Sandy M’s review of The Empath by Bonnie Vanak
Contemporary paranormal romance released by Silhouette Nocturne 1 Dec 07

When I read Bonnie Vanak’s TGTBTU guest post, The Healing Power of Werewolves, last week, I had to find a copy of The Empath. What a lovely way to start writing a book and a beautiful tribute to a beloved friend. And the book lives up to the tribute. This is a story of the heart and you feel it on every page.

I loved everything about this book. Nicholas is the kind of tortured hero I go for. Banished and full of secrets that would probably break him if he didn’t have tight control over them and his wolf, his need for pack and family is so fierce that he patrols the edge of his pack’s world to protect them, even though they have cast him out. He is the warrior killer of his pack, second in command to the alpha, who is a close friend and is also dying, something that Nicholas agonizes over. It is his connection to the pack’s empath, his mate, that will be his salvation with the pack and with himself. He has searched for her for so long, knowing he must reach her before the evil that preys on his kind does.

That evil is something else. The Morphs. Beings that are able to shift into any animal, large or small. They are after Nicholas’ mate, the healer who will be able to save the wolves from the Morphs’ relentless determination to obliterate the pack along with her. But they must go through Nicholas to get to her, and he is experienced when it comes to fighting the treacherous beings. He will die before he’ll allow them to take his mate. And what a warrior he is. No matter what is thrown at this man, he takes it and any pain that comes with it with hardly a flinch at all. Except when it comes to his mate.

Maggie is an animal lover, a veterinarian, and she is in the midst of trying to find a cure for her beloved pet, Misha, who has been failing rapidly of an unknown disease. When Maggie meets Nicholas, her nicely ordered life is suddenly falling down around her and she’s on the run from evil and magic that her scientific mind just can’t believe in. To top it all off, Nicholas tries to convince her she’s just like he is, a human who can shift into a wolf with killer instincts.

Once she comes face to face with the Morphs, it doesn’t take much longer for Maggie to begin to really believe and accept her true nature. What she can’t and won’t accept is the violence Nicholas expects her to embrace. Maggie also has her secrets that contain a past of violence and she has dedicated her life to saving animals, not destroying them.

Both Nicholas and Maggie have such secretive pasts and that’s the barrier they must overcome before they can experience the mating lock as mates, the ultimate tie that will bring them together as one. Nicholas is strong, proud, sensual, and protective but it is his sensitivity he shows to Maggie that makes her fall in love with him. She is also very strong and independent, and she longs for something that she can’t remember and with Nicholas she just might find it. The secondary characters are all very interesting, especially Baylor and his attitude toward Nicholas. What an invention the villainous Morphs are, and their leader is the worst of the lot. Maggie’s love for Misha and vice versa will bring tears to your eyes every time.

This is a very touching story all the way around. Thank you, Ms. Vanak, for sharing it with us.

Grade: A

From the back cover:

     THE WOLF MUST HAVE A MATE TO SURVIVE…  Nicolas was the strongest and fiercest of the Draicon, until he was banished for a trumped-up crime.  Now the werewolf has only one path to redemption: find the Draicon’s long-lost empath, the woman who will save the pack—and Nicolas himself—from terrible danger.

     Maggie Sinclair is a veterinarian, dedicated to healing. She has no idea of her true nature, the magic waiting in her soul—or the man coming to claim her.

     The survival of their pack depends on them finding each other, on their ability to become one. But their enemies have also found Maggie, and will kill to stop her awakening to an all-consuming passion…

     Read an excerpt.