Shift by Rachel Vincent
March 1, 2010
Urban Fantasy
Paperback, 441 Pages
Mira
Reviewed by Amanda

I’ve never read anything by Rachel Vincent before but I have heard great things about her writing and her Faythe Saunders series. Its a series I’ve always wanted to pick up but with the ever growing TBR pile that I have it’s another series that I have yet to get to.

It might seem odd then to start the series at book 5, but the books can be read as a stand alones so you don’t need to have read anything in the series before this book.

You are dropped straight into the story. Faythes brother has been killed and this story picks up a week after his death, which incidentally is a week after the last book ‘Prey’ finished. Personally I love when an author does this, it lets you feel engaged with the story development and the characters development, it allows you to feel like you’re sitting down with an old friend. In my case series that do this leave me highly anticipating the next in the series whether or not it ends on a cliff hanger or not, and I would imagine this is definitely the case with fans of Rachel Vincent’s work and series.

But I digress, onto the story in hand. This review might be a little short as I don’t want to give too much away in the form of spoilers for the book. I apologise in advance if I inadvertently reveal any spoiler material!

Shift begins with Faythe’s Pride plotting revenge on the person responsible for her brothers death. But as with most good plots, a curve ball is thrown in and the story takes a twist.

The pride are attacked for reasons unknown and completely unexpected by the Thunderbirds. Faythe vows to discover the reason behind the attacks as the Thunderbirds advantage of being able to fly means that her Pride are at a distinct disadvantage and the attacks are very dangerous.

Combine all of this with Faythe trying to look out for Kaci a teenage Tabi and you have one heck of a story.

I loved Faythe’s character. Everything she goes through, the decisions she has to make to keep those she cares for and loves safe coupled with the decisions she has to make professionally really made me care for her and it mattered to me when things went right/wrong.

Reading this book has left me wanting to read this series from the start and watch Faythe grow into the character she’s become in Shift. And of course learning more about the world that Rachel Vincent has created.

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone although you don’t need to have read the rest in the series to thoroughly enjoy Shift, I do think it would make for a richer experience to read the others in the series first. That being said I couldn’t put the book down and if you have read the others in the series and haven’t read this….. What are you waiting for?

The next installment of this series Alpha out later this year on October 1st, this sadly will be the last in the series but it is one I will be highly anticipating. Plus the cover is totally HOT!!

Rating 4.5/5

Recent Reviews:
Avid Book Reader – B-
Fiction Vixen – 5/5
Kindle Vixen – 5/5
The Optimistic Pessimist – 4/5

Thanks Amanda!