Title: Nischal
Series: Leopard’s Spots, #9
Author: Bailey Bradford
Genre: Paranormal/Shifters
Length: Novel (144 pages)
Publisher: Total E-Bound (August 9th, 2013)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥3 Hearts
Reviewer: Thommie
Blurb: There are many ways a man can be held captive.
Nischal and his brother Sabin were captured as snow leopards and have been kept medicated and half starved, put on display for crowds to view. The drugs that are supposed to keep the snow leopards docile also, as Nischal and Sabin discover, prevent them from shifting. After years of captivity, Nischal struggles to retain any kind of hope for freedom. He watches his brother die a little more on the inside every day.
Then one afternoon, a freckled redheaded man stands out from the crowd. Nischal doesn’t understand why, especially in his drug-addled state. When that man’s life is threatened, Nischal finds strength within himself he never knew existed.
Preston Hardy’s brother went missing over a year ago. The local cops were no help, Preston’s parents didn’t seem to give a damn, and Preston was left to try to discover what had happened to Paul on his own. His research leads him to a skeezy travelling show, run by a man who immediately sets off warning bells in Preston’s head. When he sets out to follow the man, he doesn’t have a clue that his whole life and perception of the world is about to change.
And that is only the beginning of Nischal and Preston’s adventures as they try to find the truth about what happened to Paul and evade those who would capture the snow leopards again.
Product Link: http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=2233
Review: This is book #9 of the Leopard’s Spots Series and although it would probably be best if you read them in order, it surely can be read as a standalone. The structure of the series is each book being a story in its self with a common background idea so it makes for an easy read even if you pick them out randomly.
In this book, we meet Nischal and his brother Sabin. Both snow leopard shifters, their life was pretty secluded when they were at their home grounds in Nepal. After their mother’s death, the brothers lived alone for a while, and except a short period of time when they met a much older shifter, they had no contact with the human world. Until they were captured and enslaved.
For years, the brothers were kept in slavery and entertained the crowd for their captor’s benefit. Being starved and constantly drugged, their ability to shift back was suppressed and both of them were facing death shortly. Until one day, a gorgeous red-haired man captured Nischal’s attention. Through his haze and physical weakness, Nischal felt new emotions run his body and mind, and he also saw the danger the young man was. A danger he felt compelled not to let the object of his attention fall for.
I must say that the way this book started made all the difference for me. It was an immediate hook and I simply couldn’t stop reading. It starts with imminent danger and a possible murder to get your blood boiling and it continues with one of the most fascinating scenes I’ve read when Nischal and Preston figure what they are to each other, or when Preston suddenly realizes that there are more to this world than he believed.
Nischal being practically naïve on everything human, Preston being hell bound on believing he’s hallucinating, the odd circumstances they met and got together ranged from funny to outright hilarious. That was certainly one of the most brilliant “mates-coming-together” ideas I’ve read for sure. In that moment you get to adore Preston as a character, you get to love him even for being so freaking funny, and as for Nischal, wow, he definitely made my breath catch a couple of times there.
However, from that moment on the plot took a dip for me. It practically changed from “Nischal” to “Preston” as the entire focus was getting back Preston’s brother and how he felt and how he reacted etc. etc. There were plenty of holes there and things that were left unsaid or unexplored.
In addition, there was this contradiction when it came to Nischal’s portrayal. Nischal was supposed to be a virgin and not know the ins or outs of a sexual relationship, yet all his actions lead you to believe he had a very successful crash course on how to please your mate. He was also supposed to be ignorant on the ways of civilized humans, especially in America, yet he seemed to know quite well, what a submissive is and how some things worked, even as he hadn’t been acquainted with those ideas before.
Add to that the fact that the leopard’s didn’t go and have a bloody fight, and the only bloodshed was that of Preston’s scratch on the back and love-bite, and you have a very unhappy Thommie. Typos and errors that were a frequent sight didn’t help either.
So basically, I think I fell for this book from its great start and simply got hooked and went for it till the end. I did enjoy it and I’m curious as to what comes next so my grumping, whining, and annoyance with the flaws is as strong. I’d definitely recommend this book to all shifter lovers; it has quite the appeal that’s for certain.