Review – Black Passion By Lorie O’Clare

Title: Black Passion

Author: Lorie O'Clare

Publisher: Ellora's Cave

Buy Link: Buy Black Passion Here!

Rating: You Need to Read

Reviewed by: Mickey

Blurb:

Black Jag, Book Two

Jaguars are hunters, through and through. That lifestyle will be protected at all costs in the Costa Rican rain forest village of Guarida, where Ran VicMoran and his littermates have settled. Ran will hunt and kill as necessary to protect their peaceful way of life. Times are changing though, and danger comes on two feet.

Olivia Sancerre has endured her overbearing mother all her life. She won’t be the same manipulative woman her mother is. However, each time Olivia runs into Ran, her calm, quiet nature dissolves and she can’t seem to stop sparring with him. The more they banter, the hotter she is for the incredibly sexy, commanding jaguar.

As danger smells stronger, enemies are right under their noses and life as they know it is about to change, Ran and Olivia begin a torrential love affair. Soon they’re not only fighting to remain together, they’re also struggling with a new way of life they never saw coming.

Review:

What an interesting concept and setting for a novel, shapeshifters in the Costa Rican jungle. The most memorable aspect of Ms. O'Clare's Black Passion is her characters: they are so descriptive and colorful that long after the pages are turned and the novel is over they are still in one's mind. The connection between Ran and Olivia is instant and unavoidable. I enjoyed the way Ms. O'Clare made both main characters equally strong (and stubborn) placing the onus for resisting each other on both, which becomes an impossible task to overcome.

She also does a incredible job of world building, creating an insular village for Olivia and Ran to inhabit, one obviously in danger from the not so friendly outside world. Her descriptions of the scenery are lush: the jungle seems to come alive with the smells of the leaves and the trees on the one hand and the sounds of the insects and the animals on the other. The love-scenes in this world are equally vivid and bright, just as lively as the scenery itself. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It is my first by Ms. O'Clare, and it looks like it will not be my last....