Review: Savage Hunger

Savage Hunger (Heart of the Jaguar #1)

by Terry Spear 

Blurb:

In the heat of the jungle, jaguars are clawed, dangerous, and hungry for love. With hopes of overcoming night terrors and thanking the man who saved her life, Kathleen McKnight returns to the Amazon. A jaguar at heart, Connor Anderson doesn’t just protect her, but wants to claim her for his own.

Review:

This book was the first in a new series by Terry Spear.  Her series about Wolves has always been a favorite of mine so when I heard she was writing a new series about Jaguar shifters I was very excited.  Set in the Amazon, this story was an amazing intro to a new type of shifter and a new storyline.

Kat McKnight is a special ops agent working to bring down a major drug cartel leader in Colombia.  While on her mission, she is captured by the cartel with plans for a brutal and terrifying end to her life.  When her men are ambushed she’s left with no escape and very little hope for surviving her mission. But luckily for Kat, Connor Anderson, an American Jaguar shifter, happened to be vacationing in the Amazon and comes to her rescue.  After killing her captures and leaving a lasting impression on Kat, Connor disappears into the darkness when her backup arrives.

One year later, Connor is again prowling through the jungle, letting his cat free in its natural home and enjoying his time in the wild.  Running through the forest he comes across a woman, traveling alone and is instantly entranced.  Though she looks very different, Connor realizes the woman is really the woman he rescued one year ago and obsessed over for months and she has returned looking for her savior.   Conner’s cat knows that this woman is very special and the man inside is beyond intrigued.

Kat suddenly finds herself in the company of two beautiful jaguars and though her brain says to run, her instincts are telling her to trust the cats to keep her safe.  After all, this is their natural habitat, not hers.  The cats lead her to their “masters”, Connor and his sister Maya.  She travels with them to their sanctuary in the jungle hoping to find safety.  Maya however has decided that it is time for her brother (and ultimately herself) to find a mate.  Knowing how captivated Connor was with Kat after her rescue, she takes matters in her own hands, attempting to infect Kat and turn her into a fellow Jaguar.  Inadvertently Maya causes Kat to fall extremely ill, but during her sickness Connor begins to fall for Kat even more.

Kat wakes from her sickness with just a little something extra; she can become a Jaguar! Terrified and unable to shift back to her human form, Connor must track Kat down and use his more dominant cat to force her back to their home.   Coming to terms with the new world she finds herself in, Kat and Connor let their lust free with Connor knowing he’ll never let her leave him now.  When their sanctuary is invaded, the new little family decides it is time to return to the states.   However, nothing is ever a simple as it seems.

With the cartel on their tails (wink wink! Nudge nudge!), Kat, Connor, and Maya travel across Colombia dealing with ambushes, attacks, and suspicions of another shifter following them.   There are a lot of hilarious scenes including an unforgettable scene in a car with two humans, a jaguar and a bag of burritos. Trust me you’ll be cracking up!  In the end, with a sadly anticlimactic confrontation in a hotel hallway, the cartel leader is dead and the new family of Jaguars makes their way home to Texas.

I will say that the first love scene in the story was a bit lackluster and ill-timed in my opinion, but Ms. Spear definitely makes up for that in later scenes of the book.  The sensuality of these two cats is evident in the interactions of their human halves for sure.  There are some very interesting scenes involving water, because of course with water-loving cats there has to be at least one scene with a waterfall!

The strangest thing about this book for me was that the mythology was a bit confusing to me.  It seemed that neither Maya nor Connor really knew anything about their heritage, except that their parents were cats, and Dad was a complete ass.  I’m hoping that when another shifter comes into the picture (perhaps their stalker Wade?) we will learn more about their shifter natures.  Wade seems to be a little bit more knowledgeable about his cat so hopefully he’ll make a good source of information in the next book.  My only other issue with the book was Maya.  Her character was a bit selfish and immature to me, until she finally stepped up and started helping more with problems instead of causing them.

Overall the story was a fun and steamy read, with some laughs, some gasps, and a lot of buildup for the new series.  Looking forward to more Jaguar Shifter books by Ms. Spear.   Jaguar Fever, the next in the series is expected in august if 2013, so keep a sharp eye open for the next in this fun new series.

Rating: 3.25 Stars

Rose Rating: