The moment Meiling sees Gedeon she knows he’s a leopard
shifter—just as she knows she can’t trust him. Meiling doesn’t take
chances, life has taught her better than that. So why does she find
herself rescuing this deadly, gorgeous man, when she knows she’d be
better off leaving him to die?
Gedeon is used to women throwing
themselves at him, not throwing his injured body over their beautiful,
deceptively strong shoulders and carrying him to safety. He might be
embarrassed, if he wasn’t so aroused by the very thought of this feisty
lotus blossom.
As they strike up a working relationship that
suits them both, Gedeon starts to rely on Meiling for just about
everything. But when her hidden nature rises to the surface, the
connection that links them shifts into an all-consuming desire. And
neither will escape unmarked. . . .
Review
I will start this review by saying that I
absolutely love Feehan’s leopard series. Only one step behind the
Ghostwalkers series. Some of this review may be a bit spoiler-ish so
continue at your own risk.
I do have to be honest that there were a
couple of things that bothered me about the story, but I do not know if
these same things will still be valid once I reread the book for the
second time.
1. Time jumps: There were at least three. Maybe
more. Personally, this is more of a point of information and not so much
a con. I am just pointing it out. It allows for more information and
for the story to progress without tiring out the reader so I am okay
with it, but I did notice them. I suppose I am sensitive to it because
HBO’s House of the Dragon season one had a lot of them as well. The more
material - the more time jumps.
2. Clarity of the abilities of the
uber shifters: This idea that there were shifters with more specialized
powers and were eradicated because of them is good. Early on we see that
strength and speed are two of the most prominent abilities. (more so
than a normal shifter). If I remember correctly we are told that there
were communities of uber shifters, but there were three specific
families that had more powers than the regular uber shifters. And so
that made them targets. These three families that were destroyed were
from Russia (Gedeon), China (Meiling), and North Korea.
It isn’t till
the middle of the book that we are told that Meiling’s entrancing
effect on leopards has more to do with her uber shifter genes than the
usual effect of female leopards on male leopards. If you’re familiar
with the series, you’ll recall that Evangeline had a calming effect on
the Amurov leopards as well. I felt that could’ve been introduced a bit
better. To piggyback off this at the tail end of the book we are told
that these uber shifter groups can produce fire. Once again I felt like
that could’ve been presented much better. It seemed very last minute and
I remember saying to myself ‘wait what’.
3. The training status of
Meiling: At the start of the book, I got the impression that Meiling was
not trained and was a bit timid. [Her thought processes and such at the
Venezuelan camp] Further on in the book as she is fully Gedeon’s
partner we are given little nuggets of information that says she is
faster and can handle herself to the point she could do damage to
trained shifters like Timur and Joshua Tigre’s bodyguards. I truly was
flabbergasted like – wait when did she get this type of training? How is
this possible? As I think it through now – I suppose she is not trained
per se but her uber shifter strength and speed puts her on level
footing.
The following are pros, in my opinion, that helped me to appreciate the characters and the entire series more.
1.
Friends before lovers: The fact that Gedeon and Lotus blossom (I love
this nickname) were friends first. What started off as possible enemies
led to these two characters having a great working relationship and then
finally a good personal relationship. Gedeon noticed early on that
Meiling would make the perfect partner. She was low-key, but had his
same skillset (outside of killing people). They were both fixers.
2.
Teaching shifters (male and female) about bonding: I loved that this
book incorporated multiple fixer cases and that one of them allowed some
of our favorite male shifters to see that the way that shifter culture
is very much one-sided. The males fool around extensively and are not
honest about the distinction between sleeping around with shifter women
without the intent to mate and sleeping with shifter women with the
intent to mate. This case made it clear that the leaders of the lairs
(Joshua, Drake, etc) needed to have conversations [and teaching moments]
with their male members about transparency with sexual partners (human
or shifter) and with their female members about true mates and how it
really works. The general idea is that transparency and education needed
to make its way through the lairs to protect all members – male and
female.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I would recommend it and
the entire series to anyone. The sexual interactions are steamy and a
bit rough, but that goes part and parcel with the animalistic nature of
these people. They are not human. They have animal counterparts. The
relationship development between Gedeon and Meiling was smooth and easy
to follow. I didn’t find the story predictable and I always enjoy when
previous characters make a cameo in the current story. Nine out of ten,
A-, do recommend.
Pick it up here:
