Half-human, half-Kindred, Luc Lazare doesn’t want more complications in his life. He’s focused on protecting his shapeshifting family and love is the last distraction he needs. Skye Cross has the ability to talk to animals. Her most recent animal rescue mission–stopping an alleged dog fight–actually involved shifters in a primal battle. Her investigation leads her to Luc, a man whose powers both … powers both unsettle and intrigue her. Skye quickly finds herself caught in a dangerous world she never knew existed, while relying on a man she couldn’t possibly trust.
Coming from two different worlds, can Luc and Skye overcome the obstacles fated to keep them apart?
Enjoy an excerpt from Animal Instincts
The predators moved in on me. Trying not to show the anxiety that threatened to consume me, I curled my hands into fists and edged backward. They continued to advance on me. My heart was pounding, my blood racing. Knowing they could sense my fear, I tried to control it. Futile. No escape.
The hyena broke from the pack and rushed me. If I turned my back on it, I was dead for sure. I kept putting one foot behind the other and the wolf and the lion picked up their pursuit. The hyena’s muscles bunched and it flew through the air at me. I threw up my hands to protect myself, but it never reached me. Instead, it was as if an invisible wall stopped it cold. It shrieked and fell to the ground in a heap.
What do you think you’re doing? Go!
The predators stopped and I sensed their sudden fear.
Now! the voice in my head thundered.
The animals fled and quickly disappeared into the night.
I flipped around. At first I didn’t see him. Then I caught a movement to my right and nailed him where he stood. Dark hair whipped around features so rugged they could have been cut from granite. High cheekbones. Broad forehead. Square chin. His eyes appeared silver in the moonlight, and they glowed at me, tightening my stomach and making it hard to breathe.
Trembling, I gasped. “What just happened?”
“You got into something that doesn’t concern you.” Forget about it.
I started. He hadn’t said the last bit out loud. There was something about him so powerful I almost agreed. I fought the desire to give in. “I’m not forgetting about anything. Who are you?”
I felt as if he were trying to push the command into my mind. Glaring at him, I pushed back.
“What are you?” he asked.
“Someone who protects animals.”
His silence told me that wasn’t exactly the explanation he was looking for. My pulse threaded as he stepped closer. I sensed both threat and something less tangible, something that made my stomach knot and my throat tighten.
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I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and I am voluntarily reviewing it.
I first want to say if you LOVE paranormal romance with mystery, intrigue and suspense, you MUST read this. Second, have a NEW box of tissues ready for the tears! Or it may be just that I’m a softie.
Shade and Skye Cross are twins. They share an unusual connection plus he can read the thoughts of people, she can read the thoughts of animals. Shade is a homicide detective with the Chicago police and she is an animal rescuer. She is at a dogfighting ring waiting for the police to descend to shut it down before she can look after the animals. Her brother comes across her before the raid takes place. He tells her to stay back and gives her a sea glass necklace and tells her to never take it off. Skye is puzzled as to why her brother would attach himself to the raid? Where is his partner, Ethan?
After the raid, Skye chases after a wounded coyote. Instead of finding a coyote, she finds herself facing down three predators! She can even read their thoughts. Normally she converses with animals through pictures. She senses another presence, it is a striking man who commands the animals to leave and much to Skye’s amazement, they do!
Skye will come across Luc’s path several times. Luc is the illegitimate son of a human woman and the head of the Kindred. Luc walks a fine line between both worlds. He is intrigued by Skye’s ability to resist his attempts to erase her memory of him and her ability to hear his thoughts. Who is or really what is Skye?
This isn’t the normal paranormal romance. I was glued to my e-reader to figure out who was behind the fighting ring and how it could be stopped! I adored the multiple POV format. There were several POVs other than the two main protagonists. I LOVED that. I was really able to connect to the story as well as the characters that way. The Kindred part of the story was a little on the fantasy side, which I don’t read. My poor brain just doesn’t comprehend it. But with this story, I was able to fully imagine the story just like I would a movie.
There were some sexy scenes that really just lead up to and then just highly glossed over details before fading away. I would highly recommend this to anyone OVER the age of 18 to read this paranormal romance!
This is the first book I’ve read from Patricia Rosemoor and I enjoyed immensely.. The story was so original from any other shifter novel I’ve read that I had a hard time putting it down when necessary.
The protagonists in this book are strong apart from each other but better together. I do wish that Shade played a bigger role! There were some editing issues as far as a word missing here or extra words there, and a few spots where first and third person speaking in the story was switched but then I did read an ARC.
Overall I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mystery, intrigue, shifters and romance.
This book had a totally different take on shifters and at times I must admit I struggled with it and I usually love Patricia work.
Skye has the ability to communicate with the souls animals while her twin brother Shade can communicate with humans souls something that comes in very handy with his work as a detective When they are both involved in a rescue of animals from a dog fighting ring they realise there are more shifter here than anything It also puts Skye in the sights of Luc Lazare a man who has plenty of secrets of his own When Shade is killed Luc decides he needs to protect Skye but will that decision put her in even more danger You will have to read to see
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 and tells her to stay put. Skye disregards her twin’s commands and goes about doing what she does best, helping animals. Although, her disobedience soon lands her in 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.
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Until next time, readers, have a happily ever after!
My Thoughts – 4 out of 5 Unicorns – I really liked it!!!
***I choose what I read and review based on what intrigues me!! Yes, I got a review copy of this book, but no one tells me what to think, feel, or write about any book!
The cover is awesome! I love when both forms are on the cover.
This is my first time reading Patricia’s work, and it is also the first book in a new series! This book is for adults only due to the violence and adult topics. This book does have gambling and betting on illegal animal fights for any who may be sensitive to these topics.
This is a very unique shifter world. I have never read anything quite like this where shifters are demon like and their purpose is to corrupt humanity. Luc is half human and half Kindred. This has caused him to feel like he doesn’t belong in either world and is torn between the two. He knows that the people he cares about will always be targets. Skye can unique abilities, and her world is turned upside-down. She learns new things about herself and her family along the way. Skye and Luc come from opposite worlds, and they are tested.
I enjoyed this unique story and perspective, and I want to see where this world goes next. I hope I get to see more of Skye and Luc!
I recommend to shifter fans who like unique and completely different worlds and who do not get hung up on what good and evil is!
Paranormal is one of my favorite genres to read so when I saw that Tule Publishing Group had a book in this style in there listings I jumped on board to give it a read. It took me a little while to get into this book when I started reading it but after awhile it did start to flow. To me this book was more of a mix of mystery and paranormal which made it almost its own unique form in itself. It is so different than most shifter books and that makes up for the slow start.
Skye Cross, has a very unique you would call it psychic way with animals (and other things). We discover that quickly in this book and that leads us to her meeting Luc Laverre. Skye is a twin, her brother is a police officer Shade Cross and lets say he’s spirit is very strong in this book. I am one of those people who will not say a lot about the book other than enough to tell you…it’s slow at the first but believe me if you like paranormal books, it is well worth going through the slow parts to reach the good. I definitely plan to read the second part of Kindred Souls and plan to look for more from this author as this was the first thing i have read from Patricia Rosemoor. Her style of writing is different from what I am used to but well worth reading.