Review: Taste Me by Tamara Hogan

Format read: ebook purchased from Amazon
Formats available: Mass Market Paperback, ebook
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal romance
Series: Underbelly Chronicles #1
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Date Released: March 1, 2011
Purchasing Info:Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

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.

What if all the supernatural creatures that humanity has ever believed in all existed? All of them? What if they are all watching and waiting from the shadows, plannning for the right time to reveal themselves? Or worrying about the wrong time when our technology is going to force the issue?

Because they’ve been living amongst us ever since their spaceship crash-landed on Earth, a millenia ago. While they wait and watch, they police themselves. And that’s where this story begins.

Scarlett Fontaine is a siren. Really. She’s also the lead singer for Scarlett’s Web, a world-famous, band. When she sings, everyone in the audience feels her emotions. The only problem is that she doesn’t want to feel anything at all.

Lukas Sebastiani is in charge of security for the Underworld Council. He’s also an incubus, a sex demon. He feeds off of emotion. He feels what other people project. Unlike most incubi, Lukas feels their emotions as taste. Good emotions taste great, bad ones have him reaching for antacids.

There’s a serial killer on the loose that has him tasting ashes and drinking six-packs of Maalox.

But Scarlett comes home because she’s burned out. Lukas is the one man she can’t forget. When your first lover is a sex demon, it kind of ruins you for anyone else. And Lukas, he’s afraid that he was too rough for Scarlett’s first time.

Heaven forbid that he should have asked her what she thought. He’s too busy protecting her from himself. And denying what they both want. For years.

The serial killer changes all that when he starts targeting people close to them both–the daughters of the heads of the Underworld Council, making Scarlett, the daughter of the Siren leader, a prime target. Lukas can’t bear the thought of anyone else handling her security, forcing them into close long-term proximity–forcing them to deal with the issues that have been simmering between them for years.

Meanwhile, there is a killer out there targeting supernaturals, a killer who is much closer than anyone realizes. And his motives are out of this world.

Escape Rating A: I finished this and dove immediately into Chase Me, the second book in the series. I absolutely loved this book! If you like urban fantasies about sex, drugs and rock and roll, jump right in!

The tension between Scarlett and Lukas is what keeps you turning the pages on this story. He has created the situation between them by being overprotective and by not being willing to talk about what happened between them at the beginning. He left her feeling confused. It was her first time! He was an idiot. Several years later, extreme tension and anger still reigns. These two are a mess and need serious intervention. Too bad it took a serial killer.

What niggled me a teeny bit, just enough to keep this from being an A+ rating, was that I couldn’t quite figure out how the Underworld society worked. At All. A bit more explanation would have helped.

Who done it is not the mystery. Why he done it is the mystery. Which is intentionally not revealed by the end of the story.

But Lukas and Scarlett do manage to resolve their issues successfully. And steamily!