HOLD ON!

SHE'S DONE IT AGAIN!!!

*5 STARS to

MINE TO HOLD
by CYNTHIA EDEN

First off...I luv you! I mean seriously Ms. Eden you are phenomenal! I want to be your bestie, I want to see how that wonderfully wicked mind really works. That being said, I digress to the reason for my ranting...MINE TO HOLD; the latest installment in her "MINE" series.

We pick up a short while after the end of MINE TO KEEP, now in New York. Specifically York Tower in New York. This installment is the story of Noah York and Claire Kramer and boy oh boy is this a hot one.  Claire has run out of options and has decided to turn to Noah for help. A wounded woman, who has been broken and is out of faith and belief in the world has found her match. A man with a past that holds more blood and death than anyone could imagine has just found the only person who unnerves him. It's the perfect set up in a perfectly sinful series.

Claire has suffered at the hands of someone she once believed loved her. But love and obsession are two sides of the same coin, and obsession can drive someone already on the edge completely insane. She no longer trusts her judgement and has lost the last of her family to another deranged individual.  That awful encounter was what brought Noah into her life. Since then she has not been able to drive him from her mind and this terrifies and inflames her.

"Mine or dead, Claire. Mine. Or. Dead."
"It's a pity, because I think that I could enjoy touching you."

Noah...oh Noah. Now here is a man, no a machine; he allows the world to see only what he wishes. He has survived his past and seems to be living his days paying the penance for his actions. Never letting anyone too close, never staying with anyone woman for too long. No one has ever made him question existence in any other form...until that day in the alley. Until Claire came bounding, fighting her way into his life...his thoughts...his heart. Noah York is a man in control, wound tightly, keeping always keeping slightly apart from the world. Everyone who knows him, knows how important that control is. How necessary it is. But what happens when a woman, a single person shatters that control without intent or knowledge?

"I want you every f***ing time I see you."
"But I'm trying to give you what you want."
"You have to ask, remember? Just ask."

As in the previous two books in the "MINE" series; MINE TO HOLD is a roller coaster ride from page 1. The familiar cast is there as well as some new, but not wanted additions. Ms. Eden writes a damn fine romantic suspense story. each page drives the anxiety higher and stokes the fire of need growing in your belly. Her Alpha male is superbly written, both extremely forward and heartbreakingly broken at the same time. Noah is larger than life and a in need of someone to hold him in the space of a single chapter.  I ached for his loss, for his pain, for his need to finally have something/someone all his own to love and keep.

"I want you with me. In my bed. Screaming my name again. One night wasn't enough for me."
"Your choice, baby. Always yours. Stay or go, but you won't get to cut out on me in the middle of the night again. If you stay, then you're mine."

This story is scorching hot! From the sexy and needy Alpha; Noah, to the broken but definitely not out female; Claire. She has seen the worst in men, been through the worst that anyone including herself can do to you and still she finds the ability to love and to be loved. The story of Noah and Claire isn't a jog through the park, NO their story is a marathon of hurt, hope and karma. Sometimes, just sometimes you actually do get what you deserve in life.

Heart-pounding, palm-sweating, pulse-throbbing, panty-soaking deliciousness is what MINE TO HOLD is. It is a satisfying tale of love, anger and pain that just grabs you by the heart and doesn't let go until everyone has found their HEA. I was extremely happy to see Drake Archer again. The very cantankerous, disillusioned and loveable man has needled his way into my heart and I'm now hooked. So this is my plea for Drake's story. I want, no I need for him to be loved even if he doesn't want it. I need for him to be broken by a GOOD woman, a woman who sees what's really inside that stony heart.

THANK YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN to NetGalley and CYNTHIA EDEN. You create characters that I obsess over and worlds that I long to play in. I wait with baited breath and a greedy heart for the next great adventure.