Please post comments and discussions here about January '09 Book of the Month:

Primal Needs by Susan Sizemore.

Finished Primal Needs by Susan Sizemore. Fabulous book! Sizemore's world of primes, weres, and others is evolving in a believable way. Exciting new dimension to a great series. Sidonie Wolf and Joe Bleythin's story was thoroughly satisfying. Loved that Tony Crowe, who I have always liked, found his own HEA.

Two Happily-Ever-Afters all in one.

It is forbidden for vampires and werewolves to mix. After a blistering hot affair, Sidonie “Sid” Wolf blocks the memories of the affair from her werewolf lover, Joe Bleythin’s, mind, knowing that should the Matris ever learn of the affair, they would kill Joe in front of her, and then kill her, simply to teach the younger generation the consequences of the improper act. Blocking those memories was Sid’s attempt at keeping Joe alive, but Joe sees the action as betrayal and definitely not forgivable, for to Joe, it’s mind rape what the vampires do, and he hates it with a passion.

Sid had fallen in love with Joe, and has not been able to forget their time together. With her heart belonging to another, and pressure coming down to choose a Prime to bond with, to procreate, Sid took another course of action and became pregnant through artificial insemination. Sid believes their vampire world needs to be brought into the twenty-first century, and will do what she believes is necessary. But one thing she can’t battle is upon her. Her son, Charles, has hit his terrible twos, and in the vampire world, terrible twos take on a whole new meaning, for they really do become monsters; their testosterone levels boost to such that she cannot take care of him alone, and he’s being taken from her to live in a ‘creche’, sort of like a vampire family trained to taking care of young male vampires, to help them past the “monster” stage. What Sid didn’t know, was that her maternal instincts will be blocked from her mind, much in the same way that she blocked Joe’s memories, in a ceremony called the “Sevening”. She will remember that she has a son, but her maternal instinct, her bond and feelings about her son will become robotic - she loves him, he’s gone to live with people who will take care of him for their safety, and that’s it.

Meanwhile, Joe is truly pissed at what Sid had done, and after drinking a concoction by the Dark Angels resident witch, his memories come back, only to piss him off even more. For even while he loathes Sidonie, he still wants her, only much more.

After the “Sevening” ritual, Sid goes along with a group of volunteers to fight a forest fire, only to be thrown together with Joe by Tobias Strahan, the leader of the Dark Angels. Tobias believes that Sid hold unknown information from the time she’d been held by the Manticores. She knows that she’d never heard any information relevant to what Tobias is looking for, but she does know that she won’t tell what happened to her. For if she does, she’ll be treated much like a porcelain doll, just like everyone is treating her mother. And Sid refuses to be treated like she’s breakable.

And while she’s thrown together with Joe, her sire and Clan Prime, Tony, is still in love with the mortal he’d met during the second world war; Rose Cameron. But bonding with a mortal was forbidden, and Tony had no choice but to let her go. But he still sends her roses every year, and this time, visits her. But when she disappears without a trace, Tony is terrified and asks Sid for help. Gregor, a rogue vampire, had been with Rose for over a year, in a nursing home run by rogue vampires, and has been administering a drug, one that will bring Rose’s body back to a young form. In order to maintain that form, she will have to bond with a vampire, drinking in his blood daily. And while it’s not a guaranty, she loves Tony too much not to try.

Two incredibly beautiful happily-ever-afters in one book is nice, but I didn’t like the way it happened. I felt like they each deserved their own story; it sort of felt like one HEA breaking through the original HEA of the story and I didn’t find that fair.

Sid is a strong female vampire with strong beliefs and wants to help the young female vamp generation move into this century. While some customs should be kept, she believes that females should be treated as the strong women they are, not females to be ‘kept’. In the story, Joe bonds with Sid, something extremely forbidden, and while he knows what that can bring, he loves Sid, and bonded with her for that exact reason. Sid, petrified of what can happen, is distraught when they are brought to the clans matris. And if it wasn’t for Dr. Casmerek and his DNA research proving that female vampires and male werewolves can bond, can produce offspring, the worst could have happened for Sid and Joe.

So, while Joe and Sid have their HEA, Tony and Rose have theirs, and yet, there’s something I don’t really get. A vampire and werewolf bonding is usually faced with death. That crisis was averted, but what about Tony and Rose? Their bond is frowned upon as well, back then he was forced to leave her, but how come they weren’t questioned? How did they manage to evade the scrutiny? They have, which is nice, but I wonder if someone in their world will make something of it later.

And the mystery, the rogues, continues. Can’t wait for the next book!

Couple of comments. I believe the ceremony to separate mother and son is called "severing," not "sevening."

Also, I think what Dr. Casmerek proved was that the Hunyaras, powerful human psychics that can control newly bitten werewolves and prevent them from turning into raving loonies, came from the mating of a FEMALE vampire and a MALE werewolf, and not vice versa, as the matris had assumed. The Hunyaras are considered a very valuable addition to the supernatural world. If more like the Hunyaras could be produced, that would be a good thing. I don't think that it was ever doubted that Joe and Sidonie could produce children.

Several vampire males (also known as primes) have had human mates in the series. There will be no problem with Tony and Rose staying together. The person who objected to the original mating was Joe's matri (female leader of a vampire clan). She was against it because Rose was a famous Hollywood actress in her day. The matri believed that it would attract too much attention to the clan and could possibly expose the vampire world to the human race. The vamps can easily fake Rose's death at this point and no one will realize this twenty-looking young women is really an octogenarian Hollywood star. Also, I believe that particularly matri was no longer alive.

Yes, I would have liked Rose and Tony to have their own story, but I loved that they finally had a HEA.

I somehow managed to spell that word wrong more than once, LOL, and it baffles me! How on earth did I miss that before I posted is beyond me.

As for Rose and Tony, I think I worded that wrong as well. I guess I was more surprised that no one mentioned anything about their bonding; I think that's what surprised me. No matter how much is going on, you'd think someone would have noticed and said something? Hell, even a congrats would have been nice.

I agree with you on your comment about the lack of congratulations to Tony and Rose. Perhaps we will see, or see a reference to, a bonding ceremony for them in a future book.

Oh, I'd like to see that. They deserve to be happy.

Dark Stranger* (Primes, Book 8) by Susan Sizemore

*Sizemore's next primes novel (to be released October 27, 2009) has been renamed Dark Stranger from Demon in the Dark. Otherwise the cover is identical. Also, Sizemore describes it as a "future novel" on her web site. How exciting!!!! I can't wait.

Woohoo! *rubbing hands together anxiously*