Nocturne Romance Reads

Shift - Rachel Vincent

The Shifters Series - Book 5

March  2010

Paranormal Romance

Trouble in the air…

Being the first female werecat enforcer isn’t easy. Scars accumulate, but I’m stronger in so many ways.

As for my personal life? It’s complicated. Choices worth making always are. Ever since my brother’s death and my father’s impeachment, it’s all I can do to prevent more blood from spilling. Now our Pride is under attack by a flight of vicious thunderbirds. And making peace with our new enemies may be the only way to get the best of our old foe.

With the body count rising and treachery everywhere, my instincts tell me to look before I leap. But sometimes a leap of faith is the only real hope. (Amazon)

Each book by Rachel Vincent just gets better and better and Shift is by far the best of the series. It hooked me a the very beginning and I couldn’t put it down until I was done. Unlike the others in the series, I did not even once find my attention wandering. This is an action-packed adventure from the first page. Then, when there were breaks in the fighting and fleeing the emotional tension and uncertainty is ratcheted up. The questions of will she or won’t she tell Marc and how he’ll react if and when she does had me on the edge.

The Thunderbirds are awesome. Her description of their appearance and their aerie is hugely imaginative and superbly well done, but in the end it’s their honor and group dynamic that make them compelling. They are alien enough to be fascinating and human enough to be relatable. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more of them in the final book of the series, Alpha.

Faythe definitely hits her stride in this one. For the first time I see her Alpha-qualities coming through. To be honest, in the previous books I couldn’t quite understand why the Pride would pin their future on her, but now the experience, maturity and Alpha qualities are shining through.

Another character who is growing on me, and growing in depth and maturity is Jace. Before starting this book, I was firmly in the pro-Marc camp. But I think the real Jace has started to emerge and I think I like him. A lot. He’s dropped the fun and flirty demeanor and a serious, dominant enforcer has come out.

And then there’s Marc. Well, Marc is Marc. Sexy, protective, supportive. *sigh* Honestly, his character felt a little stale, but I think that’s only because we see so much change and growth in Faythe and Jace and Marc has stayed fairly constant (why change a good thing?).

Now, I’m going to get a little mysterious here—my biggest complaint is something I’m not going to talk about in order to avoid giving away spoilers. Let’s just say that I’m a little bit disappointed where things stand with the whole Faythe-Marc-Jace triangle.

On the whole, a very excellent book.

5 Hoots