Carlos, the were-panther, is looking for a mate who will care for the orphaned were-panther children that he has adopted. A mortal woman is out of the question, as Carlos takes it upon himself to repopulate the earth with his endangered species.Enter Caitlyn.Caitlyn and Carlos are immedately attracted to each other and the sparks fly. Carlos, however drawn to her he is, refuses (at first) to mate with her, as she cannot produce little were-panther babies for him. And to make maters worse, Caitlyn's father is the head of the government department in charge of hunting down and destroying paranormal creatures. Caitlyn's sister is married to a vampire and has two children who are half vampire, so this causes a rift in the family.This is my first reading experience with Kerrelyn Sparks and I was not disappointed. This book was creative and well written and has given me cause to check out some of her other books. Carlos and Caitlyn embark on a journey to the jungles of Brazil in search of a mate for Carlos (yes, Caitlyn accompanies him on this quest!) and I found it fun to be there in the jungles with them. Caitlyn has a special talent (psychic linguist) which allows her to immediately understand any spoken language and, if given an hour or so, will almost immediately be able to learn it well enough to speak it back to the natives. This makes her invaluable on the trip, as she discovers an evil plot meant to harm Carlos that Carlos, unable to understand some of the indiginous village languages, is unaware of.I always find it interesting to read various authors' ideas for how the different paranormal species function. Some authors write that werewolves are born into their species. Others write that werewolves cannot be born, but have to be bitten by an existing werewolf. Some say female werewolves cannot have children, as the change during the full moon is too hard on the fetus, and others claim that female werewolves have no problem giving birth to litters of babies. I love reading the different theories and this book was no different. Being part of the feline family, Kerrelyn Sparks' were-panters have nine lives, just like the kitty cat tales of old. Each time Carlos is killed, he comes back to life, stronger than he was before. He has nine lives, just like the old stories tell us he should have. I thought this was a neat concept.Overall, this book was very good and I enjoyed it tremendously. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five, is I normally don't like my protagonist to be so desperate. I'm not a big fan of love at first sight...I like my characters to develop their feelings for each other over the course of the book. For me, there's a certain satisfaction in watching the characters fall in love. Love at first sight just takes all the fun out of it for me. Still, though, I did enjoy the book and wouldn't hesitate to pick up another one of the author's books. I have not read all of the books in the Love at Stakes series. Which is fine as each one can really be read as stand alone novels. Although, I have to say that this book is probably one of my favorites. Instantly I fell for Caitlyn and Carlos. The best part was that Carlos is not a vampire but a were-panter. For a change in a vampire series, it was nice to have a different character type like Carlos. Plus, in a way it made more sense and it was more believable that Caitlyn would fall for Carlos. Caitlyn was just getting over her shock that her sister married a vampire and she was not so warm to the idea, so for her to have a love interest in a vampire would have been too predicable. The raw animal attraction was evident between Caitlyn and Carlos. Besides the storyline was a good one. Liked the ending.
Do You like book Eat Prey Love (2010)?
First book I read for this series. Not a bad start! Interesting combination..
—Nel
Loved this one. Funnier than the last few. Sour puss indeed.
—Jennifer
