Animal Instincts

By Patricia Rosemoor

Animal Instincts by Patricia Rosemoor Luc Lazare doesn’t need more complications in his life.  And Skye Cross, the intriguing woman able to communicate with animals, is the last thing he wants.  Too bad his body disagrees. But he’s trying to save his shapeshifting family from being forced into the battle arena, and that means protecting the shifters responsible for stealing Skye's brother’s soul. Even as she demands his help, he’ll have to resist the pull of temptation. Skye’s most recent animal rescue assignment involves saving canines involved in primal battles.  Her investigation leads her to Luc, a man whose powers unsettle but intrigue her. Luc lures her into a dark encounter, and realizes that the animals engaging in these battles aren’t dogs at all, they’re wild predators. Skye finds herself caught in a dangerous world she never knew existed while relying on a man she couldn’t possibly trust. In a world where everything--and nothing--is as it seems, can Luc and Skye find a way to overcome the odds that are destined to keep them apart?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Nov 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781622662951

Patricia Rosemoor

With 95 novels and more than seven million books in print, Patricia Rosemoor combines love and danger to write heart-fluttering, pulse-pounding novels. She's won a Golden Heart from Romance Writers of America, two Reviewers Choice Awards for her Intrigues and two Career Achievement Awards from RT BOOKreviews. In her other life, she teaches Popular Fiction and Suspense-Thriller Writing, credit courses at Columbia College Chicago.

Reviews for Animal Instincts

[ouatireadabook · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I received an advanced copy of Patricia Rosemoor’s Animal Instincts from the publisher, Tule Publishing, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Tule Publishing, for taking the chance on a new blog.This book is a paranormal romance centred around a young woman, Skye Cross, who has a psychic connection with animals and routinely works in connection with the police force’s Animal Crimes Unit and Animal Care and Control to work towards shutting down the rampant animal fighting ring in the city of Chicago. While at a raid, Skye runs into her twin brother, Shade Cross, a homicide detective with CPD, who gives her a good luck charm after admonishing her for her presence at the bust. Skye disregards her twin’s commands and goes about doing what she does best, helping animals. Although, her disobedience soon lands her a nice hot pot of trouble from which a mysterious man, whom we later learn is Luc Laverre, rescues her just in the nick of time. Not long after our main characters are introduced, Shade is killed protecting a woman during his investigation who turns out to be Luc’s mother and he turns into a ghost with short-term memory loss and a few weird rules regarding his ghostly activities.Teaming up to solve Shade’s murder and put an end to the animal fighting ring, Skye and Luc alternate between butting heads and heavy flirting. Both of which were usually on account of Luc’s half-breed status of one of the Kindred and his self-imposed family duty to his mobster-esque father and his den of multitudinous iniquities, a casino boat called The Arc. As they search for the culprit(s), the duo face off against dirty members of law enforcement and Kindred that aren’t fond of half-breeds.Y’all. I’m just going to say it. I struggled the whole way through Animal Instincts. I wanted to fall in love with it from the second I read the synopsis on NetGalley, what animal lover wouldn’t? But I couldn’t. I loved the premise of the story, a young woman trying to help animals and put an end to a animal fighting ring, but I just couldn’t lose myself in the story. The writing seemed a bit stilted to me and the lead characters were all over the place. It took me taking short moments out of my day to read Animal Instincts, one lonely page at a time. I had to skip over the overly graphic descriptions of the animal fights because I can’t even sit through one of those Humane Society commercials (you know the ones) on television. The characters varied from partially vivid to flat and lifeless. Skye and Luc were, of course, the most developed, but most of the other characters were a bit empty. The world-building that was put into this was underdeveloped and had definite holes that need plugging. To be quite honest, I’m still not entirely sure what the Kindred are except shifters who’ve given up their souls for more power. I was actually left in the dark on several things that happened in Animal Instincts and y’all have no idea how much it bothered me. I ranted for twenty whole minutes on New Year’s Eve after finishing it.All in all, I’m giving this a 2 out of 5 stars. The story has good bones hidden underneath the one-dimensional characters and substandard world-building and I’d love to see it flourish one day. But for right this moment, it fell short and that saddens me.

[antares1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Animal Instincts by Patricia Rosemoor is an interesting take on the shifter genre. There was alot about the magic of the place that wasn't explained. I would have liked to have a better handle on that. Also the instantly falling in love was a bit much. For once I'd like to see the romance bloom in a more natural manner rather than the instant attraction that seems to be common. I also couldn't quite understand what the main heroine was supposed to be, I suppose this will be part of the series and will be explained a later date.

[kerriden-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Animal Instincts is a refreshing new take on shifters, more dark than than normal shifters, it's also a "who done it" type book. The main heroine, Skye, is not quite human but doesn't know this and the world that she is in, doesn't believe in the supernatural or shifters. Luc, the other main character is the major shifter of the book yet he is trying to keep Skye away from the shifer world. While Skye tries to figure out who killed her brother, certain parts of the shifter world are trying to silence her and also silence any shifter that talks to her.

[kmshah-748306 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Animal Instincts by Patricia Rosemoor is a story about Luc Lazare & Skye Cross, they are both a little more than human but still working towards embracing their other side. Where Luc's legacy is to corrupt souls, Skye's is to protect it on all costs. This tale has good amount of suspense, passion, family love but it somehow falls short. I generally do not take breaks when I like something that I'm reading but unfortunately I did put this book down several times. The beginning is slow but it picks up pace after a while.

[evampire-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This paranormal shapeshifter book is an intriguing read with refreshing elements.Trying to save his shapshifting family from being forced into the battle arena, Luc Lazare doesn’t need more complications in his life. Able to communicate with animals, Skye Cross is looking for answers about her brother’s death and finds herself caught in a dangerous world and finding out that some animals are more than meets the eye has her relying on a man she couldn’t possibly trust. This steady paced plot captures the imagination and keeps it to the very end with lots of suspense, romance, action and intriguing twists that keeps the readers on the their toes. The author paints very vivid pictures that make it easy to picture each and every scene as it unfolds. The author maintains a good balance throughout the story between the action, suspense, and romance and several suspenseful elements happening at once.The attraction between Luc and Skye is red hot and singes the pages with lots of passion. The strong compelling characters are charismatic and engage the reader and make it easy to relate to them. The author conveys the emotions with intensity and the reader becomes emotionally involved with the story, feeling hate and anger for the evil ones, sadness, happiness and lots of curiosity. The author also keeps the reader guessing about the hero with his mysterious air about him and Skye has lots to discover about her bewitching gifts as well as the dangerous world she finds herself involved in.The author has created a very intriguing paranormal world of shifters with fresh and unique elements that makes this a very interesting and entertaining story. I don’t know if the author plans on writing more books in this world, but if she does, it has a very promising future.