Title: Melbourne Heat
Author Name & Publisher: Elizabeth Lapthorne (Pride Publishing)
Publication Date & Length: December 8, 2015 – 108 pgs
In the steamy Melbourne summer nights, two men meet by chance in the Botanical Gardens.
Spencer, against his better judgment, agrees to meet a new client in the Botanical Gardens. While waiting, he bumps into Charles, who is out paintballing with some mates. Spencer agrees to have a quick bite to eat with Charles, not knowing the sequence of events that will unfold from such a simple action.
Charles is a shifter with plenty of secrets and Spencer has unwittingly brought someone else into the mix—another shifter, eager to stake his claim. Even after such a short time, Charles can’t imagine giving Spencer up. He’s willing to fight for what’s his. Spencer has also found himself falling in love with Charles, despite the secrets that surround him. Passion and danger collide and soon both men will have decisions to make. Ones with serious consequences.

Typically, shifter stories are about predestined mates. There’s only one mate for each shifter and he knows his mate instantly when he sees him. One mate for life. This story, though, there is no one predestined mate – there is a potential mate. This potential mate also has a choice of accepting being the shifters mate or not. This was a different idea. I like my predestined mates, but I didn’t mind reading about ‘potential mates’.
It’s not mentioned in the book description, but this is a BDSM story. I’m not a big fan of them, but this story was written very nicely. The plot leads me to believe that Spencer is a beginner at being a submissive, so Charles takes him under his wing. It’s written very sweetly and discreetly, so I didn’t mind this aspect of the story. However, I think this took over the shifter part of the story. I would have rather there been more balance.
The little mystery In the story was great. Your introduced to it in the beginning and a little while later we’re at escalates to the big finished for the end of the book. I loved this interlude.
I would recommend this book to those who like shifter stories and who are beginners in the BDSM genre. This book will give you a good beginner is taste of it.
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Publisher’s Website
Elizabeth Lapthorne has been writing professionally since 2002. She has been astonished by the sucess of her Rutledge Werewolf series, and finds immense pleasure in hearing from her fans. To date she has more than ten books out, a few of those even in paperback.
Elizabeth regularly goes to the gym to chew over her ideas; many a book has begun or been worked through while cycling on the bikes. She also loves to read, eat chocolate and talk for hours with her friends. Elizabeth would love to hear from her fans, and checks her email religiously.