USA Today bestselling author Cathy Clamp reboots the Sazi universe in Forbidden, a tightly-paced, high-tension urban fantasy thriller.
Ten years have passed since the war that destroyed the Sazi Council and inflicted a horrible “cure” on thousands of Sazi, robbing them of their ability to shapeshift.
Luna Lake, isolated in Washington State, started as a refugee camp for Sazi orphans. Now it’s a … camp for Sazi orphans. Now it’s a small town and those refugees are young adults, chafing at the limits set by their still-fearful guardians.
There’s reason to fear: Sazi children are being kidnapped. Claire, a red wolf shifter, is sent to investigate. Held prisoner by the Snakes during childhood, Claire is distrusted by those who call Luna Lake home.
Before the war, Alek was part of a wolf pack in Chicago. In Luna Lake he was adopted by a parliament of Owls, defying Sazi tradition. The kidnappings are a painful reminder that his little sister disappeared a decade ago.
When Claire and Alek meet, sparks fly–but the desperate race to find the missing children forces them to set aside their mutual attraction and focus on the future of their people.
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Wow! Just… wow! I was so extremely thrilled to be one of the few people to get an opportunity to read and review this book that I do believe I told everyone I know I got the ARC copy. I bounced around with it even. Hugged the book a few times. Squealed more when I saw it was signed. If I could have married it, I probably would have. I was that freaking excited.
Once I started reading, I quickly found out that I was not going to be disappointed.
My copy is an uncorrected proof, so I won’t do my usual comments on major technical writing issues. Not that there were many or anything. But it’s irrelevant to this review.
I am even more thrilled once I learned Cathy kept the food smells to describe emotional scents the Sazi can pick up on. I absolutely loved how original that was – and EXTREMELY descriptive to us poor humans with poor noses who are reading the novels. It was the best innovation in a shapeshifter novel I had ever seen when it first showed up in the very first Sazi novel. However, I did notice that after the first quarter of the book the mentioning of food scents for emotions tapered off a bit.
Now, storywise…
I LOVED it. Cathy went above and beyond in the mystery department in this novel. I had no freaking idea who the bad guys were (or even WHAT they were) until the end of the story. Seriously! She surprised me with who was the big bad in this story and let me tell you, that is hard to do. I usually suspect who or what or even when and what happens a lot. In TV, movies, AND books, this happens to me a lot. That Cathy took me by complete surprise is a-freaking-mazing. I have to applaud her talent for suspense (or mystery) there!
As for characterization, once again I wasn’t disappointed. Or at least not much. I loved Claire and felt and understood her and even related to her quite a lot. Alek on the other hand, started out great! But I felt he was a lacking through the middle of the novel, but then it picked up to great by the end of the novel, with his distraction and reason for it.
All of the supporting characters were awesome, especially the elderly Sazi that kicked some serious ass.
Now, I’m pretty sure the story of Claire and Alek continue in the next novel, Illicit, simply because it seems a bit unfinished. Since I can’t explain why it seems a bit unfinished without giving away anything, and as usual I try not to give spoilers, so I’m sorry, there you go. No idea if Illicit is the continuation of Claire and Alek or not. But I am willing to bet it is, following in the tradition of the Tales of the Sazi series.
Now I am dying to know if the issues get resolves, or learn why Alek’s little brother is such an asshat to Claire a bit more, the explaination in the book didn’t feel finished to me. All these unfinished issues are why I didn’t rate this five stars, because I’m not positive it was continuing or if it was a single couple per book type series. If it is complete and moving on to another couple without finishing the issues, it’s a 4 star book. If it continues on to resolve this issue, it is definitely a 5 star book!
I received a free ARC of Forbidden in exchange for an honest review.
When I saw that I could get an ARC of this book I jumped right on it, because I was looking for a new Urban Fantasy series. I hadn’t read the “A Tale of the Sazi series” which is the world where Forbidden takes place in. But I saw it was a new series so thought it wouldn’t really matter AND it didn’t matter!
This book is about Claire who is going undercover in the small town Luna Lake to investigate missing kids. I really liked that the whole story took place in a small town. I really love reading paranormal/shifter books in this setting. So I was really excited about that. Their is chemistry between Claire and Alek from the start. Alek has some really strong feelings for Claire.
The action in this book was pretty strong and it wasn’t predictable. I was really left in the DARK for a while, which I really liked. There were really strange things going on in town, Claire caught on really fast. I really liked her character, she is someone that wants to help others and feels connected with victims of kidnapping/abuse because she was held prisoner herself. She is also an empath so she feels others emotions/feelings. This really helped her make a distinguish between enemy and friend.
One thing I didn’t like was Alek, multiple times it was mentioned he has thing ALPHA personality. But I didn’t really get that feeling a lot (the reason for that can be because I have read a lot of books with MAJOR alphas). Being an Alpha also means putting others first, which he did.
There are some unfinished business so I THINK that we will continue with Claire and Alek being the main characters in the next book in this series. I am not sure, but I hope they are because I want to see them develop as individuals and as a couple.
If you are looking for a new Urban Fantasy series with suspense/mystery then definitely make sure you get your hands on this book when it is released in August!