Feral Curse

Feral #2

by Cynthia Leitich Smith

The second installment of New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith’s thrilling Feral series delivers danger, romance, and suspense in an all new action-packed adventure.

The adopted daughter of two respectable human parents, Kayla is a werecat in the closet. All she knows is the human world. When she comes out to her boyfriend, tragedy ensues, and her determination to know and embrace her heritage grows. Help appears in the lithe form of sexy male werecat Yoshi, backed up by Aimee and Clyde, as the four set out to solve the mystery of a possessed antique carousel while fielding miscast magic, obsessive strangers, and mounting species intolerance. Paranormal fans will go wild for this rousing second Feral adventure.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal, Fiction, Shapeshifters, Vampires, Young Adult Fantasy

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 11, 2014

About the author

Cynthia Leitich Smith is a bestselling, acclaimed author of books for all ages, including Here Come the Grandmas!, Here Come the Aunties!, Firefly Season, Jingle Dancer, Indian Shoes, On a Wing and a Tear, Sisters of the Neversea, the Blue Stars series (with Kekla Magoon), Rain Is Not My Indian Name, Harvest House, and Hearts Unbroken, which won the American Indian Youth Literature Award. Cynthia is also the anthologist of Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids and of Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories, which won the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature and the American Indian Youth Literature Award. She has been honored with the American Library Association’s Children’s Literature Lecture Award and has been named the NSK Neustadt Laureate. She is the author-curator of Heartdrum, a Native-focused imprint at HarperChildren’s, and served as the Katherine Paterson Endowed Chair on the faculty of the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Cynthia is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and lives in Denton, Texas.

Reviews

[Jess]

3.5 stars

Took me a bit to get into -- the beginning was a big shift from book 1 -- but the ending was a lot of fun. Can't wait for book 3!

[Haley]

Feral Curse is the sequel to Feral Nights, a spin-off series to the Tantalize quartet. This time, the story is told from the perspective of Yoshi, the Asian were-cat who was in Feral Nights, and Kayla, an African American were-cat. Kayla was adopted and wasn’t aware of her were-cat heritage until she hit puberty. Her parents are both human, her father is mayor of the small town of Pine Ridge. The day after she tells her boyfriend Ben that she’s a were-cat, he is mysteriously hit by lightning and dies on a Western Carousel. Weeks later, Yoshi some how ends up in Pine Ridge and meet Kayla.

The author of this book always does a great job with characters. All her books seem very character driven and there’s always some humorous bickering between the characters. I absolutely love Yoshi. He’s so flirty and smirky. He’s a lot like his cat counter part personality-wise, or maybe just a teenage boy. He just wants affection and sexy times. He reminds me of Kenji from Shatter Me for some reason. He’s not very serious, and chases after girls, but never had a long relationship.

Kayla is also an interesting character. She’s very different. She’s uptight and smart and a prude. She wasn’t raised to be okay with being naked and shifting. She’s never met other shifters before. Aimee and Clyde both make an appearance, and both help Yoshi, even if Yoshi is jealous of Clyde being with Aimee.

These books are so much fun. They have a lot of interesting world building. It’s comtemporary, but with a Dystopian-like twist. Basically, the existence of shape-shifters has been know to the general public for maybe about a hundred years or so. It’s common knowledge. There’s a lot of prejiduces against them, but no segregation yet. Upheaval is just starting and as the main story line goes of there’s new reports about suspected shifter killings and new discoveries and protests.

Shifters could lose their right. Some states want everyone to undergo genetic testing and mark the shifters. I suspect the new book will be even more like dystopian books. This book mainly focuses of the paranormal elements. Yoshi and Kayla must reverse a spell that her dead boyfriend invoked. The plot flows well. It’s interesting to see that other shifter pop-up unexpectedly and interact with Kayla.

The book doesn’t have a complete wrap-up. It’s not standalone, and it definitely has a cliffhanger. I can’t wait to see how everything will turn out for Yoshi, Kayla, and the crew. I recommend this series if you enjoyed Tantalize, Eternal, Blesses and Diabolical. Also if you like the Curse Workers series by Holly Black. Or the Other series, Night World series, and anything with werewolves, shape-shifters and other paranormal beings.

Cover Art Review: The title is more interesting this time around. It’s a striking cover and I love the sunset colors.

~Haley G

My blog:
http://breathlessbookreviews.blogspot...

[Sydney Worsham]

This was the second book in the Feral Night series. It was AMAZING! When I finished the first book I was thinking, "What happens to Yoshi?!? Does he ever find his true love?!?" In this book I found out! I was really excited and this book is something that everyone with a mind for the weird and freaky (I'm all about weird and freaky!) should read! In this book there are cursed pieces of a marry-go-round and the one who can reverse the curse is dead! It is an amazing mystery and love story to read and I hope that anyone reading this review gets the book ASAP. Read on!

[Jeannie Lopez]

Ran across this series by accident. But wow. Great writing , fun great personalities in the character's.

[Angela]

Cliff hanger

[Solstice]

Picks up with the adventures of Yoshi, Aimee and Clyde after the events of the first book with the introduction of Kayla and her story as the focus of the second book. The gang helps Kayla come to terms with the werecat part of her identity and helps her reverse an unfortunate spell involving Ben and the antique carousel in Pine Ridge.

Clyde's personality seems to have shifted quite a bit from that portrayed in Feral Nights. Other than that, The story in general seems to have a good balance of light hearted scenes mixed with mystery and a bit of supernatural thrown in. The story flow seems smoother than that of the first book.

Overall an engaging and fun book for a light read.

Rating: 4 Stars

[Kyla Schooling]

Kayla loves Ben enough to tell him her deepest secret...she is a werecat. The love of her life is repulsed but thinks he can 'help' her. He tries his hand at a spell that results in his death and the cursing of the town carousel. Strange were-creatures start showing up in town and they all seem to be after Kayla. Yoshi and Aimee befriend her and they work as a team to try to make things right. The story was a little bit fun and a little bit goofy. And sometimes that is just what I'm looking for.

[George Ilsley]

Much more focused and interesting than the first book in this series.

[Mrs. Kenyon]

Kayla knows nothing about being a werecat. She is the adopted daughter of two human parents and although they are very accepting of her differences, the town and world are not. After she comes out about her were-ness to her boyfriend, a tragedy occurs and she becomes even more determined to know about this hidden heritage. Answers appear unexpectantly when a sexy male werecat comes into town and a few other were-animals help out with a possessed antique carousel causing magical mischief.

Feral Curse is the second book in the Feral spin off series of Tantalize. This book continues the world of were-animals and focuses on the species intolerance prevalent in this world. More of an action packed thriller than a romance, there is a touch of everything in this paranormal adventure. Smith already completed the world building in the previous books, but readers jumping into this series or this book should have no trouble understanding the quirks contained. This is NOT a “can’t put this down” read, but it is enjoyable and pleasing. Readers looking for a quick escape without a lot of commitment will be satisfied with this book.

[Apollonian Lit]

At first, I thought this was a nice change of pace from normal paranormal books. Instead of wereWOLVES, we had wereCATS! I thought this book started out with great potential and it had a great beginning in my opinion. However, it got more boring and stayed in a slow pace (until the last 6 pages where the book ended in a metaphorical blur) and I just wanted to be done with reading it by the last quarter of the book. This book was too fast-paced in the beginning in comparison to the ending. The beginning of the book was WAY too dramatic; there is a fine line and it was crossed. I thought it was lame to add magical elements to the book and the book it could have been better without them. This book isn't very clean and it has some language and other profanity. I wish this book had a more clever and escalating plot and I also wish it didn't have as many disappointing elements. Apparently, this book is a sequel and it has enough intro to be a stand-alone. I think I would have liked this book better if I had had a strong understanding of the characters. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you have read and enjoyed the first book.

[Lisa]

love my werecats and it sounds like in the end that there is going to be another book in the series. love that they introduced more characters and i love the progression of the old ones I'M EXCITED TO SEE WHAT COMES NEXT!!!

[Katherine]

*I received this for free.

I really liked this book. The story flowed really well and didn't get boring at all. I even laughed at some parts. The reason why I rated it 4 stars and not 5 stars is because this book wouldn't be a book that I could read many times without getting bored.

[Jennifer]

Loving this evolving world. Yoshi & Kayla seem like a good match. I'm guessing a war is coming & I'm dying to know what's going to happen.

[Rosemond Cates]

Love this author!

[Lisa]

This is the second book in the series and I enjoyed this one much better than the first book in the series. I will be looking to read the next in the series.

[Kim Baccellia]

Quirky with a fun voice!

[Kaitlyn Chenoweth]

I think the first book was better because I can relate to the city life more than the country life.

[Gavin]

great sequel cant wait to pick up the next one.