Stray by Rachel Vincent

Yep, another "paranormal" book review.

Stray, by newcomer Rachel Vincent, is the story of Faythe Sanders, a college student and werecat.

I bought this because of the cat theme (I love cats) and because a favorite writer, Kim Harrison, recommended it. I'm not sorry, it was a good story overall but...as Publisher's Weekly put it:

"Vincent's debut, an urban werecat fantasy, is a good story that suffers from about 200 pages of bloat"

and

"Unfortunately, they [Marc and Faythe the lead characters] both have frustrating character tics that are only exacerbated by the novel's length: Faythe is more often too-stubborn-to-live than kick-ass, and all the tears Marc wells up over Faythe don't forgive his insufferable jealousy."

I would recommend catching a copy of this at the library so you can decide for yourself if you want to go further with the series (next up is Rogue and then Pride coming in '09) although Ms. Vincent DOES create a unique and very very interesting world.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Rogue has to offer, but I'm hoping that Marc gets over his "bad" self and Faythe remembers that she does, indeed, have a brain.

3 out of 5 berries because the ending was pretty fast paced and kept me reading far into the night.