review || PRIMAL

Primal by Sasha White

Publisher: White Hot Books (10/24/2012)

Series: Overwatch, book 1 (follows novella UNFETTERED)

Genre: Erotica Romance

Source: Author/NetGalley

Buy It For Your Kindle | Nook || Goodreads

My Rating: ★★★★1/2

BDSM club owner Adam Kessler is no one’s hero. He joined the army to get away from the gang-life that had taken his brother, only to come home to heartache. He doesn’t hide his dominant side, and he doesn’t hesitate in his need to protect or enforce his particular brand of retribution on those who’ve earned it. There’s no way in hell he could walk past a man hassling a woman in an empty parking lot and do nothing. Only when the confrontation is over and the voluptuous blonde turns eyes filled with desire to him, does Adam realize he’s in trouble.  

Psychologist Olivia Lang grew up with the proverbial silver spoon, and has never regretted spending more time on her career than on romance, until she meets Adam Kessler. He’s dark, he's dangerous, and he's deliciously dominant... and she wants him.     

Passion burns quick and hot between them and soon they’re caught up in an intensely carnal relationship that neither can deny. But when Olivia’s life is threatened and she learns just how dangerous he can be, will it be too much for the civilized psychologist to handle, or will she truly accept the man and win her hero’s heart?

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I'm huge on character development. I've decided that that alone is typically what drives how I feel about a book. Sometimes it's difficult to develop characters to their true, full extent in a novella-length book, though.
 

I went into PRIMAL super pumped and excited. Heck, I had a social-media conversation with the author, Sasha White, beforehand and I knew, just knew, that I wanted to like her and her writing. In the few brief exchanges, I could totally tell she's personable and that makes her a good person in my book.
 

Now, to keep that euphoria up there for a moment... The development of Adam was Spot. On.

Right from the prologue, you knew that Adam was a darker type guy -- after all, he even states he's one who lives for and in shadows. That alone shows he's dark and mysterious.
 

He's dark, mysterious, deadly... And sexy. Yet he feels that Olivia is just too good for him.

'"You're too vulnerable for me to take what you're offering tonight. You're way out of my league, and in the cold light of day tomorrow, you'll realize it, and I don't want to be a regret. But if you ever feel like slumming it, you have my number."'

To which, of course, she tries to appease him:

'"I'm going to think about you," she spoke quickly, before he could hang up. "When I'm in bed tonight. And just so you know, it won't be tomorrow, but I'm going to come see you soon, and it won't be slumming when I do. It will be amazing."

'Then she hung up. She didn't want to hang up on him, but she didn't want to give him a chance to argue, either...' 

When it comes to Olivia, at least initially, her development was just... a bit off for me.

Maybe it was rushed and not full simply because the book needed to get to the real meat-and-potatoes of the story.... but I am a bit sad that the development of Olivia was pretty much left at 'she's a shrink in fancy clothes on her day off, who drives a fancy car, who's beautiful and wellllll out of Adam's league, who also has a bit of hero worship syndrome'. Understandably, though, most of the story is centered around Adam: his past, his company, his fears, his concerns, etc. So it makes sense that, as a reader, you understand Adam more than Olivia.
 

Of course, once I moved away from the development and got into the (previously stated) meat-and-potatoes.... It looked up again.
 

Novella-length stories are meant to be quick, easy, fun reads... However I always find myself judging them a bit harsher, as if I expect all the points of a full-length story to be met and achieved in a much, much shorter story.

All of that aside, I did still 'purchase' (it's currently FREE) the Overwatch novella, UNFETTERED. The glimpses I got of Ronnie in PRIMAL made me interested in her story. UNFETTERED is much shorter than PRIMAL, an already short story, but I'm looking forward to cracking that baby open later tonight.