The Panther's Rival, Emilia Hartley

Jumping right into the story we have Merk, a panther shifter running from his past and the darkness inside him.  Kara has her own secrets too and they turn out to be an even bigger issue than Merk's past, at least in this particular story.

This book was darker than others I've read by this author and it made it a bit harder to swallow.  There wasn't a lot of build-up, we are thrown right into the deep end with Merk's darker past and Kara's secrets.  We don't even get Merk's dark past except for in small hints here and there until he has that delirious moment with RJ in the woods and that's just a bit too weird to digest and feel enlightened.

Under and surrounding everything is a bully who will never give Kara up.  We're given hints about what Kara was using Ratty for but the answers to that were never given.  Merk even wonders why she was with him when it was obvious that Ratty was a despicable being, fully admitted by Kara as well.  He's never mentioned as once being a good guy ever so we're left guessing as to what those reasons Kara had were.

The angle of bullies running the town and the couple fighting for justice is more like a side element that's kind of an accident.  Kara's all about standing up for herself and others but the plot to take down the bullies for good?  That was just something necessary to stay in town, not something they came together to do.

I can't say that I truly enjoyed the story, there were a lot more questions unanswered and unfinished sentiments by the end than I was uncomfortable with.  While those unfinished feelings suggest a series beginning here, it does so in a way that means I'm un-enthusiastically waiting for answers rather than intrigued by the town and its people because, honestly, those townspeople are pretty abhorrent as well.  There aren't any other characters beyond RJ that we're introduced to that could carry into a series so I'm wondering where things will go.  If there's no series then that just leaves a rather disappointing novel that had a bunch of potential.

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