Savage Hunger

July 23, 2012
Jaguars and the Amazon jungle take center stage in this run-of-the-mill paranormal romance, the first in a new series by bestseller Spear (Dreaming of the Wolf). Capt. Kathleen “Kat” McKnight barely survived when she and her American team on a mission to take down a drug lord were caught in crossfire that killed her fellow soldiers. A year later, she returns to the Amazon jungle in search of Connor Anderson, the man who rescued her. What Kat doesn’t realize is that Connor is a were-jaguar. Kat soon learns Connor’s secret and isn’t quite sure what to think of him—or his desire to have her as his mate. When dangerous men come looking for Kat, Connor vows to protect her. Spear paints a colorful, vivid portrait of the lush jungle and the deadly beauty and interesting habits of jaguars, but Kat’s easy acceptance of Connor and the swift pace of their romance don’t hold up under scrutiny.

September 15, 2012
Spear has left the werewolves of her past novels (Dreaming of the Wolf, 2011) and turned to felines. Connor Anderson and his twin sister, Maya, inherited the ability to transform into jaguars from their parents, the only other shifters they have ever known. In the Amazon, Connor uses both his jaguar and human abilities to save the life of steely army captain Kathleen McKnight. Obsessed with Kat, he returns to the Amazon a year later and is surprised to find that she has returned to the jungle in search of him and his pet jaguar. Kat and Maya become fast friends, and the attraction between Connor and Kat is irresistible, even in the face of Kat's troubled past and Connor's dual nature. The strength of Spear's writing lies in her ability to keep the reader emotionally in tune with the characters despite the unfamiliar terrain of both the deep jungle and the supernatural elements. Spear's lush descriptions of the Amazon, and a few tantalizing loose ends, will leave readers hungry for more time in paradise.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)