Review: You Had Me at Jaguar (Heart of the Shifter #1)

You Had Me at Jaguar (Heart of the Shifter #1)

by Terry Spear

Blurb:

They're not the only ones on the prowl...but they're the most dangerous...

The United Shifter Force gives jaguar agent Howard Armstrong an impossible task—to protect fierce she-jaguar Valerie Chambers, when the last thing she wants is protecting. They're going international to take down a killer and he can guard Valerie all day long. But guard his heart? He doesn't stand a chance.

Themes: Paranormal, Shifters

Rating: 3.5 stars

Heat Rating: 

Review:

 I was interested to see this new joint series beginning and looked forward to finding out how the two species of shifter might be coming together to fight evil.  We got to see some characters we watched fall in love in previous novels and also got to enjoy sensual and amazing locales as we traveled to the Amazonian rainforest with our Jaguar shifters as they chased down as serious group of bad guys.  Howard and Valerie have both led relatively solo lives to this point, relying only on family and a few close friends to keep them safe while they fought to bring deadly and dangerous Jaguars that are criminals to justice.  Now they have to find a way to work together in order to bring down as drug-dealing killer and the ring of other Jaguars that he is working with.  When Valerie and Howard start to see one another in different light, as maybe something more than just adversarial co-workers the passionate sparks between them quickly become a conflagration.  I liked Valerie from the beginning, though her unwillingness to play well with others was a bit over the top, but her sneakiness was funny and certainly gave Howard and Jillian a run for their money.  Howard has never gotten over the initial reaction to Valerie from their training days, and being in close quarters brings his hormones and attraction right to the forefront, but he never forgets that his most important job is keeping her safe and bringing the killer to justice. While I enjoyed seeing them working together and accomplishing their mission, the story fell a bit short for me and I wished for just that little something more.  I had hopes their might have been more mixing of the species in this new series, with maybe even a wolf/Jaguar mating, but it seems like maybe that is not to be.  While the story itself was pretty god, I will hold out for that mating and hope that we will get even more from this series in the future. The skill of the author continues to shine and I always enjoy her books, but this one definitely fell a bit short for me.

*ebook provided by publisher (via netgalley) for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review.  No compensation was provided.