Rachel Vincent, Stray

Stray

Rachel Vincent

Mira, Jun 2007, $6.99

ISBN 0778324214

Faythe Sanders is a graduate student attending the University of North Texas when a stray "cat" attacks her. Faythe knows the culprit is a rogue belonging to no pack as she fights back defeating her foe. One moment after her triumph, Marc Ramos comes out of the shadows to tell her that her father, the werewolf Pride Alpha demands she come home to the safety of their family compound as another feline werecat Sara has been abducted. Reluctantly she does.

Back at home, Faythe feels like a prisoner as her father and his second in command Marc make demands on her just like they did five years ago when she fled her home to escape them just prior to her wedding to Marc. However when another female werecat is kidnapped; the Sanders Pride concludes that strays are performing the dastardly deeds, but someone is organizing them although their ultimate purpose is unknown. While Faythe and Marc squabble like two tabby cats in love, she knows that she is no fraidy cat so she plans to cat fight the enemy to get out of family incarceration.

There are too many sidebars take away from a fine romantic fantasy yet they also firm up the werecat elements that lead to the audience believing in the Vincent mythos. Faythe is a chip of the alpha block as she fights strays, other rogues, and her love for Marc. He is her equal in many ways although his jealousy of her human boyfriend at college Andrew is overdone. Fans of werewolf sagas will enjoy this war between the cats.

Harriet Klausner