to experience Leigh’s writing. Hugs…RO
I tried and enjoyed a few of her books but it’s been a while. I should try again!
not sure I read anything by her, wonder why he had such a strong pull to save the little girl. Cute story though, love the whole military pan pal thing.
Ooh this sounds like a good one. I like that it’s not insta-love, and that Cassie continues to play a big part in the book! My brother was in the army and I know he’d share things we gave him with others there that didn’t really get much. It’s definitely heartbreaking!
-lauren
I do miss pnr
I love this series so much. There are a bunch of books in this series and they are all really good. So glad you liked this one. I hope you read more of this series.
Ahhh, love me some Paranormal Romance! I think I’ve heard this author’s name before, but I’m not familiar with this series. Will have to check it out, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
THIRTY THREE BOOKS!!! Oh crap lol
This does sound really, really good though and I love when you get to read about a character as a child and then as an adult. That’s awesome.
For What It’s Worth
I haven’t tried one of her books yet, looks like I need to!
You had me sold in the first paragraph, Kristin. I love that Cassie picked Dash because his name sounded like a good daddy name. And it’s always nice when kids are an integral part of the story rather than just a plot device. I also like that Elizabeth and Dash work at a romance. That’s rather refreshing. Ha! I’ll have to check out this one. Do you know if the series needs to be read in order?
I would say no since this if the first book by the author that I’ve read and I had no problems with it. 🙂
They do the farther you get into the series. Early on they work well as stand alones but after a while she starts connecting back story and it gets really hard to just jump in.
Yay! I enjoyed this series, too. I’m curious about the revised part since I have the books from WAY back when they were first released with their terrible covers at anther pub. lol They are very entertaining, though. I might need to do a re-read. Glad you enjoyed it!