Shifters #1- Stray by Rachel Vincent: Review

There are only eight breeding female werecats left . . . 

And I'm one of them.

I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.

Despite reservations from my family and my Pride, I escaped the pressure to continue my species and carved out a normal life for myself. Until the night a Stray attacked.

I'd been warned about Strays -- werecats without a Pride, constantly on the lookout for someone like me: attractive, female, and fertile. I fought him off, but then learned two of my fellow tabbies had disappeared.

This brush with danger was all my Pride needed to summon me back . . . for my own protection. Yeah, right. But I'm no meek kitty. I'll take on whatever -- and whoever -- I have to in order to find my friends. Watch out, Strays -- 'cause I got claws, and I'm not afraid to use them . . .

So what can I say? This was a very good book- I wouldn't say excellent, but good, thanks to some scenes. But yeah, this is another great book by Rachel Vincent (who is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors!).

So the starting part... well, the first part was okay. It gives a nice introduction to the story, and even gives us a little action with the alley scene. But it was the following chapters that bugged me- it was slow. Nothing much happened except for some fooling around in the ranch, and I didn't get the point of the story- that being said, I hadn't read the summary beforehand. All I knew was that Faythe was a shifter... and that's pretty much it.

Another thing that bugged me was the many characters. I kinda lost track with all the guys named, and had to go back to review who they were. But later as the story progressed, I was able to appreciate them more and actually even liked the guys. So don't let the huge character list scare you.

Now to the good part- the story picks up quickly after that and then there's tons of action. Plus I get to like Faythe more as a lead character. To be honest, I first thought of her as a spoiled and selfish brat who just thought about herself.... but then when she was in trouble, she used her wits to outsmart her captors. Yep, she's one tough chick! That was another thing I liked- she was brave and strong, and actually cared about her fellow cats.

So.... I give this book 4 stars. I actually would have given it 5, but then some parts of this book disturbed me. Eh, this is what I get for reading an adult novel- I'm sticking to YA next time! :P But I still plan on finishing the Shifters series before that! 

One last thing... more of a ramble, really. I am an idiot. But why?, you ask. I read the summaries of all the next five books. Yup, I ended up spoiling the rest. I found out Andrew died, Ethan died, Faythe and Marc are on the run.... Yeah, I don't read the summary of the book I read, but instead read the summary of the ending. Smart me. Eh, there's nothing I can do about it anyway and it actually made me want to read the rest. So maybe it's a win-win situation.

Maybe.

Jen @ The Midnight Book Thief