Review--Shift

**Prey spoilers, be forewarned. Do not read any further if you haven't read Prey!!**


TROUBLE IN THE AIR...

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 really option...

"Holy silicone suppository Batman!" Hee-hee, my favorite line from Prey. Couldn't resist!! OMG Shift was freaking awesome!! So you know that means Alpha will top them all! The wait to Shift was agonizing, now the wait for Alpha will be even more so.

Anyway, you might notice the date on this review is older. I didn't want to post this until the actual release date just so everything is fair. Rachel didn't want us talking about Shift on the Pride until that day so I'm doing the same with the review, but decided to type it up now while it's all fresh in my mind. Shift picks up 1 week after Prey--after months of agonizing wait for us, was only 1 little week for Faythe! And the aftermath of Ethan's death is still being put into place.

Faythe and crew has Blackwell in the office as they discuss what needs to be done concerning Malone, who Blackwell still thinks is an "okay" guy. But since we are in Faythe's p.o.v. we all know what a load of crap that is. But that is only the minor problem to start with because before Chapter 1 ends the thunderbirds make their appearance with a bang. Us Pride members have been making speculation after speculation about these creatures and in a twisted way, our guesses were somewhat right, if not in the right order.

The thunderbirds believe that SC Pride is responsible for the death of one of their own and thunderbirds always take care of their own, even in vengeance. We all know the SC Pride, so it becomes obvious that this is a lie and who do we all know who lies like a dog, but is in fact not a dog? I think you can answer that one. ;)

After a series of misfortunate events Faythe has 2 days to gather the evidence that she needs to clear the SC Pride's name, that they did not do this and the real enemy is in fact another Pride. But it's going to take a lot of work to sneak onto Malone's territory--okay had to mention it there, but you knew right? And Marc and Jace are her backup--uh oh.

Big uh oh. There are certainly some surprising twists to this book and I was thoroughly enjoying every minute of it. And had I not had to work this weekend or had schoolwork, I so would've finished this in a day, it was that good! You can definitely feel the tension that is between Faythe, Jace, and Marc after the events of Prey, you know the one. Rachel Vincent definitely knows what she's doing when writing that! She does it so well, that every time there is a moment when you think the secret is going to come out, your chest tightens! Or when Jace is doing something foolish or rash making Marc mad on purpose you heartbeat skips a beat! Jace, you fool!

Oh yeah, that tension was written wonderfully! As for Faythe's further character development she has come such a loooooong way since Stray when you thought she was acting childish and whatnot. She is so not that girl anymore. She has taken full responsibility now and deserves the title Alpha. Which is where the next book comes in!! Faythe is a hairsbreadth away from filling the role as Alpha, there is just one more battle ahead of her and her Pride. The Battle. The battle to end all battles.

Decisions are going to have to be made, people on her side may die, everyone will be changed forever after this battle. That is clear, even with no knowledge of Alpha's BOC--which was released for Pride members and newsletter subscribers already, so if you aren't a member yet, join and you'll at least get that info for it is not allowed to be posted.

I just love these characters Rachel has created, they are all so lovable and real. Ethan stole my heart and I cannot wait for Malone to get his for what he did to him. Ohhh, that's going to be sweet--yes my evil side has taken over my typing for the moment. Karen was wonderful in chapter 1, she totally put Blackwell in his place. Blackwell thought he could Karen to see his side because she is a female and can "see" reason--his reason--but ooohhh how wrong he was. That was a great moment, I was rooting for Karen then man!

It was heartrending to read the love moments between Faythe and Marc knowing what happened in Pride and even Faythe felt that same feeling as well. And Alpha is going to finally settle those matters. Because we all should know that that kind of "thing" won't be resolved until the very end, since we all know this is book 5 out of 6. Faythe can't have her HEA yet. So that should not come as a surprise to anyone, I figured that out before reading it.

Shift was fantastic. That's all I can say. There is so much more I would loooove to talk about, but it gets into spoiler-territory which I do my best to avoid. There is a good amount of returning characters--think about that. ;) I really cannot wait to read the end, I want to know all who's involved and how this battle will go down. Ooh October's going to be good. Hopefully we can make that the end of September since some people were able to find Shift early. Of course in October, I hope to be at my "real" daytime job, so it will take me longer to read. The more to savor I guess!

Read Shift today!! You won't be disappointed. You'll be left waiting in agony for Alpha, but that's nothing new for us readers!

*Yes I posted early, I saw Rachel gave the okay on the Pride Discussion group to talk spoilers over there, so I thought what the heck! So I'm 2 days later than 1 week from when I would've posted.
**Also, she reported on her blog, that Shift hit #29 on the NYT Bestsellers List!!

WAY TO GO RACHEL!!