Book Review: Wrath by Laurann Dohner

Title: Wrath (Amazon)
Series: New Species, #6
Author: Laurann Dohner
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Erotica
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: bought
Published: March 2012 by Ellora’s Cave

Wrath volunteers to live and work outside Homeland where he’ll once again be confined in a small space with other males. He was subjected to horrific abuse and conditioning and forced to view endless sex tapes of human females while chained to Mercile’s perverted machines. Wrath knows he’s too dangerous and emotionally damaged to ever be with a female.

Lauren has just been detained by three big, buff, well-armed men—New Species. One of them really catches her eye. He is tall, sexy, and…her new roommate apparently. She has never met a man this truly spectacular and she decides to taste every inch of his amazing body. Wrath wants to explore that plan too. The sex is incredible and he gives her everything she needs but he’ll only go so far. Something is holding him back.

Lauren has to make him unleash his desire and Wrath has to get past his fear to give them a chance at a future together.

Reviewed By: J9

In a Nutshell: Sexy, sexy romance with good emotional intimacy set in a great sci-fi world. Series fans will adore this book as much as I did and new readers may just become series converts if they read this.

The Set Up: The New Species were created by an evil pharmaceutical company to have animal-DNA. Wrath is a newly rescued New Species searching for others of his kind. A human female, Lauren, is thought by Wrath’s team to have information on imprisoned New Species so they detain her. But Wrath and Lauren can’t resist each other, no matter how much this attraction puts them at risk.

Why I Read this Book: Simply because I adore the sexy New Species series.

What I Liked: Wrath, the hero, is a unique blend of sexy, intense and innocent. The tenderness and love he has for Lauren is so sigh-worthy and Lauren’s honest and open reciprocation is lovely as well. Like other couples in the series, Wrath and Lauren have an emotionally and sexually intense romance that fans of erotic paranormal romance will adore as I did. I found it refreshing that Wrath and Lauren are so emotionally vulnerable to each other and that the author doesn’t throw pointless tension into their romance to keep them separate. This is an exploration of how two distinct people become a couple and that’s why I read romance!

What I Also Liked: The world building is so well written and developed. It’s not all that different than another series (ahem, Lora Leigh’s Breeds) but it is crafted much better. I know, I know, Breeds fans don’t hunt me down! But hear me out: the editing is much better, the continuity is stellar and the action plot more resolved, to name just a few ways Dohner’s series is better than Leigh’s. But the best thing is that the heroes, including Wrath, have a gentle innocence and vulnerability that is unique among alpha-heroes in paranormal romance. I can’t say enough how much I enjoy these sexy but tender heroes—and Wrath may be my favorite of the six books!

What I Didn’t Like: Ok, I gotta be honest, right? So as much as I love the romance and the characters, the plot is fairly formulaic. Lauren gets captured and Wrath has to Hulk out and rescue her. There isn’t anything unique for paranormal readers and series fans will notice the author uses the exact same plot for all the books in this series. BUT…I don’t care! This totally works for me as it brings these two great characters together in love and tenderness. New readers won’t know the plot is a formula and series fans will be like me and think the characters and romance more than makes up for the simplistic plot.

IMO: This is an outstanding romance with a hero to die for. If you’re a series fan you will have this on your TBR pile already. Erotic paranormal fans looking for a new series to read need look no further than the New Species!

J9’s Rating: