A follow on from Devour. You would do well to read Devour before starting on Prey, though they both stand alone. Still a great read! ( )

Reviewed for queuemyreview.com; book release Sep08

My, my, my. How to describe “Prey” by Melina Morel? It’s NOT a romance, although there certainly is a smidge of animalistic, scratching, biting sex (well, it’s about shapeshifters!) included. It’s NOT just a mystery. It’s not just urban fantasy. It’s NOT horror. It’s a very interesting mix of all the above. But I would have to say is more of an urban fantasy suspense mystery. How’s that for a new category?

She’s the closest thing to royalty in her clan and he’s an immigrant security expert. Their paths were unlikely to cross. Then her Russian antique store is broken into and someone tries to kidnap her…and she has no idea why. From the moment they meet, they’re drawn to each other. But whoever is looking for whatever they think she has may not give them time to find out if they’re what the other is looking for.

I must admit that it was hard for me to follow all the characters for the first few chapters just because there were so many different ones mentioned. And I still had to do a little backtracking every so often to keep the different clans and characters separated in my mind. But once the story picked up speed, I wanted to know who did what and how the bad guys were gonna ‘get it’. It was gritty. It was suspenseful. There were quite a few subplots going on throughout the story which sometimes made it difficult for me to keep up, but I still wanted to keep reading! And although SIGNET is stamping this with a paranormal romance tag, I didn’t get that ‘vibe’ from the book. There was a bit of sex, but nothing I would rate more than PG-13 as most of it was left to the reader’s imagination. And the subplot of forbidden love due to clan differences wasn’t the main thrust of the story. This is more about good versus evil and bad guys versus good guys. Oh, and a missing icon and a dead guy.

I must confess that I didn’t read Ms Morel’s first book “Devour”, but a few characters from that book DO show up in “Prey”. While I couldn’t find any information about any upcoming releases, she does have a pretty slick website at http://www.melinamorel.com. Very worth a visit as you can ‘tour’ one of the main settings of “Prey” and/or find out more about characters from both her books. Since I’m a fan of urban fantasy, suspense, mystery, and romance, this book was an easy way to feed all those hungers. If you’re a cross-genre reader too, pick up a copy and see what YOU think. ( )