Customer Reviews

Prey (Werecats, Book 4)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the many things I admire about Rachel Vincent's SHIFTERS series is how each book raises the bar for the next. In PRIDE, Vincent proved her ability to handle difficult moral questions and political situations with the best of contemporary speculative authors. PREY expands on the events of PRIDE, as Faythe confronts the impact of Calvin Malone's political power play that cost her father's place as leader of the territorial council and Marc's place in the South-Central pride.

Plus, Manx is on trial for murder and Kaci's refusal to shift has begun to impact her health. Leaving Faythe to balance being a caregiver, an enforcer, and a 23 year-old woman who struggles with the limitations her world wants to place on her. All without being able to seek support from Marc.

My only complaint about PRIDE was the lack of Faythe's brother Ethan and his BFF Jace--which Vincent more than makes up for it in PREY. In fact, I would argue Ethan is the most important character in this book and Jace is the one that displays the most growth.

With her elegantly simple prose, Vincent deftly handles the extremely difficult emotional moments of the novel while balancing several interwoven subplots. Her plotting is tight and her writing is lean, as both she and Faythe have come a long way from STRAY. This is Vincent at her best and most compelling. Pulling no punches, PREY is both tail-kicking and heart-wrenching.

It's not only the best book in the series (so far,) but one of the best books I've read this year. While I know that many readers are going to be shocked and upset by the events of the novel, I trust that what Vincent has done is necessary for her series. She's fond of saying how PREY changes everything. All bets are off--and I can't wait for book 5!

What's it about?

After being separated for nine weeks Faythe and Marc finally get to see each other again. Except while traveling through the free territory they (as well as Ethan, Vic, Manx, Baby Des, and stray Dan Painter) are ambushed by a massive group of strays working together. They make it out injured but alive, and continue on their way to take Manx to her trial. After returning home, Faythe and her family learn that Marc is missing. Not only does Faythe need to find Marc and fast, but her pride is under attack by Calvin Malone. The council member who had a hand in Marc being exiled in the first place, and Faythe's father losing his role as leader of the territorial council.

Finding Marc is one thing, but Faythe also has to help raise Kaci, whose health is spiraling downword, and help Manx with her newly born son. All while trying to deal with her love life, being an enforcer, and making decisions no matter how right or wrong they may be.

What did I think?

Prey is an excellent follow up to Pride. The series only gets better the farther along we get into it. This one is intense and you can feel all the emotion that went into writing it. Rachel Vincent does a terrific job of writing believable story lines that make the reader care about this Pride as if it were their own family. You just want to reach out and help them or fight with them. Although Marc is missing through most of the story his presence is still felt in Faythe's thoughts and actions she takes to get him back. Her brother Ethan and fellow enforcer Jace play huge roles in this one, and Jace shows so much growth and potential for greatness. I always worry about political issues in books because they tend to be overwhelming, overly worked, and boring. But the politics in Prey are concisely written, and definitely have you rooting for Faythe and her family.

I have to stay as far as consistency in series, Rachel Vincent is a winner with her Werecats. I expect many great new releases from her, and look forward to diving in when they are available.

I'd also just like to add that...it has been a LONG time since I've sat through a book and cried like a little baby. Well played Rachel...well played.

I'm not as thrilled with this installment of the series as others. Since others have given overviews of what happens I'll just point out what bothered me. Yes it continued the series. Yes there we some surprises. And some things that weren't really a surprise to me but irritated me just the same. So as not to give any real spoliers away. I'll just comment on some main characters.

Faythe: others seem to think she's grown emotionally and is coming into her own. Frankly, she seems just as impulsive as ever. Only realizing after the fact that her actions effect more than just her. This irritates me. With the last book I thought she was moving past this phase of immaturity.

Kaci was a character I really liked in the previous book. At thirteen years of age some of her actions in this book are those of a seven year-old constantly looking for attention. I seriously thought she was going to start saying "but why?" everytime she opened her mouth. Maybe I'm just too far removed from being a teenager but from the teenagers I've recently been around, she just seemed a little too...baby-ish.

Jace, never liked him. Sorry I know others dig the guy but, he just seems a little too opportunistic for my taste.

Greg Sanders, good to see him show some real emotion.

Overall, I felt this installment leaned too heavily on cataloguing every single movement the characters made or thought to the point of being repetitive, rather than delving further into the story. For instance, 3 minute phone calls or conversations that seemed to spread over 7 pages, but where only a line or two of actual dialogue between characters was uttered. This was a fairly long book, unfortunately a lot of it was filled with repetitive minutia that slowed the pacing down for me.

Prey picks up a few months after the end of Pride. Faythe is going to see Marc whom she has been separated from for weeks, since he was banished as part of political attack on her pride. It is also the start of Manx murder trial and tensions are high. Add to this the fact that Kaci refuses to shift and the Territory Council is in the middle of a power struggle it is not making the separation easy on Faythe or Marc. But then Marc disappears after a violent attack and as far as Faythe is concerned all bets are off.

Prey is one of the most intriguing additions to a series I have read in a long time. Ms. Vincent isn't afraid to test the boundaries with her characters and in fact drastically change their lives, and the way a reader might think a series is going. As with many others after the 4th in a series I was expecting to be able to predict the flow of the book but was instead rocked (stunned, shocked, astounded) by mid book. I have to say I cried for most of the second half of the book and that means Ms. Vincent had me feeling the characters, and imagining them as real.

As with most of the Pride Cat series Faythe is the main character and the story is told around her but, in a major change this time there is another character I feel stole much of the book out from under her in Ethan (her brother). Additionally you see more of the politics of the Prides, tragedy, love and acceptance, what more could you want in a story.

I am further amazed at how stunned I was with Prey, and it is a definite shift from the type of story one might expect from HQN. Bravo! When is the next one due out? Who would I have to bribe to get and ARC?

Prey

Back Cover Blurb:

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.


First, I must say that this is her best Shifter book to date. Action, suspense, blood, sweat and tears, this book has it all. Rachel Vincent has proven herself again with her wonderful characters and enthralling storyline. With every story Faythe grows up a little more. With Prey, she was thrust full force into being an Alpha. Other experiences were just rehearsals for this book. She proves in this book that she has what it takes to run the Pride after her father. I laughed, cried and was angry right along with Faythe and I enjoyed this book immensly. Intriguing stories like this are exactly why Rachel Vincent is a New York Times Bestselling Author.

This is my favorite book so far in the series. I don't know how to summarize it without giving any of the plot away but i will try.
It starts 9 weeks after Pride ends and Marc has been exiled, Kaci hasn't shifted and Malone is still after the council votes. After being away from Marc for so long Faythe goes to see him only to have the meeting interrupted by an ambush.
Things go stray when Marc ends up missing and Faythe's father sends her and a couple of guys to look for him all while things are going downhill at the ranch.

That's all i will tell you about that. But the book was amazing and almost made me cry. I was mad while reading it and i understand why some things needed to happen but still made me mad. One of the many necessary evils of the good plots.

I give praise to Rachel she really outdid herself on this one. Usually it has been my experience that each book in a series get's worse not better. Between her and Mead i am all set on series.

Will not give plot points away...but this book is great. Sometimes writer's are scared to go where the book needs to go...Rachel is not. AMAZing...thank you Rachel.

Of the series - this is the best so far.

I normally don't write reviews but I just had to say something. I don't know what it is about this series that makes me keep reading the books but I am SOOOO frustrated with the love triangle between Fayth, Marc and Jace. Don't get me wrong, I like Jace but I LOVE Marc and am really angry with the direction the author took, which made Faythe look incredibly selfish and probably ruined her chances of ever really being with Marc, I was kind of hoping his character would be killed off just to spare him. There was a lot of raw emotion in this book so I will give props for that, it made me want to cry. But all in all, I just felt angry when I finished reading, especially when nothing was resolved between the love triangle and the end (cliffhanger ofcourse). I will definately be reading the next one because of the frustrating cliff hanger that leaves you wondering what the heck will happen now?

This has never been my favorite series, but whoa---she really sucked me in this time! I'm sure there's a better synopsis above, but basically Marc goes MIA and Faythe really wants to find him---but crap--alot of other stuff happens (some of it involving tequila), and it's all pretty exciting! I actually liked this better than the first book (Stray), though I was a little lost at first, since i basically skimmed most of the last book...and ok, I still have no idea where this Dan Painter guy came from but I got so into it that I didn't really care! I'm really looking forward to the next one, which is kind of a first for me with this author, (not that i thought the other books where terrible or anything; they just weren't really on my "to buy" list, if you know what I mean).

"Prey", is the fourth installment in Rachel Vincent's WereCats series. I have increasingly enjoyed each new volume and thought the third book "Pride" was near perfect. "Prey" tops it! Faythe's boyfriend Marc has been kicked out from the Pride and now must live in free territory with other strays. Strays are werecats that weren't born as werecats and don't belong to any of the Prides. Faythe's father is a Pride leader and also the head on the inter-territory Pride council. When Faythe finds out that Marc is missing, she immediately begins an investigation into finding him, no matter what. This isn't the only problem on her plate. Her father is about to lose his position on the council, and the orphaned 13-year old teenager living with Faythe's family may die if she doesn't shift to her werecat form soon. Soon Faythe will have more tragedy on her plate to deal with. This book was amazing. Rachel Vincent went into truly brave territory here and made some decisions that will forever change the course of the Werecats series. This book is very sad and some of the situations that unfold are heartbreaking. To me, this just further cements the fact that Rachel Vincent is her to stay...she has the rare ability to make the reader truly feel for her characters. I can see that the quality of writing has tremendously imporved since the first story, as well as the colorful character developments that have added three dimension to the characters. The action scenes are stop and go, and always intense. I am intrigued by some of the things that happen in this book and what reprecussions will be felt in the fifth installment. Darn it I wish that one was out now! It will be hard waiting. The Werecats series has just gone from a 'buy it when I happen to see it' to a 'rush out and get it on the day of release' book! Highly recommended!