#Review: Jaguar Pride by Terry Spear - 4 Wine Glasses

Title: Jaguar Pride 
Series: Heart of the Jaguar #4
Author: Terry Spear
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
Publication: February 3rd 2015 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
ISBN: 1402293798
Links: Goodreads | AMAZON | B&N
Source: NetGalley
Reviewer: Linda
Rating: 4 out of 5 Wine Glasses

JAG Special Forces operatives like Golden Claw agent Melissa Overton and her partner, Huntley Anderson, are trained for the most dangerous missions in the harshest environments. These hardened jaguar shifters can handle any variable, even . . . babies?

When Huntley and Melissa find two jaguar shifter cubs snoozing in their jungle hut while on assignment, they have to keep the cubs and each other safe from ruthless poachers, bringing these partners closer in ways they never expected...

Linda's Thoughts:

At dusk in the Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica, Melissa Overton barely heard the constant sound of crickets chirping all around them. Prowling through the dense, tropical rainforest as a jaguar, she listened for the human voices that would clue her in that her prey was nearby.

 

Waves crashed onto the sandy beaches in the distance as she made her way quietly, like a phantom predator, through the tangle of vines and broad, leafy foliage, searching for any sign of the poachers. Humans wouldn't have a clue as to what she and her kind were when they saw her - apparently nothing other than an ordinary jaguar. And she and her fellow jaguar shifters planned to keep it that way.

 

Her partner on this mission, JAG agent Huntley Anderson, was nearby, just as wary and observant. The JAG Special Forces Branch, also known as the Golden Claws, was only open to jaguar shifters and served to protect both their shifter kind and their jaguar cousins.... 

JAGUAR PRIDE by Terry Spear is the fourth book in her Heart of the Jaguar series. Every one of the books features sexy jaguar shifters. Hubba hubba. Even though it's part of a series with interconnecting characters, each of Terry's books can also be fully enjoyed as a standalone. 

In JAGUAR PRIDE, our jaguars are defending their kind and other exotics from poachers in a Costa Rican jungle. Their end goal is to put a stop to the black market sales of exotic jungle cats  I loved the interwoven conversancy tidings that were subtly promulgated through-out the book against the poaching of the big cats. I also enjoyed the educational tidbits about the wild cats that 

Terry deftly weaves into all her stories. Terry's books will educate you while you're being thoroughly entertained with a riveting environmental drama enhanced with steamy sex! Mmmmm... Sounds like a winning combination to me!

Terry's dedication was an unabashed acknowledgement to the wildlife conservation theme and it is included below as an affirmation of the same.:

To those who serve to protect the exotic animals in the rainforest. Thanks for making it possible for so many of them to remain in their natural habitat and for stopping those who are destroying the animals or transporting them from their homes in the wild.

JAGUAR PRIDE is the story of Huntley Anderson and Melissa Overton, two JAG Special Forces operatives. They have been partnered for a few recent missions and they  work well together. Both are in relationships, albeit shaky ones, at home. As the story opens, they have been assigned to work together again to take down a robust poaching operation in the Costa Rican jungle. They discover that the poachers have strong ties to the US as they take some of them down. They return to the US for a well-deserved vacation as both of their other personal relationships fall apart. More poaching activity results in the couple forgoing their time off to return to the jungle to finish the job they'd started.

Unfortunately, things don't go as planned and the poachers get away with taking two jaguar shifter parents in their animal forms and abandoning their twins to Huntley and Melissa to babysit. 

I really liked both Huntley and Melissa. Both were highly trained, devoted to their jobs, fearless and smart. AND each was in tune with their fun, wild side. I appreciated that both were secretly lusting after each other but neither pursued their feelings because they were each professionals in a work situation and they each respected that the other was in a relationship. But... once those relationships fell apart, there was nothing holding them back except their own reservations, loads of spilled milk :-), and a slew of low-down poachers. Will Huntley and Melissa evade discovery with the baby jaguar cubs? Will they be able to find and free the parents and reunite them with their offspring? And will these two sexy jaguars find that their romance will take root in the steamy tropics?

Following please find two of my favorite quotes:

He chuckled. "Come here."

She hesitated.

"We don't have to do anything. Just ... sleep."

She let out her breath on a heavy sign. "You don't want to just sleep." Then she moved in next to him, and he wrapped his arms around her. "Do you?"

"Hell no." He leaned down for a kiss.

---

He tossed her over his shoulder and stalked back to the bedroom.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I've had enough babysitting duty. It's time for some grownup action."

Terry's writing, as always, is top notch! I have never once been disappointed by any of her books. I know when I pick up one of Terry's books, that I'm in for a treat and JAGUAR PRIDE fits the bill to a tee! I highly recommend JAGUAR PRIDE to anyone who enjoys hot, sexy paranormal shifter romances!