Shift (Shifters, #5)

by Rachel Vincent

[Angie]

Shift was a weird one for me. I love parts of it, but I also found some of it to be quite odd. Overall, though, I did really enjoy it. Faythe's pride is scrambling for allies in the impending war, but then something happens that will not only cripple the pride but also turn the others against them. They're attacked by a flock of thunderbirds--werebirds!--who believe that someone in their pride killed one of their own. Of course, that's not really what happened. Calvin Malone set them up to deflect blame from his own men, and because thunderbirds are merciless when it comes to vengeance. Trying to prove their innocence isn't easy, and if they go about it the wrong way, it'll just look like they're trying to frame Malone. Quite the sticky situation.

I have to say that the appearance of the thunderbirds turned me off of Shift in the beginning. They felt so random that I just could not get into this plot. Thunderbirds had never been mentioned before, yet, all of a sudden there's dozens of them staging an airborne attack. I felt like rolling my eyes a lot, because they are a pretty ridiculous species and their "laws" and logic are extremely skewed and single minded. They claim to be a species of honor, and twist this value to suit their needs, and refuse to listen to any reason. I just really did not like them. Everything about them was bizarre, and not even in a good way. Thankfully, everything else happening more than made up for this.

My favorite part of Shift was, of course, the romance drama! Every time Faythe and Marc were alone together, I was inwardly screaming for her to tell him! Then whenever Faythe and Jace were alone, I was dying from all of the tension and wanted them to kiss (or more)! And when all three of them were together (which was a lot) I was hoping for some grand blow out of emotions! Well, there was no huge fight, but oh, the tension when the truth comes out! I think Marc's relative calm was even worse than if he blew up. I cannot wait to see how this tragic triangle ends!

Even though Shift got off to a rocky start, I ended up really liking it. It's not my favorite of the series by any means, but I felt like all of the danger and tension was really well done, despite the less than believable catalyst. I must know how it ends!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.