Battle Scars (Book Four of Blood of the Pride) by Sheryl Nantur

Paranormal

What Goodreads says:

"P.I. Rebecca Desjardin is surprised when two seemingly unrelated missing teen cases land in her lap on the same day. Her cat shifter instincts tell her there’s more to the story, and when she uncovers a bitter feud between the two families, she suspects Romeo and Juliet runaways. She turns to her lover Brandon Hanover a man who knows the underground better than most.
Brandon is determined to help the woman he loves outwit ruthless enforcers and bring two missing kids to safety, but when a woman from his past resurfaces he finds himself caught between two worlds once again.
As the claws come out, and the war between the shifter families turns deadly, the two will have to stand together or fall separately—and even that might not be enough to save them."

Let me start by saying that I did not realize Battle Scars was part of a series when I requested the book from Netgalley.  As I was reading I though it was book 2 in the series.  It was not until I was through and found the synopsis of books 1 – 3 that I realized it was book four.  That explained why I was so lost during parts of the book.  I strongly recommend reading the first three books first.  It would even have helped if I had read the synopsis of the first three books before I started.

I will give Sheryl Nantur credit for helping readers by dropping parts of the world building and back story into the dialog.  It did help and by the end of the book I had a pretty good handle on the Blood of the Pride world.

Having said that the story was intriguing enough for me to continue to read even though I was a little lost.  There were some interesting features to the series.  This is a book about shifters and the way they shifted was interesting.  First time I had seen that.  The main character, Rebecca Desjardin, is a strong female who has had to make it on her own.  She is a shifter who can rarely shift and has been an outcast to her family.  Brandon is her human mate and is very protective of Rebecca even though physically she is the stronger. 

This is a Romeo and Juliet story.  Rebecca is hired to find two teenagers who have run away.  They are from two families that have been feuding for years and both parents want them back and away from each other.

Sounds simple but of course there are lots of twists and turns.  Neither of the families want to give up the feud and that adds a lot to the tension in the story.  Brandon has a past with the street people, another addition to the tension.  There are also some really interesting side characters who added a lot to the story.

I liked the writing.  The pacing in the story was great.  Information showed up just in time.  The characters were well-developed and fit the story line. 

I think this is a very good series.  I do recommend starting at the beginning.  It would be better than dropping in the middle like I did.

Carina Press released Battle Scars by Sheryl Nantus in 2013.