Beneath the Skin (de la Vega Cats, #3)

by Lauren Dane

[llamareads]

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!

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.