Shift by Rachel Vincent

    Marc or Jace? I still cannot choose, they're both so different by yet they're both the same.I know confusing.. In this book you really see Faythe's true potential to become the next Alpha. Her alpha instinct kicks in to put everyone she loves before herself. You get introduced to the rare thunderbirds, (who are shifters who shift into huge birds.) While war is on hand with Malone's pride, the thunderbirds come and attack Faythe's pride for revenge. Faythe is the only one who can clear her pride's name and make peace with the thunderbirds. This is by far is my favorite book in the series.

Being the first female werecat enforcer isn't easy. Scars accumulate, but I'm stronger in so many ways.
As for my personal life? It's complicated. Choices worth making always are. Ever since my brother's death and my father's impeachment, it's all I can do to prevent more blood from spilling. Now our Pride is under attack by a flight of vicious thunderbirds. And making peace with our new enemies may be the only way to get the best of our old foe.
With the body count rising and treachery everywhere, my instincts tell me to look before I leap. But sometimes a leap of faith is the only real option….

Prey by Rachel Vincent
 
The story picked up after the characters have had time to adjust to the changes thrust upon them in the prior book. Then it throws a series of curve balls, which gives everyone something to do and hold your attention. Faith is, of course, in the thick of most of it. This book held the most emotion turmoils so far. I've never been so angry at a fictional character (Malone) and couldn't stop crying at the end. It was one of those books where you want to stop reading to cool off...but you can't because you have to know what happens.

Sometimes playing cat and mouse is no game…
Play? Right. My Pride is under fire from all sides, my father's authority is in question and my lover is in exile. Which means I haven't laid eyes on Marc's gorgeous face in months. And with a new mother and an I-know-everything teenager under my protection, I don't exactly have time to fantasize about ever seeing him again.
Then our long-awaited reunion is ruined by a vicious ambush by strays. Now our group is under attack, Marc is missing and I will need every bit of skill and smarts to keep my family from being torn apart. Forever.

Pride by Rachel Vincent
    The series is definitely an attention grabber as it continues on from the first two books. Faythe Sanders is a rebellious werecat who goes against her father's order's to prove her worth. She stands out and doesn't allow the men of the pride to rule her life. It helps that her father is the Alpha and understands that she is not going to become as the other tabbies.

I'm on trial for my life. Falsely accused of infecting my human ex-boyfriend—and killing him to cover up the crime. Infecting a human is one of three capital offenses recognized by the Pride—along with murder and disclosure of our existence to a human.
I'm two for three. A goner.
Now we've discovered a rogue stray terrorizing the mountainside, hunting a wild teenage tabbycat. It's up to us to find and stop him before a human discovers us. With my lover Marc's help, I think I can protect the vulnerable girl from both the ambitious rogue and the scheming of the territorial council.
If I survive my own trial…

Rogue by Rachel Vincent
   Excellent Story. Marc and Faythe are great together. I wish she knew it though. She's a bit too stubborn for her own good and takes risks before thinking them thru. She seems to be in trouble before she knows it and has herself in a bad situation in this book.

I know that better than most. Since rejoining the Pride, I've made big decisions and even bigger mistakes: the kind paid for with innocent lives. As the first and only female enforcer, I have plenty to prove to my father, the Pride and myself. And with murdered toms turning up in our territory, I'm working harder than ever, though I always find the energy for a little after-hours recreation with Marc, my partner both on and off duty.
But not all my mistakes are behind me. We're beginning to suspect that the dead are connected to a rash of missing human women and that they can all be laid at my feet—two or four, take your pick. And one horrible indiscretion may yet cost me more than I can bear.…

    Man I'm getting behind. These past few weeks have been so hectic with leaving the military and setting up to move on to a new life....6more days and counting till we leave the island.
    And so unto catching up with the few books I have been able to read:

                                                         Stray by Rachel Vincent
     In the beginning I almost put it down. I honestly couldn't stand Faythe Sanders. She's whiny and selfish and I just wanted to smack some sense into her. But I kept with it and so glad that I did. This book starts her transformation from her selfish ways to whats best for the pride

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….

Win an eReader or $100 Amazon.com GC.  International. Ends July 15th, 2010.
Check it out here: http://www.bibliophilicbookblog.com/2010/05/here-we-go-again.html 

 There's two Nightshade book giveaways going on at the moment.

    1st giveaway is at the blog Read My Mind who is giving away:
         *Copy of Nighshade by Andrea Cremer, signed by author
          Wicked Lovely series bookmark, signed by author Melissa Marr*
 Check it out here: http://aliseonlife.blogspot.com/2010/06/blowout-birthday-book-giveaway-6.html

     The 2nd give away is at An Avid Reader's Musings, who have two giveaways going on as well:

         1st giveaway: Included in this prize pack is a signed galley of Nightshade by Andrea Cremer, The Body Finder bookmark signed by the author Kimberly Derting, a Radiant Shadows bookmark signed by the author Melissa Marr and a High Court faerie court bracelet, inspired the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr.
http://avidreadersmusings.blogspot.com/2010/06/30-on-30th-prize-pack-1-nightshade.html
                                
        2nd giveaway: An ARC of Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Also included in this prize pack is a Dark Court bracelet inspired by Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely series.                  
                   http://avidreadersmusings.blogspot.com/2010/07/30-on-30th-prize-pack-4-beautiful.html          

While other teenage girls daydream about boys, Calla Tor imagines ripping out her enemies’ throats. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. Calla was born a warrior and on her eighteenth-birthday she’ll become the alpha female of the next generation of Guardian wolves. But Calla’s predestined path veers off course the moment she saves the life of a wayward hiker, a boy her own age. This human boy’s secret will turn the young pack's world upside down and forever alter the outcome of the centuries-old Witches' War that surrounds them all.

            Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.