Stray Bites

from Goodreads:

I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.

Despite reservations from my family and my Pride, I escaped the pressure to continue my species and carved out a normal life for myself. Until the night a Stray attacked.

I'd been warned about Strays -- werecats without a Pride, constantly on the lookout for someone like me: attractive, female, and fertile. I fought him off, but then learned two of my fellow tabbies had disappeared.

This brush with danger was all my Pride needed to summon me back . . . for my own protection. Yeah, right. But I'm no meek kitty. I'll take on whatever -- and whoever -- I have to in order to find my friends. Watch out, Strays -- 'cause I got claws, and I'm not afraid to use them . . .

Honestly, I was disappointed in this one.  First of all, it's SO EFFING LONG.  It doesn't look like it because the pages are super thin (damn you, marketing ploys! *shakes fist*), but it tops 600 pages.  Very few authors can sustain a book that long well enough to keep me fully invested.  In fact, only 1 comes readily to mind, where I didn't feel anything should have been cut, it was perfect as it was.  Stray needed some serious trimming with a sharp pair of editing shears.  For real.  There was so much info-dumping through out, and a lot of it only marginally expanded on ground that had already been covered.
I also didn't feel like there was anything in the story or world-building that I couldn't have gotten elsewhere.  Hell, I didn't even find the characters all that likeable.  A lot of PNR/UF runs the risk of falling into cliche territory, and sometimes flat-out biting other storylines, but there's got to be some twist or redeeming quality that makes me want to read this over that -- what does one offer that another doesn't, that makes me need to read it?  I never really got that extra something from this, even though I help on for 620+ pages.  I have an inkling there may be something coming that will interest me, but do I want to slog through 5 more books to get it?
In the (small) plus column, I thought the story picked up when Faythe* went home to the ranch and was thrust back into the paranormal element she'd been trying to escape** and when the ball finally got rolling and the Big Bad came in, I liked it.  But it was a long, sometimes torturous road getting there, and I almost set the book down many times along the way.  I think I could eventually like the series, and may read more if someone assures me Rachel Vincent learns to cut the dreck and get to the goddamn point, but until then, I'm shelving them.


* I'm not even going to address the ridiculous name-spelling.
** sound familiar?


*Make sure you check out my CSN stores $65 GC giveaway and my part of the Follower Love Blog Hop giveaway!