What appears to be a wonderful family get together, a joyous reaffirmation of a close family - closer than most families because their kind can have sex only with their own kind or suffer dreadful consequences - begins to go wrong. Vitali, though Nicole's true mate, shares her with his brother in a series of erotic and well-written love scenes of beautiful ménages. But Ilia is in love with her. Dark forbidden overtones appear as another pure breed, one of the demon cursed, a man named Bartok has taken control of not only Nadia but the only other two breeding pure-blood females of their kind left. Bartok, a cruel and sadistic beast, holds Nadia's son hostage against her continued cooperation as his sex slave in order to produce another child.

Unexpectedly Mikhail, once Vitali's best friend but wrongly accused of beating and raping Nadia years before, appears and has vowed vengeance for the two years he was kept in a cage, forced to live in his leopard state unjustly by Nadia's brothers.

Mikhail believes Nadia has betrayed him and kidnaps her away. Very soon he learns the truth, that she is being held at the beck and call of Bartok because of Luca, Nadia's son. Shortly afterward Mikhail learns the child is not Bartok's but his. Something Nadia did not know when he left two years previously.

Nadia realizes her brothers and Nicole are in terrible danger from not only a misguided Mikhail but they are all in deadly peril from Bartok. Nicole, in danger of becoming another one of Bradok's sex slaves and unaware that she carries Vitali's child, is an unsuspecting target. Nadia tells all to Mikhail in hopes he will believe her and help her protect Nicole.

With a major confrontation looming, Mikhail realizes the child Luca is his child by the boy's scent. Can Mikhail now believe the truth and save Nadia, her brothers and Nicole from the tyrannical Bartok who rules the small town they grew up in like a dictator?

Ms. Jordan has written a fantastic tale of a changeling group of cat-humans destined to live out their lives dealing with an age-old curse. Much more creative than many werewolves tales with a wonderful twist. Fabulous black leopards, a tale that explains how their kind was conceived and continues to exist. Her storytelling kept me riveted and the erotic scenes kept me expectant and warmly motivated thanks to the depth and level of the characters emotional charge and sexuality. One HOT read.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Explicit

Reviewer: Orange Blossom
May 2, 2005