Sandy M’s review of Measure of Healing by Jacqueline Roth
Paranormal romance released 17 Jan 08 by Cerridwen Press

I really like the storyline of this book. Brie is a specialist in childhood trauma due to her own trauma when she was young. She saved herself and her brother from a were-cougar attack that left her mother dead and Brie herself bears the scars from the giant claws that came too close. She’s kept her end of the deal she was forced into with the monster who killed her mother — she’s stayed as far away as possible from all things cougar, but now she’s been asked to help a traumatized cougar child, and as much as she hates those big cats, she can’t ignore a child in need. Alejandro is the half human/half cougar who found Tomas and when all his and his family’s efforts to help the child fail, he has no choice but to accept Brie’s help, but he doesn’t believe a human doctor will be able to do a thing for a full-fledged cougar child.

Both Alejandro and Brie have so much hidden trauma in their lives that it’s impossible for them talk and share anything of themselves with each other when they’re cloistered together in helping Tomas. But as Alejandro watches her with the kitten, he is amazed at what Brie is able to accomplish. His defenses are the first to go, but breaking into Brie’s is much more difficult. They’re definitely attracted to one another, but Brie knows if she gives in to that attraction, the monster from her youth will know and come for her. But as Tomas comes out his shell and as he and Alejandro settle deeper into her heart, she knows she’s doomed one way or another.

The way the pasts of these characters are developed is very emotional, all stemming from a wounded child they’re trying to save. There’s plenty of lies, deceit, evilness, twists and turns, shapeshifting, and just enough sensuousness to make this a well-balanced story. The contrast of Alejandro’s family life versus Brie’s solitary life, each with its own consequences, is interwoven quite well throughout the book and gives a nicely developed look at all the characters.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Alejandro Ramirez’s Were-Cougar mother drove him out after his first transformation, leaving him to seek out his human father and find the family his human side craved but that his animal side can never embrace. Now a man, he finds himself responsible for a traumatized Were-Cougar child. When he turns to the Weres for help, they send him to a human.


Dr. Gabriela St. Jerome hates the Cougars with every fiber of her being. But now she must swallow that hatred to work with Alejandro to help this Were child who has been thrown into transformation far too early by the horrific death of his mother. As they are forced together in the remote woods of the North Georgia Mountains, both find their mutual attraction overwhelming. But if Brie gives in to this man and her own passions, it will cost her life.


Read an excerpt.