Review - Pride by Rachel Vincent

Pride (Werecats #3) by Rachel Vincent
Librarything / Goodreads

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Rating: 4 stars
Pages: 432

Summary: I'm on trial for my life. Falsely accused of infecting my human ex-boyfriend—and killing him to cover up the crime. Infecting a human is one of three capital offenses recognized by the Pride—along with murder and disclosure of our existence to a human.

I'm two for three. A goner.

Now we've discovered a rogue stray terrorizing the mountainside, hunting a wild teenage tabbycat. It's up to us to find and stop him before a human discovers us. With my lover Marc's help, I think I can protect the vulnerable girl from both the ambitious rogue and the scheming of the territorial council.

If I survive my own trial…

Thoughts: I am SO friggin' glad I stuck with this series! Because Faythe? The character who I have consistently used as the poster girl for "everything I hate in a narrator"?  The character whose name I'd use as a synonym for "OMG she needs to die"?

Well, I kinda like her now.

People have been telling me for years (literally - I realised I started this series back in 2009) that Faythe gets better and grows up with every book.  And they're right - she does grow up.  She's not yet at the point where I actually would spend more than a half-a-minute with her, but she's getting there.  Because all the things I hated about her - her rudeness, her temper, her impulsiveness, her insistance that it is her-way-or-the-highway - they are becoming the things I love about her. Why?  Because Kaci - the tabbycat in the summary - needs these qualities in Faythe in order to keep her protected.  Turns out Faythe can be totally awesome while she's protecting someone...

Moving on.  The plot is as tight as always.  Even though there is a tonne of werecat-political intrigue, there is also a whole bunch of action.  All the bloods-and-guts scenes that I felt were missing from Rogue are back in full force.  Not to mention Vincent gives us not-one-but-two excellent villains to hate.  It's fantastic...

And then there's the wonderful-as-always Marc.  He's such a cat in some ways - violent and temperamental - but he's also so bloody noble that I just want to squeeze him to death.  Love this guy!  Ooh, I also adored Elias Keller, the were-bear introduced within the first few chapters.  I was intrigued to find out the verse had more were-species, and that Keller turned out be a welcome voice of reason among the pride of kitties made me even happier.

Bottom line?  Pride made me a believer in this series.  If you gave up on Faythe during Stray, well, you should stick it out.  She may be frustrating, but the series is well worth the effort.