Review: Primal Hunger by Sydney Somers

Primal Hunger by Sydney Somers
e-Book
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Available: September 15, 2009
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Book received from: Author

When the sun goes down, passion is unleashed.

Kennedy Beaumont loves her bartending job, even if her spirited nature sometimes gets her in trouble. Like threatening to hose down one of Pendragon’s co-owners. When it comes to Tristan, she could use a good hosing down herself—maybe it’ll help her stop casting him as the star of her wickedest dreams. Since he goes out of his way to avoid her, it ought to be easy to put him out of her head—until he reluctantly offers her a ride home.

Gargoyle shape-shifter Tristan Callaghan hasn’t had time for anything other than recovering the mystical dagger that was used to permanently lock his brother in a prison of stone. The cat inside him should have stopped craving Kennedy’s touch long ago, but now that she’s sitting next to him in his car, his very human need for her is sharper than ever.

The distraction is costly. In a split second, Kennedy finds herself thrust into a dangerous, millennia-old hunt for Excalibur. A hunt that marks her for death—and leaves Tristan with a painful choice—sacrifice his family, his quest…or the one woman meant to be his.

I actually read the second book in this series, Primal Attraction, first.  Near the end of that book we are introduced to Kennedy and Tristan and I was intrigued.  I asked the author for a review copy of Primal Hunger immediately after reading Primal Attraction.  A weird way to read a series I know, but after reading Primal Attraction I was hooked and had to read Primal Hunger.  You can read my review of Primal Attraction here.

Tristan Callaghan, a gargoyle shape-shifter, has a few problems.  Because of him, his brother Cian was cursed by a sorceress and trapped inside his stone form nearly a century ago. Tristan has dedicated his life to searching for a mystical dagger that may help break the curse and free his brother.  Nothing is more important and he has no time for distractions like the lovely Kennedy Beaumont.  Too bad his dual nature can’t seem to come to terms with that.

Kennedy works as bartender at Pendragon’s, a bar that Tristan co-owns with his brother Cale.  She is human and has no idea that her sexy employer is actually a shape-shifting gargoyle and most of the patronage at the bar is also something other than human.  She just knows that mixing business with pleasure is never good and she needs her job more than a fling with the boss she can’t get out of her head.

When Kennedy’s car breaks down on the side of the road one night after work, she’s relieved when her boss happens upon her and offers her a ride home.  In an instant, all hell breaks loose and Tristan is drifting in and out of consciousness while Kennedy drives through the night running from who knows what, not knowing that she has just been thrust into a supernatural world she never knew existed.  Even worse an assassin has her in his sights and Tristan may be the one that holds the key to saving her life, but at the cost reversing his brothers curse.

I’m actually glad I read these books out of order.  While I don’t think someone reading Primal Hunger would be confused about the setting of the book and the history behind it, I do feel like I got a better understanding of the gargoyle curse, and the hunt for the daggers in Primal Attraction.  For me, the love story between Tristan and Kennedy shines in Primal Hunger and while the history of the shape-shifting gargoyles is interesting, it took more of a backseat to the romance.  Nothing wrong with that though, right?

Tristan and Kennedy have denied their attraction to one another for some time, and I liked that I didn’t have to read through two thirds of the book before they finally get together.  There’s enough romantic tension between the two of them to make their rapid progression into a romantic relationship believable and although they don’t jump into a full fledged physical relationship right away, they don’t spend massive amounts of time fighting the feelings.  Granted, as a human, Kennedy has to go through the motions of understanding the new world she’s been introduced to and she is not all that pleased to know she’s been ‘claimed’, she still seems to take it all in remarkably well.

As paranormal heroes go, Tristan is gorgeous.  Alpha in all the right ways, willing to fight to the death for his mate, honorable to a fault and sexy as hell.  When in human form he still has that sexy cat thing going on:

Tristan leaned over her, grinning when she inched further up the mattress away from him, as if she sensed the predator in him craved the pursuit. He snagged her ankle, dragging her toward him.

Kennedy is sassy, funny and a likeable heroine.  Although she’s just become a pawn in the fight for an ancient relic sought after by dangerous immortals she manages to remain a sturdy character and seeks out a solution of her own at one point.  I enjoyed her no non-sense attitude and loved her sense of humor:

She might have laughed then, a hysterical no-fucking-way laugh that probably echoed the halls of every loony bin in the country—if she could have drawn enough oxygen from her lungs.

Primal Hunger is another good paranormal romance by Sydney Somers.  It’s a good start to a series with wonderfully erotic romantic scenes, and enough action and adventure to keep the story moving along.

Purchase a copy of Primal Hunger

Other books in the series:

Primal Attraction (Pendragon Gargoyles, #2)

Primal Hunger on GoodReads

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