The heroine is in the swamp of New Orleans for a story about aliens for her article when she stumbles upon an exotic bird snuggling ring and the sexy hero vet who there to stop them. The hero, having lost his powers after defeating a nasty and powerful enemy, is suddenly surprised to find that the heroine gives his strength again. They've met before after an argument which had the heroine pissed drunk after the death of her estranged husband and the hero escorting her out of the party. Words were exchanged and things have been awkward ever since. But now, they realize that they must work together to stop the suffering of the animals. In the middle of all this the heroine is desperately searching for her lost brother and when it's revealed that he's somehow involved in both the smuggling and the magic world, the hero and heroine are put to the test. This is a romantic suspense and as such the actual romance in these types of stories tend to take a back seat to the action but I was pleasantly surprised with the connection between the two characters. The heroine was raped but her power hungry husband before he was murdered so as a result she distrusts and even despises magic users. The hero is a very powerful magic user, more powerful than her husband was so she really should want nothing to do with him but it's the complete opposite. They are drawn together sexually but as a point, the heroine doesn't trust the hero and conceals a lot of information from him even up until the end of the book. But in turn, the hero denies being a magic user (though it's stupidly obvious he is and knows that the heroine knows) and hides his secret Mage world from her as much as possible. He has a tendency to be short tempered and impatient and the heroine was your typical thousand freaking questions reporter but somehow they meshed. There was a lot going on in this story but throughout it was the growing bond between them. The animal cruelty was so hard to read about and absolutely makes me sick how people can hurt innocent creatures. Honestly, I would take a murdered or injured human to a dog any day. ( )