Review: Claimed by Elle Kennedy (@jessicadhaluska, @ElleKennedy, @SignetEclipse)

Claimed by Elle Kennedy
Series: Outlaws #1
Published by Signet
Published on: October 6 2015
Genres: Dystopian, Erotica
Pages: 370
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased

Amazon | Book Depo | Kobo | B&N | iBooks | GoodReads

The bestselling author of the Killer Instincts novels “knows how to write scorching sexual tension” (USA Today). Now she really sets it on fire in a new series about men and women living on the edge of violence, sex, and life and death.
 
After a devastating war decimated most of the world, Hudson Lane has only known the oppressive life under her own father’s tyranny. She finally escapes, branding herself an outlaw and hunted by the Enforcers. Her best chance at survival is Connor Mackenzie, an aggressively sensual fugitive who opens her eyes to the wicked possibilities of a world without rules.
 
As the leader of a band of outlaw fighters, Connor can’t resist the beautiful stranger who asks for his protection. Despite his reservations, he agrees to introduce her to a whole new way of life. But when Connor discovers Hudson’s connection to the enemies of liberty, he wonders how far he can trust the woman who has abandoned all inhibitions to challenge every forbidden desire.

I’m not going to lie . . . sometimes, not often, but sometimes I get in the mood for SMUT.

I’m picky about it, though. Clearly not as picky as some others who read and hated CLAIMED, b/c “too much sex, not enough plot,” and to those people I say:

Whatever you do, NEVER pick up Beyond Shame.

B/c CLAIMED is basically a toned-down, more marketable version of that concept.

That’s not a complaint. I liked Beyond Shame. BUT. I could never read it for more than half an hour or so at a time, b/c, MAN ALIVE . . . something about loins and flames, and I just could NOT take it. I had to put it aside in favor of something else, b/c spontaneous combustion was a real possibility . . .

Not so, CLAIMED.

In this world, there are two types of people: citizens and outlaws.

Citizens live under the control protection of a police-like state, while outlaws prefer to take their chances elsewhere. They live outside civilization, such as it is, eking out an existence
in the spaces no one of importance is interested in.

Outlaws are mostly transient, b/c even if they aren’t doing anything particularly wrong, they’re still branded with the label “outlaw,” and enforcers are jerks who like to break shit.

It’s harder to get broken if you don’t stay in one place.

Hudson, a citizen, is on the run.

Unbeknownst to her, before he died, her father arranged a marriage to a man she despises, so much so, she leaves the safety of citizenship, fleeing to outlaw territory.

She’s has skills, you see.

Her father was a man of importance, so she was trained with the enforcers, the elite soldiers. She also has some medical knowledge, and between the two, she figures she can make a go of it on her own.

She is sadly mistaken.

Conner is an outlaw, born and bred.

Against his wishes, the handful of men he’s collected, fighters like himself, have made him their leader. Unlike most non-citizens, they’ve found a place of relative safety, a headquarters where they’ve lived and trained for the last six months, a place of stability from which they can raid enforcer bases for supplies, biting the ankles of the beast.

But that’s not enough for Conner.

He has a personal vendetta against the head enforcer, who murdered his family.

In Conner, Hudson sees protection. She vastly underestimated her ability to survive alone, and after witnessing his men’s efficient takedown of a group of bandits, she decides she’s going with them when they leave.

Things don’t go as either of them plan . . .

Things you should know:

1. There is M/F/M action, and, YES, I do mean action. *waggles eyebrows* So if that’s not your thing, BEWARE.

2. Outlaw territory is EXTREMELY hedonistic in nature. Their lives are hard and could end at any moment, so when they can play, they do.

3. There is a LOT of sex. This is labeled and marketed as erotica. If you read this, you go into it with your eyes WIDE OPEN. Don’t come back later and complain.

That being said, it’s not sex devoid of a plot. I felt the balance was a good one, and it flowed from one to the other seamlessly.

So seamlessly that after picking it up on Saturday afternoon, I was surprised several hours later, realizing I had not moved, and was nearly finished.

I. Loved. It.

CLAIMED by Elle Kennedy is the first installment of her new OUTLAWS series. It’s erotica, but it’s smart and funny and well-developed, and, again, I LOVED it. I’ve already pre-ordered ADDICTED, and I’ll be impatiently waiting until I have it in my grabby hands. Highly recommended.

Outlaws:

b>Was this review helpful to you? If so, please consider voting for it on Amazon or like it on Goodreads!
 

Related Posts