Into the Lair - Maya Banks i suppose if i were a girl on the run, my whole world crumbling around me, nothing would be more intriguing than being kidnapped by a pair of rough sex-loving were-panther brothers who only want to protect me, keep me captive, and double-team me too of course. isn't this every girl's dream come true? who needs independence with a couple of were-panthers around? freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose...

i keep hoping the PNR genre will offer me some kind of a surprise in the way of, oh, interesting writing or disturbing psychodrama or genuinely erotic, at the very least eyebrow-raising sexual scenarios. this is my third one so far and no such luck. the writing was subpar but inoffensive, certainly no worse than that of your average high school football player. i should know - i used to grade their papers; this novel reminded me eerily of the result of any creative writing assignment: that special combination of gung ho enthusiasm, stumbling syntax, and the overriding need to turn every situation into a kind of horny, porny & corny sex comedy or psychodrama.

well i will try to say at least a single kind thing: one could admire how the author appears to lose all interest in any kind of narrative once she gets into the graphic (yet workmanlike), multi-chapter menage that forms this novel's climax. there is a kind of willful abandon in that. unfortunately, even that abandon begins to atrophy amidst all the dewy-eyed sentiment.