Taming the Fire by Sydney Croft
Series: ACRO #4
Published by Delta
Published on: April 28, 2009
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 309
Format: eBook
Source: Library
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Power. Pleasure. Danger. It doesn't get any hotter than this.
He came to the underground London club for a night of extreme sex play with the enigmatic “Mistress Rik.” But the special agent known as Trance is really on a search-and-rescue mission to keep her alive. Part predator, Ulrika “Rik” Jaegar possesses feral powers that make her a danger to others—and to herself. That’s why the Agency for Covert Rare Operatives (ACRO) wants to recruit her to their side….To do so, Trance will have to pull off the impossible: capture and control Rik, both woman and beast.
On the run from the deadly agency that changed her into a pleasure-seeking shape-shifter, Rik uses sex to rein in her own raging desires. Operating on pure instinct, she trusts no one…especially the magnificent alpha male with the power to seduce her into submission. An undercover agent with unique hypnotic gifts, Trance is surprised by his instinct to hold Rik and keep her safe—but he has a job to do. And as he hunts her down, as Rik and Trance are thrust into the ultimate game of domination and submission, they’ll enter a place where surrender is their sole hope of survival—and the only thing that can tame the wild beast in both of them.…
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I’ve really been enjoying this series. It has taken me a while to work my way through the series, but I’ve really been enjoying it. It is sorta of a take on the X-Men. There are people with special abilities of all different kinds. There are different organizations around the world who are seeking out these people for their own reasons. The two biggest groups are ACRO (good guys) and Itor (bad guys).
In this story, Trance has been sent out to try to bring in an escaped and on the run Itor agent. She is a dominatrix. He has a past in the scene, though he hasn’t been in the scene in a long while. Also, he was never a submissive, ever. He even comments about how some doms will submit to another dom so that he/she will know what they submitting on their own submissives, but he would never allow that on himself, until he has to do it for this mission.
Ulrika, “Rik”, uses her dominate nature to help control the beast inside of her. She was captured and forced to become an Itor agent after they captured and killed her entire family. They had other plans for her, but after a few experiments, they decided to use her as an assassin instead. While her family always had an animalistic side, they couldn’t shift, that is until after Itor did their experiments on her.
There are a lot of trust issues between Trance and Rik and for good reason. As you think they are making strides, then something would happen and that trust would dissolve and the pair would back at square one. I think because of these outside influences, it makes their trust between the two to eventually grow even further, though it does take a while.
As per normal for this series, this is not the only romance going on, it is just the main one. There is also the return of Ryan, who meets someone from his past in Meg. Meg and her brother, Mose, grew up Amish. She is now a computer geek who is known for stealing money electronically. Mose does money laundering now. Meg and Ryan have a thing from way back when before Ryan even joined ARCO.
Then there is Dev and a new kid called Gabe. They never give his age, but he does leave the ARCO campus to go to bars, so I assume he must be at least 21. Dev is 36, so I can see why he keeps calling him “kid”, even if that isn’t the case. It is a weird relationship between these two. It is one that they both fight, but can’t seem to at the same time.
As per usual for me lately, it is more of the overall story arc that pulls me into this story than the romance here, especially with this series. This series always seems to have more than one romance going on, so you really have to enjoy the whole story more than the individual romance, at least for me. I’ve really enjoyed the world that they’ve built. While this series has always had more sex in it than the vast majority of PNR on the market, more of paranormal erotica. This one really has more the BDSM aspects, though there are scenes that don’t have those aspects. This series continues to intrigue me. I’m a little sad that I only have a few books left.
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I’m Melanie and I live in Ohio. I have two horses and a dog. I’m an animal lover, avid book reader and audiobook listener. I like to live vicariously through fictional characters. I enjoy reading and listening to mostly fictional books in the paranormal genre, including Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance and Horror. My favorite paranormal creatures are shifters, doesn’t matter the flavor.
Sort of x-men you say—I like that
It does have an X-Men feel. People with special powers joining two different teams of good guys and bad guys. They have powers like controlling and talking to animals, controlling weather, special sex powers, extra strength, talking to the dead. In this book, the main characters one can turn into a wolf, she’s the only one in the world that any one is aware of. The hero has extreme strength.
Melanie recently posted…Graphic Novel Review: Alias by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos (@mlsimmons) #JessicaJones
Not really into that kind of book, but I am glad you are enjoying them 🙂
This isn’t a series for everyone, that is for sure.
Melanie recently posted…Graphic Novel Review: Alias by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos (@mlsimmons) #JessicaJones
It sounds like a promising series with the super powers and the two organizations. Sounds like Ulrika has quite the past with how she worked for the evil organization first and got experimented upon. I can see why she wanted to escape and is on the run now. And I can imagine it takes some time before these two trust another. Those side romances can work well if the book is well written. I hope you’ll enjoy the few books you have left in this series as well. Great review!
Lola recently posted…Sunday Post #170
Thanks Lola. Yes, Ulrika had a tough life. So many people misused any trust she ever gave out. I’m sure the rest of the books will be as good as the rest of the ones I’ve read. Thanks for stopping by.
Melanie recently posted…Graphic Novel Review: Alias by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos (@mlsimmons) #JessicaJones
Lot’s going on in this books. Sometimes I like that and sometimes it’s too much. Glad it balanced for you so you could enjoy it overall.
This author team does a great job of keeping everything pretty straight forward even though there is a lot going on. I love that there are so many characters to follow. It has helped me when I wasn’t as big of a fan of the main characters.
Melanie recently posted…Graphic Novel Review: Alias by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos (@mlsimmons) #JessicaJones
Aw heck. I love these type of stories! Humans with abilities – I can’t get enough of them!
Me too. I’ve been a fan of the X-Men for years. I used to watch the cartoons way back when. Now I watch the movies. And to read these books by an author who I love, it has been great.
Melanie recently posted…Graphic Novel Review: Alias by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos (@mlsimmons) #JessicaJones
This cover is not a favorite so I’m happy to see your review for this to know that it is one that shouldn’t be ignored. 😉
I’m not a huge fan of the covers either. It is a fun series though.
Melanie recently posted…Graphic Novel Review: Alias by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos (@mlsimmons) #JessicaJones
Hmm, I’m really going to have to check out X-Men, Melanie! 😉 As you know, I enjoyed book 1 from this series…I’ll have to read the next ones sooner than later so I’ll remember the ‘feel’ of the books – with all the characters and separate story lines going on. I’d really gotten into it by the end. 🙂 I’m glad you’re still enjoying the series. Nice review!
I hope you like the next book even more. I think it might be my favorite. I’ll admit that the first one wasn’t my favorite.
Melanie recently posted…Graphic Novel Review: Alias by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos (@mlsimmons) #JessicaJones
You had me at the X-men comment, and I like that it has multiple romances but that it is the plot that drives you.
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I like the multiple romances too. Then if I don’t like the main couple, there is plenty of other stories to fall back on. I hope you enjoy it.
Melanie recently posted…Graphic Novel Review: Alias by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos (@mlsimmons) #JessicaJones
This was the last book I read. I need to read the rest. It’s on my TBR for this year.
I’m still working on my goal of finishing series this year. This is one of the ones I plan to finish. G.A. Aiken is the other. I’m in the middle of several Eve Langlais series too.
Melanie recently posted…Graphic Novel Review: Alias by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos (@mlsimmons) #JessicaJones