Primal Heat by A.C. Arthur

Primal Heat by A. C. Arthur
Published by Macmillan on August 4th 2015
Genres: Fiction, Romance, Fantasy, Gothic, Paranormal, Multicultural & Interracial
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
ISBN: 9781250042934
ASIN: B00SSG8I5C
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In the savage world of shapeshifters desire can be as dangerous as nature itself....
As bodyguard to the most powerful shapeshifter in the human world, Shadow Shifter, Eli Preston has sworn to protect his leader, defend their alliance, and keep his darker instincts in check. But when a beautiful female trainee arouses his jaguar senses, there is no stopping the beast within. He must have her. Even if it jeopardizes the deadliest mission of his life...
When the heat is on-and the claws come out-the heart is the fiercest hunter...

For six years, Nivea has been waiting for Eli to take her in his arms, unleash his animal urges, and claim her as his mate. But once their passion is unleashed-in a reckless moment of pure unbridled lust-nothing can ever be the same. The battlelines are drawn: man versus animal, shapeshifter versus shapeshifter. And Eli must be prepared to fight for his life-and his love-or he will lose Nivea forever...in Primal Heat by A.C. Arthur.

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~Karen’s Two Cents~

I saw Primal Heat by A.C. Arthur on Netgalley, and the cover pretty much sucked me in.  This read was an experiment of sorts, as I have never read any of the The Shadow Shifters,  Paranormal Shapeshifter Werejaguar Romance.  I wanted to see how this series translates to someone who has never read the series.  Primal Heat started out as set of four eNovellas, as a serial romance, which published starting in mid July, 2015.  Lots of authors and publishers are jumping on the serial eRomance bandwagon, I am not too sure about an average of $1.99 for about eighty pages.  Another point about pricing is that the eBook version of the complete set which publishes on August 4, 2015 is $7.99 whereas the mass market paperback is $4.53.  Which makes me shake my head, because the overhead for printing is more that it is for the electronic version of any book.  I think the price for the ebook version was set to keep up with the individual novella’s price point of $1.99.

When it comes to plot and writing Arthur does a good job of providing lots of sensual heat and sizzle in her book.  I felt lost, at times, because I had never read the previous books in the series.  I think laying out the herione Nivea’s background earlier in the book, would have greatly enriched her as a character.  I wondered what eNovella readers though about her background story, did it seem lacking to them, when read in the serial eNovella format. The hero is Eli Preston, as the synopsis states he is the pinnacle of Werejaguars. Eli has a lot on his plate and he really would prefer not to have anyone in his life possibly splitting his focus.  Eli fights his passion for Nivea for better part of the book, and fiery heat explodes when they do give into their passion.

Arthur is a good solid writer and there is a lot going on in this book, which I think that readers of the series will understand more than I did. This isn’t a series that you can pick up any book and start reading it, or you will be lost.   Primal Heat was interesting enough for me to start the series, as Arthur does have interesting world building, and like the Psy/Changeling novels by Nalini Singh this book is multiracial/multicultural, which I love: as I don’t want racism in my books.  I want the paranormal/urban fantasy books, that I read,  to be a better reflection on humanity.

Now to my rating, since I have never read the book prior rating this one was very hard, as parts for me as a reader were three and half and others were four stars.  I rounded up to four stars, as I do think those who love this series will really enjoy this book.

Rating Report
Plot
Characters
Writing
Pacing
Cover
Overall: