Title: Ultimate Sins
Series: Callahan Series Book #4
Author: Lora Leigh
Genre: Romance/Erotic
Blurb: Three men, bound by blood, will stop at nothing to protect the women who have stolen their hearts and who they have claimed as their own—no matter what the price.
A FORBIDDEN LOVE…Ex-Marine Crowe Callahan has only had one obsession in life: Amelia Sorenson. She is the only one who has ever gotten under his skin. However, she is also the daughter of his family’s sworn enemy: a man who has sought to destroy the Callahans for generations in order to further his own nefarious agenda.
A DANGEROUS FATE…When Amelia put herself on Crowe’s side and in Crowe’s bed, she became her father’s enemy as well. When Wayne Sorenson escapes capture, both Amelia and Crowe know it is only a matter of time before he resurfaces to exact his revenge. Now Crowe will claim Amelia in order to bait a killer and end things once and for all. But can he protect the woman he can’t seem to live without from one of the deadliest enemies he has ever known? And will he survive if he can’t?
Thoughts: This was an interesting read for me from Leigh, as I am more used to her Breed series, though it provided a different change of pace. This one has a lot of suspense elements to it and a features a complex series of events that ties this whole town together in a convoluted web of subterfuge. This is the fourth book in the series, and I haven’t read the prior novels, though I did not find it difficult to keep up with the story. However, there is a bunch of characters and I did find it a bit difficult to work out who was connected to who and in what way – but to be honest I felt like that would have been the case even if I was on the first book in the series!…:)
Life altering secrets, lies, deceptions, and intrigue is the theme here, but it is largely overshadowed by the constant sex between the characters. The ‘balance’ of the book is my major complaint….Don’t get me wrong, I like erotica and sexual scenes – especially HOT scenes..;) – and you kind of expect that from Leigh. Even for her though, it was a bit much and ended up detracting a little from the storyline for me. I actually had to resist skipping over some of it because it seemed every time the story started to get interesting it reverted back to more sex.
Which also leads me to my second complaint – Crowe – who (oddly enough) seemed to try to solve every problem in communication with sex (imagine that!). Occasionally I would find myself liking his character, but for the most part I thought he was a domineering jerk. Amelia, on the other hand, can come across as a bit of a doormat – but I like to think of her as the quiet heroine in the background who has just been through so much that she has learned to pick her battles.
Overall, it was an okay read, but definitely on the lower end of the scale for a Lora Leigh book. I could recommend a dozen of her titles right off the top of my head and this one just doesn’t even come close to those.
Rate: B-
**The series also includes Midnight Sins (Book #1), Deadly Sins (Book #2), and Secret Sins (Book #3)**
