Reviewed by Amber
TITLE: Primal Desire
AUTHOR: Lupa Garneau
SERIES: Children of Shairobi Book 1
PUBLISHER: Totally Bound
LENGTH: 173 pages
BLURB:
After a century of vengeance, Nexhan, clan leader of the Rune Fangs returns home to find his people teetering on the edge of extinction. Still plagued by his past and sense of failure, he has closed himself off from even his closest friends. He is desperate to return to the shifter way of life, but doesn’t know how to cope with the death of his family and lover.
Cole is the typical outcast. Clumsy, quiet and angry. After years of disappointing his parents with his inability to master his cougar’s predatory skills, he runs from the pressure to mate a female who he can never love, but he never expected to end up living among the saber-toothed cats. Heck, he didn’t even know they still existed. Embarrassed by his lack of skills, he retreats into himself, quietly nursing his pain.
A chance meeting in the forest leads Cole to accept Nexhan’s help and companionship, but he never imagined he’d be trusting the male with his deepest secrets. Nexhan vows to himself its just sex, but the cougar intrigues him like nothing before. Can he move on and finally lay to rest his trouble past?
REVIEW:
From the blurb I was initially very intrigued about the idea of a mythical, very rare race of Saber Tooth tiger shifters. I wanted to know more about them and their history but also wanted to see what would happen between the two main characters.
Nexhan is a clan leader of a race of saber-tooth cats called, The Rune Fang. He returns to his clan after a self imposed exile. He falls back in to shifter life very easily. He is clan leader, the alpha of his people and he takes on the roll like he hasn’t been gone at all. He is a natural leader and care taker. You know right away that he is nursing some pretty heavy scars but it’s not apparent right away what they are.
Cole is a cougar shifter who is staying with the Rune Fang because he feels like he doesn’t belong with his cougar clan. He feels awkward and clumsy. He also feels like a huge burden and disappointment to his family. He has kept his sexual orientation a secret believing his family would not be able to accept it because they are pushing a mating to a woman that he could never love.
Nexhan and Cole were immediately attracted to each other and while they were exploring their attraction weird things started happening around Cole. I liked this element of the story. I loved how the author made it seem like the plants, animals, and nature would come to life when Cole was around. I really loved finding out how special and unique Cole really was.
I liked the back story of Shairobi but at times it seemed like it was too much back story. For me, I was more confused than enlightened.
Nexhan and Cole were super hot together but I missed the “emotional” aspect of the two. Nexhan was pining over his lost love for about 98% of the story so the love between Cole and Nexhan couldn’t fully blossom like I wanted it too.
With that being said, I still really loved the story. The world that the author describes is enthralling. I will, without a doubt be picking up book #2.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: