Veena’s review of Leopard’s Fury (Leopard Series, Book 9) by Christine Feehan
Urban Fantasy published by Jove 08 Nov 16
I’ve been on the fence on this series because of the predictability and sameness of the stories. This book really changes it up, giving us a well-developed plot and three-dimensional characters. Evangeline, a young leopard shifter, leaves behind that part of her life and moves to San Antonio where she opens up a bakery and lives life on her own terms. The last thing she expects is for the nice man who comes into her bakery for a cup of coffee and baked treats a couple times a week to be a crime boss and one of the most dangerous species of leopard to boot…
Evangeline has seen all that is ugly in a leopard family as a child. Having survived a brutal childhood with the help of her female leopard, she’s left the swamps of her home far away when she settles in San Antonio. When Alonzo Massi comes into her bakery and finds peace for his leopard, he can’t stay away. Soon many of his friends and colleagues begin stopping by for Evangeline’s baked goodness and excellent coffee.
Alonzo tries to keep his distance from Evangeline, understanding that his frequent visits to her bakery pose a danger to both of them, but he is unable to resist. He does manage, however, to change her windows to bulletproof glass, as well as take other measures to protect her, but he ends up sucking her into his messy, complicated life. Evangeline is no meek miss. She hasn’t escaped life in a leopard family just to submit quietly, even given her attraction to Alonzo.
Both Evangeline and Alonzo have a very interesting relationship with their leopards, such that, as the story unfolds, it feels like there are four central characters instead of two. All the cloak-and-dagger stuff is quite interesting with good guys acting like bad guys and the camaraderie between the various leopards, who are slowly and systematically taking over the major crime families in the country and trying to find a middle ground. The supporting cast is made up of a lot of the characters we’ve met in the previous books in the series, giving the readers a chance to catch up with their lives beyond the epilogue of their original books.
This story is well-paced and delivers both hot, scorching romance, both human and leopard style, as well as action and adventure to keep the adrenaline hot. This might actually be, in my opinion, the best story in this series.
Grade: B
Summary:
A ruthless criminal unleashes his most feral desires in the new Leopard novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wild Cat.
Passion melts the will of an ice-cold criminal when he meets the one woman who can tame the beast inside him.
With her own bakery in San Antonio, Evangeline Tregre made a new life far from the brutal lair of shifters she was born into. Though she is all too aware of her leopard-shifter blood, she never felt the sensation of a wild animal stirring inside her. Not until Alonzo Massi walked into her bakery. The powerful shifter is as irresistible as he is terrifying, but his icy demeanor tells her to keep her distance.
Alonzo knows better than to let himself get involved with someone like Evangeline. She doesn’t deserve the type of danger that follows him, or the threat of his Amur leopard. But even with his lean muscle and iron will, Alonzo isn’t strong enough to stay away from the one woman who can make him feel at peace. And when their secret lives draw a mortal threat, Alonzo unleashes the feral passion he keeps pent up inside himself.
No excerpt available.
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