Catspell

Catspell
by Colleen Shannon
Mass Market Paperback, 342 pages
Published Jan. 1, 2006
9780505526113
Book #3 in the Shelley Holmes, Werewolf Detective Series

Synopsis from Goodreads.com

Shelley Holmes was accustomed to the bizarre. Such phenomena as werewolves and vampires held no surprises for her. But in all her years of investigating the paranormal, she had never run across a case like this one ...

Beautiful Arielle Blaylock was a proper Victorian miss by day, but a daring wanton by night. In her dreams she seemed to enter another life, one where sorcery and sensuality held sway. But how was it possible that the happenings of that shadow world were beginning to manifest themselves in reality? What was the significance of the Egyptian cat amulet she wore at her throat? And of the two mystical beings who fought to seduce her, which was destined to be her lover ... the creature of light or the one of darkness? As her midnight wanderings became ever more alluring, Arielle found herself lost in a maze of danger and desire where one misstep might mean the end of love and life.

I'll be honest, I'm a fan of romance novels, especially if they're weird or cheesy. I picked this up from Goodwill for about $.50, just because it sounded so outrageous that I felt like I had to read it. I feel like it's very misleading being labeled as a romance, because it seems like that was secondary in the story. Yes, it was present, but not in the normal books that I read that are labeled Paranormal Romance. I'm used to reading Laurell K. Hamilton, so I feel like I expect a certain level of smut and this book did not deliver on that point.

I think this book had a lot of potential, but it skipped around with point of views a lot, and not done with a changing of chapter, which is typical to the genre. There would be paragraph breaks where it would take the scene to a secondary, or even a few times, a SUPER minor character which I still don't see the point of him.

This book  had an interesting premise, but it was lost with the Mary Sue heroine with no luster and the undesirable love interests. I found myself wanting more about Shelley and Ethan because at least they were interesting when they bantered. There was also such a focus on cats that there were a few weird scenes that I read and immediately after was like did the author REALLY write that?!

If you're a fan of weird romances you might find yourself being pulled into the story (it really wasn't that bad!) but again, it was less of a romance with a rather predictable ending.