From the Bookshelf of Q&A with Josh Lanyon…

Prey (Infected, #1)

Andrea Speed

Start date: April 1, 2013

Finish date: April 30, 2013

Discussion: Book of the Month Club

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What Members Thought

Feb 10, 2011 Emanuela ~plastic duck~ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: rainbow-gay, glbt, action-crime-suspense, urban-fantasy

I loved this book a lot. It's actually two books in one, with two different cases investigated by Roan.

Roan and Paris are infected by a virus that causes them to shift to felines five days a month. They are partners in life and partners in their private investigation agency. During their viral cycle Roan becomes a lion and Paris a tiger. In their changed form they have to lock themselves up in order not to be on the loose ad risk to kill someone.

Roan and Paris have different personalities but th I loved this book a lot. It's actually two books in one, with two different cases investigated by Roan.

Roan and Paris are infected by a virus that causes them to shift to felines five days a month. They are partners in life and partners in their private investigation agency. During their viral cycle Roan becomes a lion and Paris a tiger. In their changed form they have to lock themselves up in order not to be on the loose ad risk to kill someone.

Roan and Paris have different personalities but they fit perfectly together. Roan is more laid back, reserved, with a dry humor and smart ass comments. He doesn't try to captivate the sympathies of the people he meets, on the contrary, he deals with them at his own terms. He was also born infected and, as the stories progress, we can see how this makes him like no one else. Paris is extremely handsome, a charmer, he is bisexual, a born actor, a guy who doesn't need to convince people to do something, because he manipulates them into doing it. Being a tiger he knows that he is on borrowed time, because his virus is the most debilitating one and he knows he will die young.

Roan and Paris have to face a society which is hostile to them because they are infected and they are gays. Their relationship is probably the most precious thing they have and even if they don't tell each other everything, they understand each other profoundly. It's very touching to see how one anticipates what's troubling the other and how they have to drop the bullshit, because they can smell or read each other perfectly. The book has no sex, but it doesn't detract from the attraction they feel, it shines through the pages, even if the mood of the book is rather dark and Roan is a jaded man.

The book combines a couple of elements I love: the investigation and urban fantasy. It's not a book where you have to figure out the killer, because the process is more important than the result. The paranormal element adds a bitter edge to the world where Roan and Paris live, since it's not magic, it's a disease, it's a virus with odds effect.

Knowing from the beginning that Paris' health is in danger gives a sense of doom that makes me hurt, and I don't even know if this book could be defined as romance, but if you've never read m/m, I'd highly recommend this book. ...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Cheryl rated it it was ok

This book read like a really awesome first draft, a story that is going to be amazing once it goes through an editing process. My understanding is that this book started as an online fic, and it seems like Dreamspinner Press picked it up from there and started charging money for it without putting it through any edits. The overall spelling and grammar are fine, but the writing itself needed some polishing. There are paragraph-long descriptions of every character to walk into the book, no matter This book read like a really awesome first draft, a story that is going to be amazing once it goes through an editing process. My understanding is that this book started as an online fic, and it seems like Dreamspinner Press picked it up from there and started charging money for it without putting it through any edits. The overall spelling and grammar are fine, but the writing itself needed some polishing. There are paragraph-long descriptions of every character to walk into the book, no matter how inconsequential they were. The writing seemed to meander and paragraphs just seemed a bit unorganized. The authors overuse of parenthesis was extremely jarring to me. They were everywhere, at least one pair every two pages. Perhaps they would have been more effective and less noticeable in a first person POV with a more conversational narrative style, but here they just seemed like the author pulling me out of the story to annotate or further explain what she had already told me. Much of what was in the parenthesis was unnecessary and could have been cut completely. Other times the parenthetical phrase could have been worked more smoothly into an existing sentence with just a little bit of restructuring and a few well placed commas, or left alone as a stand alone sentence. It seemed like sentences that would have normally been a seamless part of the story's world-building, setting, scenery and mood were picked at random and enclosed in parenthesis. Then there were times when the information in parenthesis didn't make any sense at all and the parenthesis made it impossible to skip over and pretend you didn't read it.

That aside, I actually liked the story. Quite a bit, in fact. The characters are likable and multi-layered, especially Roan, with his gruff exterior covering up his soft, tender heart of gold. Paris is a little bit of a Mary Sue, IMHO, but a very well rounded one who doesn't detract from the story and will have the reader tied up in knots over any hint of harm heading his way. The plot moved along once you learned to skip the descriptives, and the world-building was complete and complex without bogging down the story. I don't read a lot of shifter stories, but the paranormal elements were well done and about as believable as they could be.

If I had read it for free online I would have been very impressed with what the author had accomplished on her own. I still am, in fact. The world is intriguing and the characters are well rounded and endearing. I want to read more of this world, I just hope that future volumes get the editing they deserve.

*ETA I tried reading the second story in this book, thinking that a little time away would ease the tic I had developed at the site of parenthesis or the overstating of a fact that would generally be considered common knowledge or something easily inferred from the story. It didn't, and the writing hasn't improved from one story to the next. I'm really blaming the editors here, because this is a story that I want quite badly to read, I just can't get past the all the clutter. I haven't been this frustrated by a book in a long time. It's absolute torture to start a series with so much promise and not be able to finish it because no one bothered to edit the book properly. I normally give a DNF one star, but I'm going to give this one two stars because I know many people won't have the issues that I have with the writing or will be able to overlook it, and because there are still quite a few things done right. ...more

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Jul 09, 2011 Lady*M rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: m-m-romance, fantasy, mystery, paranormal, alternate-universe

I waited for a long time to read this book because I knew where the series was going and I waited for the third book to be published. Now, when the fourth one is in sight, it seemed like the right time to do it. Also, I really liked The Little Death very, very much.

There are many great reviews about this book (Jenre's for example), so I'll stick to my personal highlights.

Roan, the tough, cynical detective with no particular love for people, yet with the proverbial hart of gold and occasionally I waited for a long time to read this book because I knew where the series was going and I waited for the third book to be published. Now, when the fourth one is in sight, it seemed like the right time to do it. Also, I really liked The Little Death very, very much.

There are many great reviews about this book (Jenre's for example), so I'll stick to my personal highlights.

Roan, the tough, cynical detective with no particular love for people, yet with the proverbial hart of gold and occasionally goofy (if fedora and dusters are anything to go by) and Paris, self-proclaimed men-whore, charming, manipulative, hedonistic tiger-shifter whose health is declining. Both men possess a wonderful sense of humor and their banter and verbal sparring were wonderful to read. They were both vulnerable, though for different reasons, and reader can't help but sympathize with them. I admit it, I missed the sex scenes between them, not just because I want sex in my adult fiction (and this is adult fiction, have no doubt about it, sex or no sex), but also because of who these men are and sheer possibilities the sex scenes between them would have. Plus, they would surely burn the pages. That said, the love between them is clear as day.

The world building is fantastic - the author covers all needed information, but never overwhelms the reader. In fact, the informations about cat virus and its implications, personal, social, legal, were so expertly interwoven into the story, that it seemed to me like I already knew all about it and the author was just reminding me. The references to popular culture were funny, the writing beautiful. There were some repetitions that pulled me out of the story once or twice, but this is truly a minor complaint. I fell in love with the characters and I can't wait to read more about them (although, yes, I know, things will get really bad for them). This is the book, I suspect, that will find readers among fans of both (urban) fantasy and detective stories. Highly, highly recommended.

Oh, I need to mention the awesome cover by Anne Cain too - beautiful and so fitting! ...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Sylvia rated it liked it · review of another edition

The second part was a lot better then the first and it sucked me in on the Cat stuff and the relationship. The rest I didn't care for. Too much names I couldn't remember, I never new any of the suspects. I didn't like the investigation part. I liked the action and interaction between the MC's, with the police officers and Matt.

I do like the MC's, Matt, the ex-colleagues and the world building. I will read the next part because I bought all of them already. ...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Stephanie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ongoing-series, 2010

I give this first book 3.5 stars. I loved the world building related to the cats and the mystery Roan was trying to solve. But I felt this story dragged on and on. There were so many instances of unnecessary back stories/details given on unimportant characters (police chief, hookers) that I found myself skipping 2-3 pages at a time trying to find the plot and dialogue of the main characters.

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Mar 19, 2012 Fehu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: species-shapeshifters-m-m, alternative-universe, free, genre-mystery, established-couples, series

Rating: 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book even if you know what to expect in the second one and that it wont be pretty. The world created by Andrea Speed sucked me in. Mysteries are an old favorite of mine so that was also a plus point for this book.

It's not really a romance, so I wouldn't recommend it to people searching that in this book. And this was exactly made me enjoy it because it really has a plot with interesting cases and it reminded me somewhat of Michael Nava's mystery books(first g ...more

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