Item: Beneath the Skin
Rating: 3
Author: ReadingLlama

Beneath the Skin
by Lauren Dane
Series: de La Vega Cats #3
Publication Date: November 1, 2017
Genres: Romance
Pages: 218
Source: NetGalley

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

My rating:

A whole world exists…beneath the skin.

Gibson de La Vega is the Bringer, one of the Alpha’s right-hand cats. It is his job to mete out justice and defend the law that holds their jamboree together.

After a contentious meeting with another jamboree, he’s shot—Mia stumbles onto the scene and saves his life. He’s immediately drawn to the female who dug three silver bullets from his body. Even after he discovers she’s a Porter, a family his own harmed grievously half a century before.

Mia has enough in her life. She’s recovering from a vicious hate crime—an attack using silver has affected her ability to do what she loves most. The last thing she needs is a bossy alpha cat like Gibson. A de La Vega no less.
Despite the myriad reasons to stay away, even as they continue to hunt down the would-be killers, their attraction deepens into something else entirely.

The answers they find bring that threat far closer to home than anyone could have imagined and it’ll be up to Gibson to end the mess once and for all. And up to Mia to stand at his side, even as he risks his life…

First of, isn’t that cover GORGEOUS?

When Gibson, one of the de La Vega brothers, is shot after a mysterious group of jaguars come to de la Vega territory, Mia Porter steps in to rescue him. Problem is, the Porters and de La Vegas are technically enemies, and their attraction to each other is unexpected and unwelcome. But Mia’s family history isn’t the only bit of ancient pack history that’s been drug back into the open…

I really enjoyed the Romeo and Juliet vibe, though most of the opposition to the match came from Mia’s family (and with good reason). I had mixed feelings about the previous books in this trilogy. While I enjoy reading alpha heroes, there comes a point where they verge into alpha a*-hole territory, and I felt like Galen/Jack and Max crossed that line too frequently in regards to their mates. On the other hand, Mia is a veteran with two combat tours under her belt, and the survivor of an assault that left her in a coma and with permanent damage. While Gibson still has the same protective instincts towards her, I think Mia does a better job at pushing back when he’s being unreasonable, and Gibson seems to accept that easier. I especially liked how Mia knew how to poke Gibson into expressing his feelings for her.

My main beef with the story? The villains are dumb. Like, seriously verging on too stupid to live territory. There’s an in-story reason given for it, which I think partially helped, but I still had my eyebrows raised at the clumsiness of their plans.

I felt like this was a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. I don’t believe that Ms. Dane has plans for more books in the series, but I do wish I could read Armando’s book!

3.5 smexy stars!

Beneath the Skin will be re-released on November 20th, 2017!