Long before European settlers arrived in America, werecats,
human-feline hybrid creatures who can become fully human or
feline at will, migrated from the jungles of South America
and established territories in family groups called Prides.
Each Pride consists of male Tomcats and the very rare
female Tabbies, as well as an Alpha who leads the family.
Each Alpha maintains a staff of powerful tomcat enforcers
who protect the Pride from human interference or attack
from Strays. Strays are a small subgroup of unpredictable
werecats who were born human, but became werecats after
surviving a bite or deep scratch, usually from another
stray. Strays are expected to live in the few remaining
free territories, often against their will, since Pride
cats rarely accept them as family.
At twenty-three years of age, Pride werecat Faythe
Sanders is the oldest unmarried tabby, a dubious honor in a
society where birthrates of females are low and
expectations for early marriage and motherhood are high.
Faythe chose personal freedom over family obligation on her
eighteenth birthday when she walked out on her engagement
to her Alpha father's top enforcer, Marc Ramos, and
enrolled as a student at the University of Texas. But
Faythe's bid for freedom is cut short a few years later
when two other tabbies, her friend Sara and cousin Abby,
are abducted by a South American stray. Faythe's father
sends Marc to drag her back to the family ranch for her
protection, but Faythe sees the spacious house as a gilded
cage, and announces her intention to leave again, which
only ensures that the tomcats keep a close eye on her every
move. To make matters even worse, Marc informs Faythe that
her father has been steadily grooming her to take over as
the new Alpha of the Pride, with Marc by her side. Torn
apart by her yearning for personal freedom, her duty to her
family, and the love that still smolders in her heart for
Marc, Faythe grabs her first opportunity for a moment of
solitude on the ranch grounds to think about her situation,
but the brief freedom costs her dearly; she's ambushed and
knocked unconscious. When she wakes up in a dark metal
cage with a brutal werecat stray as the gatekeeper, Faythe
must face a life-or-death battle for an entirely different
kind of freedom.
STRAY begins with a wonderful opening line, and
just keeps getting better! The history and societal rules
for the world Rachel Vincent has created are described by
the main character in detail without ever slowing down the
thrilling pace of the storyline. I loved the insight into
the werecats' daily lives, but was also touched by the very
human battle Faythe faces in her desire to be true to
herself while not hurting those she loves. The battle of
wits and muscle that follows made me unwilling to put the
book down. I highly recommend STRAY to any fan of urban
fantasy and paranormal, and am looking forward to reading
the sequels!
There are only eight breeding female werecats left . . .
And I'm one of them.
I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a
werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.
Despite reservations from my family and my Pride, I escaped
the pressure to continue my species and carved out a normal
life for myself. Until the night a Stray attacked.
I'd been warned about Strays—werecats without a Pride,
constantly on the lookout for someone like me: attractive,
female, and fertile. I fought him off, but then learned two
of my fellow tabbies had disappeared.
This brush with danger was all my Pride needed to summon me
back . . . for my own protection. Yeah, right. But I'm no
meek kitty. I'll take on whatever—and whoever—I have to in
order to find my friends. Watch out, Strays—'cause I got
claws, and I'm not afraid to use them . . .
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