When Saria Boudreaux finds a dead body in the Louisiana bayou near her home, her first instinct is to go to the police. But there’s a problem--it looks like the victim may have been killed by a big cat, and her brothers are all shape-shifting leopards.
Sent to investigate by the land’s owner, leopard shifter Drake Donovan is ready for anything—except the insatiable hunger that rocks him when he meets Saria. Deep in his soul he knows that she is destined to be his mate. Torn between protecting her brothers and finding the truth, Saria treads warily around the powerful shifter. Yet as they venture deep into the mysterious bayou on a hunt for the killer, Saria finds herself longing for Drake’s touch and the sweet release of surrender…
Sent to investigate by the land’s owner, leopard shifter Drake Donovan is ready for anything—except the insatiable hunger that rocks him when he meets Saria. Deep in his soul he knows that she is destined to be his mate. Torn between protecting her brothers and finding the truth, Saria treads warily around the powerful shifter. Yet as they venture deep into the mysterious bayou on a hunt for the killer, Saria finds herself longing for Drake’s touch and the sweet release of surrender…
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I think over the past few hundred posts it's probably become pretty obvious that I don't like giving 'eh' reviews. I want books to be fabulous and fantastic, especially when they're by authors I love. Unfortunately this book made me do it :(. There's just this one problem I have with a scene near the beginning of the book that affected my ability to enjoy most of what came afterward.
**Minor Spoilers Ahead**
We're introduced to Saria (how do you even say that anyway?) and she's clearly a strong female character. Independent, adventurous, willing to go out and do all the 'big girl' stuff that her 5 brothers might not want her to do - she's determined to make her own way in life. Thus when she stumbles upon a leopard kill in the bayou and she's concerned that one of her brothers might have done it, she doesn't back away from that possibility; she contacts Jake Bannaconni and hopes to get someone out there to help her figure things out. What she get's Drake and while on the surface it seems like a good idea, it doesn't quite jive for me as a reader.
Why? Because at meeting Drake Saria goes immediately against character and becomes willing to not only jump in the sack with Drake, but believe everything he's telling her. It made absolutely no sense. I like the reincarnated mates in this series. I like that the guy sees the woman (let's not talk about the going into heat thing) and knows that he's immediately attracted to her and almost loves her. What I don't get here is that usually Feehan has a strong woman character who's at least initially suspicious of this connection. Especially when they're already established as someone who's had to make their own way against very long odds. Why doesn't Saria have some of that to her? It immediately shook me and even when we got a look at great characters from previous books plus a decent murder mystery, I just couldn't get over it.
So this book gets an 'Eh'. It's not bad really, but I have to say that if you're someone like me who loves strong female characters, Saria's personality inconsistencies are more than a little annoying.
Overall Feeling - Eh.
Series - 1) The Awakening 2) Wild Rain 3) Burning Wild 4) Wild Fire 5) Savage Nature
