Adrik Wilder is the descendant of a brutal warrior who sold his soul AND the souls of his progeny to the devil for the ability to transform into a predator.  There is a way to break the curse but Adrik accepts his dark soul's bidding and uses his ability to transform into a panther to become a mercenary leader in the lands between Nepal and Tibet.  There he sees and kidnaps Karen Sonnet to fulfill his desires.

Karen Sonnet is a woman of strong mind and body having struggled all her life for the love and respect of her father.  Adrik finds himself falling in love with her but is determined to change his ways in order to become a man she can love.  The curse breaking prophecy involves his whole family with each brother having their own beloved to find and part to play in order to break the thousand year old curse.  Not everyone in his extended family is anxious to lose their special abilities and his cousins and uncles have marked his whole family for death if they can hunt them down and find them. 

Karen has to decide if she can forgive Adrik for kidnapping her and keeping her captive.   Together, Adrik and Karen have to find an icon and keep it safe until it can be reunited with three others to fulfill the prophecy all the while running from and fighting his relatives, the demonic Varinskis. 

I was a bit surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading the others in the series.  No matter how unbelievable the powers, Dodd builds believable characters which draw you in quickly and you find yourself rooting for this rather tarnished hero.  As a series, each family member has their own story to tell and role to play to break the curse, and Dodd builds a well rounded tale for each one.

August 18, 2008