Bengal's Heart is a fascinating, thrilling, emotional roller coaster. I finished it a day ago and I swear it is haunting me.

It's a funny thing .... each Breed book by Lora Leigh just picks me up and dumps me in a world of danger and passion and then leaves me gasping. And yet I also find it hard to pinpoint exactly what it is about this series that resonates so much with me.

Okay, the writing is good, very good, with a blend of description and natural dialogue that shows an author at the peak of her skills. Lora Leigh has built a complex social structure with military/medical/political implications and yet her development of themes and reminders for reader of events in past books is intertwined with the plot and characters so that explanations of the context flow very nicely. She also gives us tough, complicated characters. She doesn't water down the alpha traits of the Breeds, but also manages not to drown us in their arrogance and dominance.

In Bengal's Heart the pain, regret and grief of Cassa provides her shell from which she is able to break free only with strength, determination and a self awareness that is often missing in other books. At the same time Cabal is uncompromisingly himself, driven to punish those who have tortured the Breeds just as he is driven to protect his pack. Cassa and Cabal are mates and have spent a decade aware of this but unwilling to act upon it and open themselves up to the vulnerability of breed heat and bonding. In this way Lora Leigh is able to avoid the shock of the bonding - instead Cassa and Cabal know exactly what they're letting themselves in for once their bonding starts. From that point the focus is on the push-pull of their relationship and solving the mystery of who is the rogue breed murdering their enemies.

There's a strong mystery in Bengal's Heart as we get closer to knowing the identities of members of the Genetics Council and their cohorts who created, trained and tortured Breeds over the past century. But at its centre this is a story of Breeds and how two tormented souls find each other.

The incredibly hot sex scenes are wonderfully written - hot, hot, hot, but above all highly emotional and moving. It's the fascination of the relationship that drives Bengal's Heart and leaves me so envious of characters who have been tested in the toughest of situations and have emerged so closely linked to each other that they will always be together.

If you like shifters, paranormal romance, a good thriller, fascinating, self-aware characters and a strong plot .... then Bengal's Heart is for you. As for me, I'm still in my post-Bengal's-Heart daze ... and enjoying every moment of it!