Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Cole never thought he’d find himself in those he was running from… Until he met Nexhan, clan leader of a legendary shifter race.

After a century of vengeance, Nexhan, clan leader of the Rune Fang, returns home to find his people teetering on the edge of extinction. Still plagued by his past and his sense of failure, he has closed himself off from even his closest friend. 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 his 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’s unable to 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 it’s just sex, but the cougar intrigues him like nothing and no one before. Can he move on and finally lay to rest his troubled past?

Reader Advisory: This book is best read in sequence as part of a series.

Publisher's Note: This book was previously released by another publisher in March 2012. It has been revised and re-edited for release with Totally Bound Publishing.

 

Book Review

A “legendary shifter race” is something that promises mystery, and two men clearly struggling with their destinies will always catch my attention. The story that unfolds in this novel was definitely fascinating, out of the ordinary, and had enough mythology to make for a very interesting shifter world. While the relationship that develops between Cole and Nexhan has enough ups and downs to make me dizzy, their motivations and backgrounds only emerge slowly, and I really liked this gradual growth of clarity about what was going on. When the reveal is done well, as is the case here, it only contributes to my feeling of being immersed in a different world, one full of old legends and potentially fascinating new discoveries.

Cole has been on the run for a while. He is mostly running from himself and the truth that he is gay – something he doesn’t think will be acceptable to his family or clan of cougar shifters. But Cole has other issues. He is clumsy, has no real skills, can’t even hunt properly, and feels like an outcast. He is filled with pain, and when he meets Nexhan, the recently returned leader of the Rune Fang, some of that goes away. Not for long though – their relationship is fraught with misunderstandings and issues. And when Cole begins to discover the truth of who and what he really is, Nexhan’s issues make things more difficult rather than mitigating the effects of Cole’s revelations. What a mess!

Nexhan is stubborn, focused on the past, and in more pain than he will admit even a hundred years after losing the man he thought of as his one true mate. He may have returned to his clan, but his head and heart are not really with them yet. Meeting Cole changes that, but the need to deny what he feels makes Nexhan behave like an idiot. But he is also curious enough to go after the truth, and once he discovers it, he realizes what he has been missing all along. Groveling is not one of his skills, but luckily he is a fast learner.

If you like shifter worlds with rich backgrounds built on old Sumerian legends, if two men who suffer from loneliness and discover they could be each other’s salvation sound interesting, and if you’re looking for a read that is intense, emotional, and contains lots of very hot man-on-man action, then you will probably like this novel. I definitely look forward to book two!

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Pride Publishing for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 180 pages/63505 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	21-November-2014
Price	$5.50 ebook, $10.50 paperback
Buy Link	https://www.pride-publishing.com/book/primal-desire