Taste Me by T. Hogan

THogan-Taste MeMaybe I misread something somewhere, but Taste Me by Tamara Hogan is in no way an Urban Fantasy, but a straight up Paranormal Romance.  This may not seem like a huge distinction for some, but I picked it up because I was wanting the kick ass heroine and mystery tinged with romantic elements.  Not a hot romance tinged with a whodunit murder mystery.  However, outside of all of this, I have to say that Taste Me was definitely a captivating read.

He Wants Her So Badly He Can Taste It…
Ever since their tempestuous fling years ago, incubus Lukas Sebastiani has known that siren Scarlett Fontaine was meant to be his. But when you’re a sex demon with an insatiable desire, relationships are way more than complicated…

Her Siren Songs Bring Men to Their Knees…
Rock star Scarlett Fontaine desperately needs a break after a grueling tour. But with murder and mayhem surrounding her band, and the one man she never thought to see again put to the task of protecting her, life is going to be anything but peaceful…

Every encounter between them creates more turmoil-and heat-until Scarlett pushes Lukas to the boiling point, and unleashes forces that go way beyond anything she can hope to control…

Once I realized that I was going to be getting more romance than I anticipated, I really enjoyed the story.  The chemistry between Lukas and Scarlett is never subtle and you can tell the two have been burning a torch for each other for years.

One thing that did disappoint me was you really can’t tell if Taste Me is the beginning of a new series or not. Everything was resolved by the end and there really wasn’t anything left open to be resolved later.  No villain with a supreme plan or even two characters that were in jeopardy or anything.  Now I will say that I could see a few characters that could star in any future novels, but there was nothing that gave me any indication that I should be on the lookout for a sequel in the future.

I also didn’t get the villain.  The idea of him was great, but it’s never explained why he was the killer.  What made him do it? What was the beast?  Was it all inside his head or was he an anomaly?  Honestly, the whole mystery part of the story really wasn’t need.  It more or less gave Lukas a reason to bodyguard Scarlett and that was it.  At the same time, I also never really caught up why she was the one who needed all the protection.  What about the other Council’s children?  Lukas’ younger sister, the one who just turned 16, wasn’t given a bodyguard.  So that was a little weird.  The other weird thing was the scene in the coffee shop.  I normally don’t like to give spoilers, but the scene just didn’t seem like it meaned anything.  Like it was there to drive Lukas and Scarlett out of the building and into hiding somewhere else.  The scene I’m talking about is where someone takes a shot at Scarlett while she’s sitting in the coffee shop.  You would think that this would be necessary in a story, but a gun had never shown up in the story until this point.  Yes, some of the characters carried, but they were never used.  Not even with the murder victims.  In all honestly, I would have to say that the whole mystery aspect of Taste Me was not done well at all.  There were a ton of holes and they really didn’t seem linked together very well.  The biggest puzzle was why the villain focuses on who he did at the end.  There was never any hint that they were the true target.

Overall, Taste Me by Tamara Hogan wasn’t that bad of a read. It had some fabulous characters that I enjoyed reading about and I would love to see some of them get a story of their own.  However, the mystery wasn’t anything special at all.  It could have been wiped from the novel and wouldn’t have bothered me.  It just left me with too many why?? moments.  If there are more novels in this series, I would be interested in reading them, but I’m not going to start hunting them done because I just don’t know if there will be.

Also reviewed by: Book Chick City, Star-Crossed Romance, A Buckeye Girl Reads and Michelle’s Book Blog

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

2 Comments

  1. I dislike being misled by the book blurb and then finding out that the focus of the story is something completely different. The change is not necessarily a bad thing, but I do have certain types of plots that I enjoy more than others, so it kind of throws me out of the story if it’s different. That’s when I start to notice plot holes and things that I otherwise might have just ignored. I am interested in this book, but I do prefer UF to PNR, so it may move farther down on the wishlist.

    • I wouldn’t say that blurb is misleading, it’s just giving the villain more importance than seems necessarily I guess. Never once did they connect him to the band and there really wasn’t any other clue given as to why Scarlett was so important vs the other Council children when they guessed that it was the Council children who were the target. I mean, there were others who could have been just as important not being protected.

      It wasn’t that bad of a story – it’s just more of a relationship developer than a plot developer.

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