Review: Pride by Rachel Vincent

by Kay | Jul 15, 2011 | Reviews | 2 comments

I'm on trial for my life. Falsely accused of infecting my human ex-boyfriend—and killing him to cover up the crime. 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.

Now we've discovered a rogue stray terrorizing the mountainside, hunting a wild teenage tabbycat. It's up to us to find and stop him before a human discovers us. With my lover Marc's help, I think I can protect the vulnerable girl from both the ambitious rogue and the scheming of the territorial council.

If I survive my own trial…

Thoughts: I am SO friggin’ glad I stuck with this series! Because Faythe? The character who I have consistently used as the poster girl for “everything I hate in a narrator”?  The character whose name I’d use as a synonym for “OMG she needs to die”?

Well, I kinda like her now.

People have been telling me for years (literally – I realised I started this series back in 2009) that Faythe gets better and grows up with every book. And they’re right – she does grow up. She’s not yet at the point where I actually would spend more than a half-a-minute with her, but she’s getting there. Because all the things I hated about her – her rudeness, her temper, her impulsiveness, her insistence that it is her-way-or-the-highway – they are becoming the things I love about her. Why? Because Kaci – the tabbycat in the summary – needs these qualities in Faythe in order to keep her protected.  Turns out Faythe can be totally awesome while she’s protecting someone…

Moving on.  The plot is as tight as always. Even though there is a tonne of werecat-political intrigue, there is also a whole bunch of action. All the bloods-and-guts scenes that I felt were missing from Rogue are back in full force. Not to mention Vincent gives us not-one-but-two excellent villains to hate. It’s fantastic…

And then there’s the wonderful-as-always Marc. He’s such a cat in some ways – violent and temperamental – but he’s also so bloody noble that I just want to squeeze him to death.  Love this guy! Ooh, I also adored Elias Keller, the were-bear introduced within the first few chapters. I was intrigued to find out the verse had more were-species, and that Keller turned out be a welcome voice of reason among the pride of kitties made me even happier.

Bottom line?  Pride made me a believer in this series. If you gave up on Faythe during Stray, well, you should stick it out. She may be frustrating, but the series is well worth the effort.

Review: Stray by Rachel Vincent

by Kay | Jul 21, 2009 | Reviews | 1 comment

The difference between the movies and reality? In real life, I was the monster.

Faythe Sanders looks like an ordinary student, but she’s hiding a dark secret: she is a werecat, a powerful supernatural predator. Yet headstrong, independent Faythe resents her power, heading to college to escape her family and her overprotective ex, Marc.

That is until a stray – a dangerous werecat without a pride or territory – catches her scent. With two werecat girls already missing, Faythe is summoned home for her own protection.

But Faythe will do whatever it takes to find her kidnapped kin. She has claws – and she’s not afraid to use them.

Rec for people who love: Cats, kick-ass females, and cats (loving cats is kinda key for this book).

First Line: The moment the door opened I knew an ass–kicking was inevitable.

Thoughts: Let me start out by saying that I did enjoy this book. Quite a bit by the end. But I am still pretty conflicted about the main character, Faythe. The book opened with her being as a rebellious werecat, pretty flighty and, erm, completely irrational. The only thing that made me feel better was the fact that she realized how juvenile she often sounded – but was just unable to hold herself back.

Also, her relationship with Marc, the overprotective ex in the summary, was bizarre. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Marc. He is exactly the type of traumatized-but-noble hero that I fall in love with. But she just kept flip flopping between being furious with him (for no particular reason) and being completely understanding. It drove me slightly mad.

Her behavior towards her family – her father in particular – was also irrational. Especially considering how much danger she knew she was in. While I understood that she felt like she was trapped by her family – and she was, literally at times – she also understood their motivation. To me, if you understand the motivation and even agree with it, shouldn’t you approve?

Well, I continued reading the book despite this rather intense dislike. I felt they really couldn’t do anything to make me dislike her any more, so the only way forward was up.

Let’s just say I was right. Without giving away too much of the plot, Faythe grows up quite a bit by the end of the 600 page novel. It’s a natural development that keeps her tough-as-nails personality intact – which even I appreciated. By the end of the book, I actually liked Faythe – so if you dislike her while reading, I would recommend you stick it out.

On a different note, this was a pretty violent book. Death, rape, kidnapping, torture – the whole shebang. I expected it to be since, hello, werecats? But I know that some people will be pretty disturbed by a lot of the themes. Some of which – women in cages, raped and brutalized – will probably resonate more with female readers. Vincent does an amazing job describing violence without loosing the reader – to either the fear or to the plain old “but I thought he had a broken arm” confusion. I could really visualize what Faythe goes through from the sound of breaking bones, to the smell of blood. Let’s just say the excruciating pain seeped naturally out of the pages. But unlike some horror authors, the trauma was bearable and won’t turn your stomach.

At least, hopefully it won’t.

I will be getting to the next books in her series. Although I might wait a month or so. There is only so much werecat I can take.

I really am more of a dog person.