ARC Review of Animal Instincts by Patricia Rosemoor

Animal Instincts by Patricia Rosemoor
A Kindred Souls Romance
Republishing Date – 9 January 2018

Recieved From - NetGalley
🌟🌟

Half-human, half-Kindred, Luc Lazare doesn’t want more complications in his life. He's focused on protecting his shapeshifting family and love is the last distraction he needs.

Skye Cross has the ability to talk to animals. Her most recent animal rescue mission–stopping an alleged dog fight–actually involved shifters in a primal battle. Her investigation leads her to Luc, a man whose powers both unsettle and intrigue her. Skye quickly finds herself caught in a dangerous world she never knew existed, while relying on a man she couldn't possibly trust.
Coming from two different worlds, can Luc and Sky overcome the obstacles fated to keep them apart?

Amazon★Barnes & Noble★Google Books★Goodreads★Kobo
As this is a republishing, please wait until 9 January 2018 to purchase an updated copy

I received an advanced copy of Patricia Rosemoor's Animal Instincts from the publisher, Tule Publishing, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Tule Publishing, for taking the chance on a new blog.

This book is a paranormal romance centred around a young woman, Skye Cross, who has a psychic connection with animals and routinely works in connection with the police force's Animal Crimes Unit and Animal Care and Control to work towards shutting down the rampant animal fighting ring in the city of Chicago. While at a raid, Skye runs into her twin brother, Shade Cross, a homicide detective with CPD, who gives her a good luck charm after admonishing her for her presence at the bust and tells her to stay put. Skye disregards her twin's commands and goes about doing what she does best, helping animals. Although, her disobedience soon lands her in a nice hot pot of trouble from which a mysterious man, whom we later learn is Luc Laverre, rescues her just in the nick of time. Not long after our main characters are introduced, Shade is killed protecting a woman during his investigation who turns out to be Luc's mother and he turns into a ghost with short-term memory loss and a few weird rules regarding his ghostly activities.
Teaming up to solve Shade's murder and put an end to the animal fighting ring, Skye and Luc alternate between butting heads and heavy flirting. Both of which were usually on account of Luc's half-breed status of one of the Kindred and his self-imposed family duty to his mobster-esque father and his den of multitudinous iniquities, a casino boat called The Arc. As they search for the culprit(s), the duo face off against dirty members of law enforcement and Kindred that aren't fond of half-breeds.
Y'all. I'm just going to say it. I struggled the whole way through Animal Instincts. I wanted to fall in love with it from the second I read the synopsis on NetGalley, what animal lover wouldn't? But I couldn't. I loved the premise of the story, a young woman trying to help animals and put an end to a animal fighting ring, but I just couldn't lose myself in the story. The writing seemed a bit stilted to me and the lead characters were all over the place. It took me taking short moments out of my day to read Animal Instincts, one lonely page at a time. I had to skip over the overly graphic descriptions of the animal fights because I can't even sit through one of those Humane Society commercials (you know the ones) on television. The characters varied from partially vivid to flat and lifeless. Skye and Luc were, of course, the most developed, but most of the other characters were a bit empty. The world-building that was put into this was underdeveloped and had definite holes that need plugging. To be quite honest, I'm still not entirely sure what the Kindred are except shifters who've given up their souls for more power. I was actually left in the dark on several things that happened in Animal Instincts and y'all have no idea how much it bothered me. I ranted for twenty whole minutes on New Year's Eve after finishing it.
All in all, I'm giving this a 2 out of 5 stars. The story has good bones hidden underneath the one-dimensional characters and substandard world-building and I'd love to see it flourish one day. But for right this moment, it fell short and that saddens me.
Don't forget to like, comment, share, use a bookmark, hug your pets, and brush your teeth.
Until next time, readers, have a happily ever after!