(Spoiler-free) Review: Alpha by Rachel Vincent

Book blurb from the author's website:
YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE FAYTHE…
The unscrupulous new Council chair has charged Jace, Marc, and me with trespassing, kidnapping, murder, and treason. Yeah, we’ve been busy. But now it’s time to take justice into our own hands. We must avenge my brother’s death and carve out the rot at the heart of the Council.

It’s not going to be easy, and loss seems unavoidable, but I have promised to protect my Pride, no matter what. With a target on my back and Marc at my side, I’m heading for a final showdown that can—that will—change everything forever.

___________________________

I don't think it's any secret that I have much, much love for this series. Faythe is one kick-ass chick. Is her personal life a mess? Yeah, you could say that. Does it bleed into her professional life? Yeah, it kinda does. Is that fair? No, but Faythe is honorable enough to own it and accept the consequences. If you thought Faythe did some growing up in the previous books, it's nothing compared to the growing she does in Alpha:

When my dad finally stopped and faced me, I made myself meet his gaze. Long gone were the days when I would stare at the ground and whisper confessions like a naughty little girl, even if that's exactly what I felt like. I'd made a very adult mistake - which necessitated a very adult decision I had to make.

Alpha picks up shortly after the events in Shift. There's going to be a vote for a new US leader. Faythe, Marc, and Jace are going as part of her father's entourage. Calvin Malone is determined to come out victorious and Faythe's proof that he's been more involved in previous issues than he'll admit to is iffy at best. Things don't go as well as they'd planned, and Faythe suffers loss in this book like never before, in more ways than one. Once again, Ms. Vincent doesn't pull any punches; I cried more than once - both times I read it.

Faythe, Marc, and Jace are dealing with revelations from Book 5, Shift. Mark is angry and hurt and lashes out at Faythe. Jace and Marc are constantly on edge around each other and Faythe is frustrated with her own inability to choose between them:

The tears fell faster, and a truly pathetic sob followed. "I love them both, and they both love me, but neither of them will even hold my hand, and I'm more alone now than I've ever been in my life and it's all my own fault." I sniffled, my nose running from the cold and from the tears. "It's not supposed to be like this. Love isn't supposed to break your heart. Or anyone else's."

Finishing this book is like walking from an air-conditioned house into the hot sweltering August heat - you want to turn right around and go back inside, quickly. I know authors can't make all readers happy all the time, but I think Ms. Vincent really nailed the ending - it was perfect! (I wouldn't mind a short story in the future, a sort of epilogue, if you will, just to let us know how things are going.) This is my favorite book in the series.

If you're one of those people who likes to wait until a series is finished before you start reading it - get thee to a bookstore and buy the whole series at once - you won't be sorry!!!

Other books in this series:
Stray
Rogue
Pride
Prey
Shift

Alpha
Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Mira; Original edition (October 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 077832818X
ISBN-13: 978-0778328186

My rating:

I first read this book back in August. Since that time, one song has been in constant rotation on the radio: Impossible by Shauntelle. Every time I've heard this song in the last two months, it's made me think of Alpha. When you finish reading the book - listen to this song... if you listen to it as not only Faythe's thoughts about her feelings but also her actions towards others, it's so perfect for this book!

This e-book was received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Guest Post at Smokinhotbooks

I'm over at Smokinhotbooks today, talking about my favorite book so far this year (can you guess what it is?) Stop by and say hi!!!

Hey Chicago!

I can't really complain, as we've had some great authors come to the New Orleans area lately, but I must confess to a little of the green-eyed monster towards you Chicagoans ----> Rachel Vincent will be there June 25, 26, & 27th! If you miss her at one location you may be able to catch her at another locale :)

She'll be there with Carla Neggers, Gina Showalter, Susan Mallory, and Emilie Richards - what a fabulous group of authors! Here's the schedule:

I wonder how long it would take to drive from New Orleans to Chicago? I'd have to be back at work on Monday....that sounds like another speeding ticket waiting to happen. Oh, well.

Review: Shift by Rachel Vincent

You know how sometimes you wait for something you really want and when you finally get it you've built it up so much you're disappointed? Well, that did NOT happen here. I'd previously read the first four books in this series and LOVED them (my review here) and Shift did not disappoint either.

Shift takes up immediately where Pride ended: The South Central werecat pack is divided and a battle is coming. There's also retribution to be made for a death, and although she's trying to put it off, Faythe is going to have to come clean about some of her actions in book 4.

The action in this book starts right at the beginning; in the first chapter, as the pack is discussing plans for battle, Faythe takes Kaci out for a walk and in moments Kaci is snatched up by a huge bird - a Thunderbird. They soon realize their pack is under attack by the Thunderbirds in response to the death of one of their flock members. Faythe and her father know they've been framed but don't have any proof; the Thunderbirds are not giving up and two more werecats are dead. Faythe ends up in the Thunderbird's aviary and must find a way to prove who the real killer is or Kaci will die and the rest of the pack will be killed by the Thunderbirds.

I could not put this book down. At every turn I wondered what would happen next. The timeline for this book was only a few days, but so much happened - I was on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading. The book doesn't leave you with a cliffhanger, but there are a lot of unresolved issues still dancing around the werecat world - plenty of stuff to resolve in Book 5, Alpha, which comes out in October 2010. As I understand it, Alpha is the last book in this series.

I will say this - although this could be read as a stand-alone, you really won't get the full impact of everything that goes on without reading the whole series. Trust me, this won't be a hardship - this is one of my favorite series out there right now and IMO doesn't get the props it deserves.

I give Shift 5 out of 5 stars.

Shift goes on sale March 1, 2010.

Disclaimer: This book was provided to me by NetGalley free of charge for an honest review.

In Which My Nerdiness Shows Again....

Remember when you were a teenager and you'd have "a song"? That song that just totally got how you are as a couple?

Well, I'm way past teenager (although hubs and I do have a song) so now I listen to songs and think "that song is perfect for -insert character names here-". Yes, lame, I know. Keeping in mind I don't really watch TV and definitely don't watch music videos (cuts into my reading time!!), so I don't know if the videos are weirdly inappropriate for my couples.

Here's a few:

Cat and Bones (Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress Series):






Richard from Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series (in her later books):







Charlaine Harris' Eric and Sookie (after the blood bond):






Jace from Rachel Vincent's Shifter series:






Moira Rogers' Derek and Nick (Crossroads - right before Nick goes to NY):






Megan Hart's Dan and Emme from Dirty:






And Ilona Andrews' Kate and Curran (in this song I see Kate talking and Curran imagining Kate dancing around his Bimbo Room to the music):



So anyway, that's my short list; hope you liked it!

First Shift excerpt from Rachel Vincent!!!

Rachel Vincent has released a snippet from the nex book in her Werecats series, Shift - Click here. She also released the blurb from the cover yesterday - see here. Shift will be released March 1, 2010.

I love this series and am very excited for this peek!!

Cover Alert - Shift by Rachel Vincent

I stumbled across the new cover for Shift over on SciFiGuy's site:

I love her covers! They way she left things in Prey, I just can't wait until this one comes out in March 2010. I love these books, Ms. Vincent is such a talented writer. If you haven't read them, check them out here, or read my review of the series here.

Ms. Vincent talks about her cover here.

Prey by Rachel Vincent

Wow. It's probably not good to start a post when you're speechless. Ms. Vincent writes such a good story that I still feel like I'm in her world. I re-read Stray, Rogue, and Pride this week in anticipation of Prey coming out yesterday. I stayed up until midnight reading and finished it at work.

Stray introduces us to Faythe, a were-cat who has been trying to make a life of her own, away from her family and pride. We are also introduced to Marc (fictional boyfriend!) early on as he arrives at college to bring Faythe home because someone is kidnapping the female were-cats (tabbies). Each pride has only one tabby, they are very rare and "valuable" to each pride to ensure the continuation of the species. Faythe's father is the Alpha of her pride. Faythe is very stubborn and does not want to marry and have children as the other tabbies do, she wants to be independent. She makes some mistakes along the way and ends up kidnapped. She eventually frees herself and another tabbie and goes after the kidnappers. We also learn about Faythe's relationship with Marc - she left him at the altar five years ago but still has feelings for him. He definately still has feelings for her.

In Rogue, Faythe's story continues. She is out with Marc, learning how to be an Enforcer (sort of were-cat self-police) and several strays end up dead. This leads her on a search for the killer and a character from the first book reappears - with a surprise for Faythe. Faythe and Marc's relationship hits a few snags in this book.

In Pride, Faythe is facing a tribunal-type hearing regarding her actions in book 2. She is facing the possibility of being de-clawed or execution. During the trial, a bruin (were-bear) barges in complianing about the cats bothering him. The only problem is that it's not the cats there for the hearing - there is a renegade group of strays causing trouble and humans go missing. Then a tabby lands on their doorstep, except that she doesn't know how she came to be a were-cat. Faythe spends time helping her adjust while also dealing with the tribunal, who decide to spare Faythe's life if Marc will leave the pride. Then one of the other Alphas challenges Faythe's father for control of the Alpha council.

Prey, the fourth book in her six book series picks up about two months after Pride left off. Marc is living in the "free zone" (not pride land) and Faythe and some fellow enforcers are escorting another were-cat to a trial so Faythe is able to stop and visit Marc. While there they are ambushed by an unprecedented group of strays working together to attack their group. They manage to escape and drop the were-cat at her trial and Faythe returns home. Shortly after that she receives a call that Marc is missing and presumed dead. They rush to search for him, getting assistance from a stray who has befriended Marc since he's been in the free-zone. While this is going on, they are having problems with the rescued tabby from book 3 (she won't shift to cat form and is getting very sick because of it) and the council tries to steal her through a sneak attack that has disasterous results. While searching for Marc, Faythe and her group discover someone is tagging stray were-cats with a homing device and they are trying to see how all that fits in with the kidnapping and attempted takeover of the council, AND Faythe makes a bad decision in a fit of alcohol-fueled grief.

This book had me hanging on the edge of my seat. I "OMG'd", "Oh no'd", cried, and cheered. March 2010 cannot get here fast enough - I need to know what happens next!

Whew, crisis averted!

I had to go out of the office for work today, and while I was out I decided to stop by my neighborhood B&N to grab Prey, out today. I reserved it quite some time ago and have been anxiously awaiting it.

Prey is the 4th book in Rachel Vincent's Shifter series. Faythe is a were-cat who has been having a hard time accepting her responsibilities to her pride and throughout the series I've enjoyed watching her grow and learn about herself and her family (and Marc - see my fictional boyfriend list at right). I loved the first three and can't wait to see what happens next.

So, I stroll in and ask at the desk if my copy is in. No, it's not in and they don't have me down as reserving a copy. It came out today and they haven't unloaded their trucks yet. Damn! Well, her site said many places have put her book out early (maybe because she's not as famous? Dunno.) so I go into the back to check the SciFi/Paranormal section. Nothing. I'm really disappointed and am thinking about trying another B&N and as I'm walking down the Romance aisle - THERE IT IS!!!!! It was already on the shelf, in Romance??!! Whatev. I've got it!!!!!

Don't call me tonight.

Can't Wait for Prey

Prey by Rachel Vincent comes out tomorrow...I can't wait!!! I'm re-reading the series now. I've decided to give it to J to let him read it. He liked the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. He said he thought the characters were pretty realistic and he liked it much better than Twilight.

The book I've had on my side-bar as "currently reading" I haven't even cracked open yet. Bad, bad me. But I will, soon. It's just that I'm re-acquainting myself with Ms. Vincent's amazing world of were-cats. Prey is getting terrific reviews, so I KNOW it's going to be good! One more day....