Wildcat by Cheryl Brooks (Cat Star Chronicles #9)
Paranormal Romance
February 5, 2013
Sourcebooks

Reviewed by Helyce

Sara Shield has taken charge of her life. She’s moved to Terra Minor, a relatively safe planet, where she runs her horse training and breeding service. When one of the prized stallions that she owns escapes, she has no choice but to head over to the neighboring property owned by Jerden Morokovitz to try and retrieve him. When she arrives at Jerden’s place, Sarah is totally unprepared for the sight of Jerden, riding her beautiful stallion, Danuban, naked. They are both stunning and she can hardly take her eyes off of them, but Sara is there for her horse alone, not the man.

Jerden is a Zetithian who moved to Terra Minor after the death of his lover. Feeling guilty about why she was killed, he lives alone, avoiding everyone taking comfort in his animals and the beautiful leopard that follows him around. When the beautiful, black, Stallion shows up they seemed to have some sort of connection and Jerden finds a freedom he hadn’t felt since his lover’s death when he rides him. He knows the horse is too beautiful to be a stray and must belong to the woman on the neighboring property. He also knows he’ll have to return the horse one day. When he arrives home and sees Sara standing there, he knows that day is today.

Wildcat is book nine in a series that has become a total guilty pleasure for me. This world feeds and satisfies not only my love of paranormal but also my love of science fiction as we follow the lives of a species of men called Zetithians. These gorgeous men, with feline grace and features were known the world over for their sexual prowess. So much so, that a man who lost his wife after she’d been with a Zetithian took it upon himself to destroy the planet Zetith in the hopes of ridding the world of this race. But a handful of men and an even smaller amount of women survived and this series chronicles their lives as they make their way through the galaxies looking for love.

I was very excited to learn that Ms. Brooks would be featuring Jerden in his own book after meeting him in book 7, Virgin. He was a standout secondary character there and I wanted to see more of him. But I struggled with the Jerden that we meet at the beginning of Wildcat. This Jerden is depressed following the death of his lover, a death he feels responsible for. So, he lives alone, except for his animals, not really associating with anyone except when he has to. When the stallion, Danuban, shows up on his property they have any easy connection and Jerden feels better just for being able to ride him. But it’s not long before Sara, the horse’s owner, shows up to claim him. Their initial meeting does not go well at all, and Sara is forced to leave without her horse.

While I struggled with Jerden, I really enjoyed Sara’s character. Sara had been an accomplished equestrian back on earth. She moved to Terra Minor to get away and heal after a tragic event and her plans do not include getting involved with a man. While she isn’t blind and can certainly appreciate the beautiful man Jerden is, she has issues she’s dealing with where men are concerned and she knows that she’s not exactly the kind of woman he would be attracted to anyway. When Jerden rides up to her farm and literally collapses on her porch, she takes care of him and they begin a somewhat uneasy friendship.

Once this ‘friendship’ begins we start to see some of the old Jerden come back to life. He is attracted to Sara and she touches a place within him that was long dead. He also feels protective of her, especially when Sara’s other neighbor, Nathan, starts sniffing around and Jerden’s protective instincts come into play. Sara is not interested in Nathan at all, but he is persistent to the point of making Sara uncomfortable.

After Sara and Jerden form their alliance against Nathan, the story takes on a bit of a mysterious quality when some unexplained things start to happen. While navigating their friendship and their budding attraction to each other, both Sara and Jerden are able to heal from their pasts as the bond grows between them.

We don’t always get to see previous characters, but I was thrilled that was not the case in this book. We are gifted with updates and visits from almost all the previous characters and couples in this series to date. It almost had an ‘end of series’ feel to it, but I know for a fact that there are more books to come.

I have followed this series from its first release, Slave, back in 2008 and it has really evolved over the last 5 years. Ms. Brook’s writing has grown and her imagination gives us so many unique characters I’m always excited to see what she’s come up with in each book. If you’re a fan of science fiction with a huge dose of sexy men, I’d give this series a shot!

Rating: B

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