Ara is a huntress, a warrior. Descended from another tribe of ruthless brutes, she towers over everyone in the region and can take on anyone with raw strength alone. The daughter of her tribe's Chieftain and destined to one day assume his mantle, the responsibility she shoulders is immense. From learning how to lead, to protecting the tribe with her great prowess, to finding the right mate.
That last one is an obligation that weighs heavily on her as she enters her twenty fourth summer. Her immense stature and short temper have made it difficult to find a mate she can tolerate, let alone one she wants. And time is running out to choose...
Nex is a magical healer. Scrawny, shorter than most of the other men in his tribe, he wears the burden of being a powerful magic user. Stigmatized, he lives alone in the healer's cave at the edge of his village and spends most of his time in isolation. Finding a mate is difficult at the best of times, but for him? He is beginning to wonder if his tribe's Chieftain will be forced to pair him with someone.
Nex and Ara find themselves thrust together on a sudden journey when the location of a lost magical relic is discovered. As they travel the land and get to know each other, an unlikely yet impassioned relationship begins to form...
PRIMAL LOVE is a Monogamous Romance For Men. This novel includes stone age survival, fights to the death, passionate sex scenes, and a sweet, loving romance between a badass warrior woman and an awkward healer.
I am Misty Vixen (not my real name obviously), and I imagine that if you’re reading this, you want to know a bit more about me.
In the beginning (late 2014), I was an erotica author. I wrote about sex, specifically about human men banging hot inhuman women. Monster girls, alien ladies, paranormal babes. It was a lot of fun, but as the years went on, I realized that I was actually striving to be a harem author. This didn’t truly occur to me until late 2019-early 2020. Once the realization fully hit, I began doing research on what it meant to be a harem author. I’m kind of a slow learner, so it’s taken me a bit to figure it all out.
That being said, I’m now a harem author!
Just about everything I write nowadays is harem fiction: one man in loving, romantic, highly sexual relationships with several women. Nowadays, I tend to write more human on human stuff, but I still have a lot of non-human ladies in mind for the future, so if that’s your thing then stick around.
I’d say beyond writing harems, I tend to have themes that I always explore in my fiction, and they encompass things like trust, communication, respect, honesty, dealing with emotional problems in a mature way…basically I like writing about functional and healthy relationships. Not every relationship is perfect, but I don’t really do drama unless the story actually calls for it. In total honesty, I hate drama. I hate people lying to each other and I hate needless rom-com BS plots that could have been solved by two characters having a two minute conversation.
I'm a big fan of the author, and I was interested to see how a mono-romance by them turned out. And it turned out not so great.
The MMC is a healer from his village, and he isn't well liked for no particular reason. Maybe it's because he can use magic, or maybe it's because he's a bit stand-offish because he expects to not be liked, or maybe it's because his chieftain fears magic users. Any way you slice it, he's got some anxieties built up. But he does know he's fascinated by one woman from another tribe.
The FMC is that woman that fascinates him. She's bigger than anyone else from either tribe, a fantastic warrior, and above average hunter. But she's nearing the age where the village will select a mate for her if she hasn't picked one for herself. She's also full of anxieties, has anger management issues, and is slated to most likely be the next chieftain when her father ages out or passes away.
My biggest issue with the book is the amount of mental diarrhea the reader has to wade through with the two anxiety prone MCs ruminating over everything. The "what if", "how will", "will he/she", and the like is relentless at times. It made the story drag a lot. I get that the author wants to show two slightly messed up people figuring their out as they come together as a more well rounded whole, but it wore me out after a while.
The book is set to have a sequel, and I read the author plans to wait a bit before writing it because the reception to this book wasn't as good as they hoped. If the author does write a sequel, I'd be interested in trying it, because hopefully the majority of the relationship anxiety should be over. That should free up the story for more adventure and action, and less mental dialogues.
A wonderful love story—seemingly mismatched people find they are perfectly matched, despite what anyone else thinks. Ara is a large, strong, hunter, chieftain-in-training while Nex is on the small, puny, introverted side, but is a powerful magical healer. During their quest for the Heart of Netken, much to their surprise and mutual delight, they find they ideally complement each other as they gradually fall in love and finally realize it. They meet and overcome many dangers, and help the victims of a sea monster attack. They finally find the Heart of Netkena and their discovery gives a satisfying twist to the story.
Primal Love by Misty Vixen is a romance novel about a scrawny, introverted healer and a muscle-bound huntress going on a journey together and falling in love. I enjoyed it immensely, and not only because of my weakness for amazonian women. The dynamic between the two leads is compelling, both have flaws they have to overcome, and I really felt some of the angstier moments (particularly as it pertains to MMC's loneliness). There were some moments of very real tension during their journey, and while I was never really expecting a tragic ending, there were points where it almost fooled me into thinking one of the main characters may not make it. The epilogue felt a bit tagged on, but that's my only real complaint. I look forward to Primal Love II!
The main characters are well developed with back stories that make sense. The story moves quickly. The relationship between the main characters seems natural and unforced. Looking forward to the next book.
Misty Vixen absolutely nailed this one. Thought the romance was very satisfying and the action was tense and engaging. Ara and Nex are great and I found their chemistry to be very good. Very much looking forward to the next one!
I love all of this author’s books and this one is no different. Well written story with great characters. Great dialogue and realistic romantic buildup and love. That kind of writing is hard to come across.