Blind Tiger by Rachel Vincent

Anyone that knows me that I will push Rachel’s books on you in anyway shape or form. I have most of them collected away (okay I am missing a few, but I’m working on it) and I was most excited when this amazing author decided that she wanted to put out more Shifter stories.

Do you know how freaking excited I was?

I literally did a chair dance and then a physical dance and then waited with baited breath for the announcement.

But I think I was most excited by fact that she was going to self-publish the series and take full control over what happened in it the books and how they happened.

There is such a power in having that ability and it’s a tough job because self-publishing isn’t as easy as you may seem, but that’s a topic for another day. Today I’m going to talk about Blind Tiger and how I managed to chew through it in four, four, hours.

It’s not exactly a new thing for me to sit down and chew through books. I used to race an old workmate when the new Harry Potter’s came out and I managed to read them slower because I was younger but it was damn good practice.

Let’s get into the story. Blind Tiger is about Robyn Sheffield, who is Abby’s roommate and the first Stray female. She’s smart, switched on and it was a dream to read about a female character who is strong and smart (and a bit of a feminist, heck yeah), she doesn’t take shit from anyone and is learning how to be a werecat in world where fertile women are far and few in between.

For those who aren’t familiar with Vincent’s Shifter series, women in this world are precious, daughters of alphas are the ones to take over the pride when they step down. The original series written by her is focused around Faythe who, at the time, was the only female enforcer who not only was kidnapped and almost raped, but put up on trial and nearly declawed. It’s a six part series and one I most definitely recommend.

So, with that little spiel, you can only imagine how a human girl, who has always had rights and enjoyed them, gets thrust into a world where she has to be confined, studied and tolerated because she is unique to them.

The catalyst for Robyn is an opening when Titus Alexander, a batman like Stray, comes to petition for his Pride of strays to be acknowledged as that, a strong Pride, like any of the original families. Robyn sneaks out and when Titus realises what happened, he tries to reason with her.

With a very stubborn Tabby on his hands, Titus has no choice but to take her in, but when things get hairy, Titus has to make a choice: does he give Robyn back in order to make his Pride equal or does he keep her around because he finds her fascinating?

I love the use of language and I’m probably much more of a crazy fan girl than I’d really like to be (because I tweet at Vincent and follow her almost everywhere, that’s not creepy right?) but I also used her as a case study for creativity and her process.

It’s no real surprise that I adore her writing and Blind Tiger didn’t let me down. In fact, it only got better. I seriously can’t wait for more of her Wild Cats series, because it’s like stepping back into the familiarity of an old friend and giving them a great big hug and never letting go. This book gets five stars for real from me.

Tell me what you’re reading. I’d love to add to my every growing list of books.