The Book Gourmet

This is the series prequel...Before Lucas met Sascha (and all hell broke loose), Emmett met Ria (Lucas' human executive assistant in later books) and fell—hard—like changelings do.

It was sort of weird reading this prequel when other stories (later stories) were published before it, but it was like a nice, quick, funny, and sexy blast from the past with a bigger focus on the human woman, suddenly finding herself in the sights of a hungry leopard, and her quirky family, instead of on the DarkRiver pack and the changelings.

I loved Ria, I adored her grandmother, and I even loved Ria's (sometimes) overbearing parents once they got over the fixation of getting her married to the 'perfect suitor'. And while Emmett was adorable, despite Hawke being my all-time favorite changeling (sorry, Lucas), I do have a preference to the leopards, I still found myself enjoying scenes with Ria and her family more.

I guess the story was just too short (being a novella) to convey everything Emmett had to offer—beside the obvious—and really push the romance through, because I felt kind of cheated we didn't get more. But I know it's tough to cram everything needed—character introduction, attraction, romance, suspense, and just a pinch of drama—into a story less than 100 pages long.

So, despite the lack of 'story' (in lack of a better word), I'm giving this 4 stars. Because I can. And because I liked it.