This was an interesting book. My only real issue is that CT and Cathy had developed a wonderful and complex universe with shape changers in it (see other reviews Moon’s Web and Hunters Moon) but they didn’t really use the elements from it. Instead they created a very different set of shape changers to go along with the evil vampire parasites.
Ok, to the story. Kate Reilly is the hero of the story and she is incredibly confident and really knows how to do things. Unfortunately she is too independent and won’t allow her friends and allies to help her. She is competent in everything she does and figures she can do everything better than anyone else … which she mostly can but doesn’t understand even the best of us need help.
Anyway, she was once attacked by a Vampire Queen but managed to kill the Vampire Queen. Vampires are actually parasites and controlled by a queen psychically. All the Queens are linked and seemed to be nearly a group mind. In killing the Vampire Queen, Kate became “not prey” which is how the vampires differentiate things (prey, not prey). “Not prey” has certain rights but also must follow certain rules so it gets interesting.
Unforuntately, the queen Kate killed was replaced by a vicious and really strong new queen who is even feared by the other queens. Also another note, these queens only live for a short span of 3 years or so it seems.
This replacement queen is dying and wants Kate as her replacement. The local werewolves don’t want that to happen so the local matriarch of the pack sends in a handsome firefighting werewolf named Tom to guard her.
Of course,the whole thing is interesting on how the dying queen manipulates everything and traps Kate into lots of scrapes. Even after death there is a big surprise.
This is a very exciting read.