Review: Animal Instincts
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 10, 2013
Animal Instincts is a super original and exciting Paranormal Romantic Suspense. I was a bit annoyed with it in the beginning, but eventually I got completely hooked on the story and the world the author has created. The story follows Skye Cross and Luc Lazare as they try to put a stop to some extra violent and unusual "dogfights" and find whoever killed her brother while trying to kill his mother. The two are from totally different worlds, and are working on this case for different reasons, but they have to work together. Of course, they also find love during this dangerous situation, but their relationship isn't the focus for the most part.I'll start with what bothered me about Animal Instincts: it's told in alternating 1st and 3rd person POV. This is my least favorite narrative style, so I was quite annoyed by the first two chapters. However, it doesn't switch every other chapter, so I didn't have adjust all that often. This made it a little better, but there were also four different POVs. Our main two are Skye (1st person) and Luc (3rd person), but we also get a few chapters from Shade (3rd) and one from the unknown bad guy (also 3rd). While the perspective didn't change every other chapter, it did sometimes switch mid-chapter which bothered me. It was never confusing who's perspective we were in though, so overall, it didn't affect my enjoyment.My favorite part of Animal Instincts was the unique twist on mythology that the author used. I had never read anything like this before. Luc is a shapeshifter, and those "dogfights" are actually shifters who have been drugged so that they're stuck in animal form. Shapeshifters aren't anything new, but the way they came about was. It all goes back to Noah's Ark and the Nephilim (children of the fallen angels). When Noah wouldn't let any other humans onto the ark, the nephilim essentially possessed the animals on board, creating shifters. I thought this was a really awesome explanation for the existence of shifters. Skye and Shade are also paranormal, but they're just psychic. Shade can listen in on people and enter his thoughts into them, while Skye has this ability with animals (and shifters).The romantic aspect of Animal Instincts was good, but not great. Skye and Luc start out quite distrustful of each other. She believes that he is a suspect in her brother's murder, or at least linked to it. Meanwhile, Luc is warring with his human half and his animal half, and wants to keep Skye away from the shifter world, but ultimately needs her help. There's a lot of tension between these two as they work close together, and eventually it snaps. There's no detailed sex scenes, but we see enough to get the gist of their intense chemistry.I really enjoyed Animal Instincts. The world building was great and unique, the romance was enough to satisfy me, and the plot was relatively fast paced and engaging. There's a lot of violence and danger, but nothing too gory. I liked all of the twists toward the end, since they weren't too out there. I did figure out one of the culprits, but the other one was a shock. I just wish we had gotten a little more information about Luc's father, since he has some weird stuff going on, but in the end, I think Animal Instincts wrapped up nicely.*Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley for review. No compensation was offered or accepted.