Shifters

So this week I've been waiting for Pride to show up having been released on Feb 1st. It's the third in the Shifters series by Rachel Vincent, the first two being Stray and Rouge. And since its been a while since Rouge was out, I've been re-reading them and remembering how much I adore the series. They're an urban fantasy series about Werecats and I basically fell in love with them. The narrater is Faythe Sanders, a Tabbie, a female werecat in a male dominant world. A world where a girls job consists of marrying a Tom (male werecat) and having a daughter (which generally means having a bunch of sons first) to carry on the Pride. Not something Faythe wants to do. She's fought against it for most of her life, leaving her man (Marc) at the alter and going away to college instead. But that's landed her in more trouble then she could have envisioned. Which leads to Pride:

Here's hoping cats do have nine lives

I’m on trial for my life. Accused of infecting my human ex-boyfriend—and killing him to cover up the crime. I’m not guilty. But tell that to the panel of Alphas sitting in judgment. Infecting a human is one of three capital offenses recognized by the Pride—along with murder and disclosure of our existence to a human.

I’m two for three. A goner.

On top of that, Marc is in danger of being tossed from the Pride, then we discovered a rogue stray terrorizing the mountainside, hunting a wild teenage tabbycat. I think I can protect her from both the ambitious rogue and the scheming of the territorial council.

If I survive my own trial…

This series has pretty much everything I love. Fantasy, strong, well developed characters, a sense of humor, well thought out story with lots of twists and turns, and a little romance thrown in too. I really like the idea of Werecats. It's not something I've read before and Rachel's created a detailed world, delving in to many levels of werecat life, making it 3D and very realistic. Or as realistic as Urban Fantasy gets! I really love Faythe's character, the way she's growing up and learning more and more about the world she's fought, the world she has no choice but to live in. And I really like the cast of supporting characters around her as well. Overall, just a really great series and I really am desperate for it to be tomorrow so I will have Pride in my hands at last!

Why am I blogging just about this series though? Well, Rachel Vincent offers her readers many chances to win advance copies of her work or signed copies or various other goodies to go with the series, and the latest one asks us to blog about the series, with details of Pride, in order to try and win. So I'm blogging about Shifters and hoping I've remembered all the criteria correctly! lol :)