Climbing Cougar Mountain was supposed to help Mia find herself, relax. Instead it finds her captive of the compelling avatar of the Cougar Spirit. More animal than human, he intends to own her, body and soul, to make her his. [Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Domination/submission, dubious consent.]
Under her "real" name, Vonna Harper has published more fiction than she can keep track of . These include category romances for the major players as well as the 'juicy' stuff. She also penned a series of well-received Native American historicals. One earned her finalist status in both the Women Writing the West Willa award and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. Before discovering romances, both erotic and otherwise, Vonna 'confessed' all kinds of nonsense for the confession magazines.
When asked about erotica research, she insists, "Of course I've time-traveled to the ancient Everglades, infiltrated bondage strongholds, done wilderness search and rescue, and spent a night trapped in a workout gym with Mr. Universe. How can I possibly write about something I haven't experienced?"
As for day jobs, "I've been a commercial pilot, brain surgeon, worked as a white-water river guide, bee keeper, snake charmer, and garbage collector."
Cougar’s Captive by Vonna Harper is an audiobook I got because of the cover. I had just completed another book with a character named Stark so initially I was excited. Oh well.
The steamy part was entertaining, but the plot was thin as was the world building.
Thank goodness it was short, because I was always thinking of what my next read would be.
Stark had some of the worst opening lines. Well, they're pretty good for a serial rapist/murderer but his entire tone and demeanor was just plain freaky. It was like he was seducing her into some kind of cult. And then he starts spewing crap about answering to a cougar spirit AFTER assaulting, restraining, and going as far as to gag Mia. The guy's lonely and that's about the only good reason you'll get for why he's doing what he's doing.
This book rubbed me the wrong way, and left me bummed. I actually finished reading it a couple days ago and didn't want to review it. Mostly because I didn't even want to even think about it. But it's completely taken away my appetite to read so I figured I'll throw something down if only to get it out of my system. So there. Predator gets 1 star. And that's only because it was ultimately a story about a shifter claiming a mate.
It says a lot when it takes 3 days to finish a novella. But I stuck with it, though. If I hadn't, I would've missed out for when they finally did the deed with a creepy cougar (and hawk) watching them. I wonder if the cougar found it amusing when the heroine stuck her thumb in the hero's bum-hole, telling him to "take his punishment"?
But the cougar was just bidding his time... After Stark (hero) and Mia (heroine) have been made into one by their mating, the Cougar Spirit speaks and recruits the hero and heroine to rise up against the poachers who have been invading the mountain and illegal loggers who are destroying the forest. Stark and Mia can conquer anything now that Cougar Spirit has brought them together. I just love happy endings.
I've always found Vonna Harper's writing a bit much like a tease. Lots of build up, with the climax less than satisfactory (yet I still keep reading her, so who knows?). This story was not much different, though maybe since it's a shorter story, that feeling wasn't too bad.
Ironically, the 'creepiness' of the hero that the other reviewers mentioned is exactly why i liked him. He was not quite all there (probably due to intense isolation) and was pretty set on trying to get the heroine to see his way. ^_~
Though, I felt that the heroine's change of heart for the hero was a bit abrupt, but it was pretty minor.
I honestly think this book was just too short to have any kind of alliance or connection with either character here. Also, it does toe the line between consensual and non a little too closely for my liking. I didn't even mind the heavy-handed eco-warrior vibes, but the cougar concept on top of it all just really didn't work for me.
I’m so torn, there were parts of this book that were good and felt like we were going somewhere, then events that came out of nowhere, and other happenings that were so sudden they didn’t make sense.
The author tried to fit too much into the 87 pages. The bones are there, the flow is not. It was extremely jarring at points instead of being a natural progression.
The world building foreshadowed some possibly intriging story telling but really failed to deliver any satisfactory elements to this particular story. Since there appears to be no sequel I'm guessing I'll never find out if Cougar Mountain was saved by our hero's.
*rolling eyes* I'd swear it was written by a 15 yr old. I can hardly wait for my library to get some different sci fi books and hopefully something worth listening to
Llevo queriendo leer este libro desde hace años y años. No porque me pareciera realmente interesante o algo por el estilo, sino que le tomé cariño por ser de los primeros que vi del género.
¿Cómo resultó? Hay que reconocer que si es algo peculiar. Mi imagen de el era una cueva con un chico sexy-puma (?) No es tan diferente sin embargo y dio más de lo que esperaba, pero no se me da tan bien este asunto de la sumisión tan fuerte. Al comienzo (también se hizo más lago de lo que esperaba) literalmente estaba este hombre sobre ella tocándola contra su total voluntad ¡eso es friki por decir poco ya que es un libro erótico! Y luego ya entra la sensualidad y demás pero eso es fuerte y te hace pensar en qué rayos estás leyendo.
Dejando eso de lado me agradó el resto de la trama, todo este punto de la naturaleza y protegerla. Creí que solo sería uno de esos libros eróticos que se centran únicamente en el sexo y que habitualmente por esto mismo terminan siendo un asco. Pero no lo fue y eso me sorprendió gratamente.
Las dos estrellas para mí no es algo malo a diferencia de como algunos pueden tomarlo. No me pareció grandioso para las cinco, no me encantó para las cuatro ni gustó-gustó para las tres, pero me parece que está bien y sin duda superó mis expectativas. Pero hay que tener en cuenta que sí fue fuerte el comienzo, por lo que, a pesar de que los eróticos son +18 evidentemente se leen desde más temprana edad, y a este en particular le doy una advertencia de contenido para esas otras edades.
Y finalmente estoy contenta de haberlo leído finalmente luego de años buscándolo.
Terrible... it has a couple good points... the overlyuing story line was good, but for the entire book it felt like an X rated movie. And then after the X Rated movie stoped, the movie went to an ending that didn't fulfill what you wanted to know. I gave it 2 stars because the overlying story had potentional, but the execution sucked.
No me gusto mucho, al principio resulto tedioso, largo hasta un poco aburrido.... No se sintio esa conexion que deberian tener al ser compañeros, yo no la senti... Me gusto la parte de la proteccion del bosque y lo demas....