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Evil Stalks the city that never sleeps...
Vivian Roussel prefers to keep a low profile—she is, after all, a werecat, descendant of an ancient demigoddess, and highly regarded in Manhattan’s nightworld. But when she’s robbed of a priceless icon, she has only one recourse for protection.
Surveillance expert and werecat Pavel Federov never gets personal with his clients.But he’s drawn to Vivian. Pavel soon discovers that the thief has something far more dangerous in mind—for he’s marked Vivian as his next target.
Vivian Roussel prefers to keep a low profile—she is, after all, a werecat, descendant of an ancient demigoddess, and highly regarded in Manhattan’s nightworld. But when she’s robbed of a priceless icon, she has only one recourse for protection.
Surveillance expert and werecat Pavel Federov never gets personal with his clients.But he’s drawn to Vivian. Pavel soon discovers that the thief has something far more dangerous in mind—for he’s marked Vivian as his next target.
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
1 person is currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Melina Morel
4Ìýbooks13ÌýfollowersMelina is from New Jersey and spent many years teaching before publishing her first paranormal novel, DEVOUR. She always loved history and enjoys reading it, especially relating to the world’s great empires. She’s a big fan of the History Channel and has always adored costume dramas. Her love of history also led to an appreciation of art and fashion, and in fact, she put this to good use when she wrote two historical novels under another name some years ago. Delving into world myths and folklore led to an interest in the theme of the werewolf and the vampire, which seem to be quite widespread around the globe.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 21, 2009
No, I didn't finish reading it -- and have no such intentions. I got a couple pages into the first chapter, and the quality of writing was so low I wanted to gag. There are plenty of moderately-to-well-written shapeshifter stories out there, that one doesn't need to waste precious time reading "B-movie" crap like this.
I mean, seriously? Behold, the very first instance of shifting, on page 3:
"With that, both men disappeared, and in their places stood two dark cats the size of panthers, lifting their heads to take in the scents on the night air, a mixture of trees, animals and humans."
Wow. Comma abuse there. Not to mention that taking the fundamental magic the plot encompasses and cramming it into a piddly fraction of a run-on sentence... There should be a federal law prohibiting such trivialization.
Last time I cringed this bad, someone had raked their fingernails down the blackboard.
I'll skip on this, thanks.
I mean, seriously? Behold, the very first instance of shifting, on page 3:
"With that, both men disappeared, and in their places stood two dark cats the size of panthers, lifting their heads to take in the scents on the night air, a mixture of trees, animals and humans."
Wow. Comma abuse there. Not to mention that taking the fundamental magic the plot encompasses and cramming it into a piddly fraction of a run-on sentence... There should be a federal law prohibiting such trivialization.
Last time I cringed this bad, someone had raked their fingernails down the blackboard.
I'll skip on this, thanks.
July 18, 2020
I slowly made my way through this book. The werecats caught my interest, but the plot didn't grab my attention.
September 29, 2008
Reviewed for queuemyreview.com; book release Sep08
My, my, my. How to describe “Prey� by Melina Morel? It’s NOT a romance, although there certainly is a smidge of animalistic, scratching, biting sex (well, it’s about shapeshifters!) included. It’s NOT just a mystery. It’s not just urban fantasy. It’s NOT horror. It’s a very interesting mix of all the above. But I would have to say is more of an urban fantasy suspense mystery. How’s that for a new category?
She’s the closest thing to royalty in her clan and he’s an immigrant security expert. Their paths were unlikely to cross. Then her Russian antique store is broken into and someone tries to kidnap her…and she has no idea why. From the moment they meet, they’re drawn to each other. But whoever is looking for whatever they think she has may not give them time to find out if they’re what the other is looking for.
I must admit that it was hard for me to follow all the characters for the first few chapters just because there were so many different ones mentioned. And I still had to do a little backtracking every so often to keep the different clans and characters separated in my mind. But once the story picked up speed, I wanted to know who did what and how the bad guys were gonna ‘get it�. It was gritty. It was suspenseful. There were quite a few subplots going on throughout the story which sometimes made it difficult for me to keep up, but I still wanted to keep reading! And although SIGNET is stamping this with a paranormal romance tag, I didn’t get that ‘vibe� from the book. There was a bit of sex, but nothing I would rate more than PG-13 as most of it was left to the reader’s imagination. And the subplot of forbidden love due to clan differences wasn’t the main thrust of the story. This is more about good versus evil and bad guys versus good guys. Oh, and a missing icon and a dead guy.
I must confess that I didn’t read Ms Morel’s first book “Devour�, but a few characters from that book DO show up in “Prey�. While I couldn’t find any information about any upcoming releases, she does have a pretty slick website at . Very worth a visit as you can ‘tour� one of the main settings of “Prey� and/or find out more about characters from both her books. Since I’m a fan of urban fantasy, suspense, mystery, and romance, this book was an easy way to feed all those hungers. If you’re a cross-genre reader too, pick up a copy and see what YOU think.
My, my, my. How to describe “Prey� by Melina Morel? It’s NOT a romance, although there certainly is a smidge of animalistic, scratching, biting sex (well, it’s about shapeshifters!) included. It’s NOT just a mystery. It’s not just urban fantasy. It’s NOT horror. It’s a very interesting mix of all the above. But I would have to say is more of an urban fantasy suspense mystery. How’s that for a new category?
She’s the closest thing to royalty in her clan and he’s an immigrant security expert. Their paths were unlikely to cross. Then her Russian antique store is broken into and someone tries to kidnap her…and she has no idea why. From the moment they meet, they’re drawn to each other. But whoever is looking for whatever they think she has may not give them time to find out if they’re what the other is looking for.
I must admit that it was hard for me to follow all the characters for the first few chapters just because there were so many different ones mentioned. And I still had to do a little backtracking every so often to keep the different clans and characters separated in my mind. But once the story picked up speed, I wanted to know who did what and how the bad guys were gonna ‘get it�. It was gritty. It was suspenseful. There were quite a few subplots going on throughout the story which sometimes made it difficult for me to keep up, but I still wanted to keep reading! And although SIGNET is stamping this with a paranormal romance tag, I didn’t get that ‘vibe� from the book. There was a bit of sex, but nothing I would rate more than PG-13 as most of it was left to the reader’s imagination. And the subplot of forbidden love due to clan differences wasn’t the main thrust of the story. This is more about good versus evil and bad guys versus good guys. Oh, and a missing icon and a dead guy.
I must confess that I didn’t read Ms Morel’s first book “Devour�, but a few characters from that book DO show up in “Prey�. While I couldn’t find any information about any upcoming releases, she does have a pretty slick website at . Very worth a visit as you can ‘tour� one of the main settings of “Prey� and/or find out more about characters from both her books. Since I’m a fan of urban fantasy, suspense, mystery, and romance, this book was an easy way to feed all those hungers. If you’re a cross-genre reader too, pick up a copy and see what YOU think.
October 6, 2008
I don't think I've ever read such dreck in my life. The writing was so bad it was laughable, so I guess it's my bad for actually finishing this.
If you like to read a story by an author that has good command of the english language and tells a story with a witty turn of phrase...this book is not for you.
If you like to read a story by an author that has good command of the english language and tells a story with a witty turn of phrase...this book is not for you.
August 14, 2015
2.5 stars. It has WERECATS! I was prepared to love this book. First half or so, I was very amused. (WERECATS!!). It fell apart after that. It was predictable and boring.
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April 5, 2020Griezelchicklit. Twee weerkatten ontdekken een onbekend maar waardevol Russisch heiligenbeeld in hun bedrijf en schakelen de hulp in van een bewakingsexpert die ook weerkat is.
November 19, 2021
Really really liked this book ,hope to find more to read!
August 1, 2011
Well, this doesn’t happen to me very often. A book that starts out fine, sounds and feels like it’s going to be good. A book that starts to fall apart in Chapter 2. A book that I just can’t pick up again to finish it. That’s happened to me maybe three or four times in the thirty-five or so years I’ve been reading. That’s how much I like books. And how much I didn’t like this one.
I actually told a friend that I had started this book and I was liking it so far. That was the first chapter. After that I’m not sure what happened in what order for me, but suddenly I just didn’t like the story anymore. I think it was the dialogue. It became stiff and almost childlike. I got no emotion from it at all.
There’s a scene where the heroine, Vivian, is kidnapped. Though she’s a shifter and can more than likely take care of herself, there’s still that window of time where she should be frightened, and though the words in the book tried to tell me that, I never felt it. Even when the characters talk to one another, they’re rigid and unemotional. They read like one-dimensional people on paper, which is exactly what they are. The blind date between Hank and Viv, as well as their conversation, was so…high school. Just didn’t work.
All of that then led me to not caring about and not liking the characters all that much. In the first chapter I really liked Pavel and Ivan. They shift into their cat forms to save a little girl from her kidnapper. The action is good, the emotion is there. When that’s over, however, for the next twenty-three chapters, which is where I stopped, nothing happens. Nothing worth mentioning anyway. Certainly no action. No emotion. Not even any sex. I would have been happy with lukewarm sex. Nope. Even when Pavel thinks about, admires Vivian, big whoop the way it’s described. Same thing when she thinks about him.
All I got, and this was the best part in twenty-three chapters, was when Pavel and Viv decided to be honest with one another and shifted to show the other their cat. Lots of looking during that scene. Some love-bites or licks would have been nice, but nothing. Not even any sniffing. I did, though, learn the difference between Maine Coon Cats, Siberian something or others, and Russian Blues. That was said I don’t know how many times. I just didn’t care by this time.
Why we went from a good opening chapter of shifting cats hunting the bad guys to those same cats in search of a Russian icon in their human forms is beyond me, because it got so very boring. The author didn’t make me care about a thing in this book. And, believe me, when that happens when I’m reading, that’s bad.
See my complete review at
I actually told a friend that I had started this book and I was liking it so far. That was the first chapter. After that I’m not sure what happened in what order for me, but suddenly I just didn’t like the story anymore. I think it was the dialogue. It became stiff and almost childlike. I got no emotion from it at all.
There’s a scene where the heroine, Vivian, is kidnapped. Though she’s a shifter and can more than likely take care of herself, there’s still that window of time where she should be frightened, and though the words in the book tried to tell me that, I never felt it. Even when the characters talk to one another, they’re rigid and unemotional. They read like one-dimensional people on paper, which is exactly what they are. The blind date between Hank and Viv, as well as their conversation, was so…high school. Just didn’t work.
All of that then led me to not caring about and not liking the characters all that much. In the first chapter I really liked Pavel and Ivan. They shift into their cat forms to save a little girl from her kidnapper. The action is good, the emotion is there. When that’s over, however, for the next twenty-three chapters, which is where I stopped, nothing happens. Nothing worth mentioning anyway. Certainly no action. No emotion. Not even any sex. I would have been happy with lukewarm sex. Nope. Even when Pavel thinks about, admires Vivian, big whoop the way it’s described. Same thing when she thinks about him.
All I got, and this was the best part in twenty-three chapters, was when Pavel and Viv decided to be honest with one another and shifted to show the other their cat. Lots of looking during that scene. Some love-bites or licks would have been nice, but nothing. Not even any sniffing. I did, though, learn the difference between Maine Coon Cats, Siberian something or others, and Russian Blues. That was said I don’t know how many times. I just didn’t care by this time.
Why we went from a good opening chapter of shifting cats hunting the bad guys to those same cats in search of a Russian icon in their human forms is beyond me, because it got so very boring. The author didn’t make me care about a thing in this book. And, believe me, when that happens when I’m reading, that’s bad.
See my complete review at
November 29, 2008
Vivian and Marc Roussel are two siblings who import Russian artifacts for their store. And they're also werecats. After a trip to Russia that garnered new artifacts, their merchandise place gets broken into, yet nothing seems to have been stolen. They decide to hire Pavel Federov's security company, Federov's a surveillance expert and also a Russian Blue werecat. Shortly after, there's a kidnapping attempt on both Marc and Vivian. Neither of them knows why someone broke into their storage, or try to kidnap them and Federov starts investigating to found out whoever who's behind the attacks and what they want. At the same time, Vivian and Pavel are developing an attraction for each other, of course and it's against werecat rules to mix between packs but that doesn't stop them.
But what they don't know is that someone has stolen a priceless icon from Russia and both Marc and Vivian are right in the middle of an international disaster. Whoever stole this has marked both siblings as his next target and it's up to Pavel to keep Vivian and Marc safe, find whoever wants to harm then and manage to get the icon back to its home.
I have mixed feelings about Prey. Even though I think the suspense and the plot was pretty good to follow along, the romance between Viv and Pavel left something to be desired. It seemed rush and stilted. One second they're possibly developing an attraction to each other and the next they're professing their love for each other? I just didn't buy that. They interaction just seemed fake. Most of their conversations was about how much they loved each other, how wonderful the other one is, and it got to a point where I didn't care to read those parts. I looked forward to reading the interactions between the two bad guys than these two because it was weird, it was more interesting to read about the others.
The plot was what kept me reading the book. I wanted to know who was behind the breaking and entering, the possible kidnapping, who stolen the item and what they wanted. The suspense was more interesting than the relationship. At times, the writing was awkward, I felt there was a lot of telling but no showing, but there were also times where it was good enough for me to imagine what was going on so it was inconsistent. I did enjoy the way things ended but I could have done without Vivian and Pavel's wooden relationship.
But what they don't know is that someone has stolen a priceless icon from Russia and both Marc and Vivian are right in the middle of an international disaster. Whoever stole this has marked both siblings as his next target and it's up to Pavel to keep Vivian and Marc safe, find whoever wants to harm then and manage to get the icon back to its home.
I have mixed feelings about Prey. Even though I think the suspense and the plot was pretty good to follow along, the romance between Viv and Pavel left something to be desired. It seemed rush and stilted. One second they're possibly developing an attraction to each other and the next they're professing their love for each other? I just didn't buy that. They interaction just seemed fake. Most of their conversations was about how much they loved each other, how wonderful the other one is, and it got to a point where I didn't care to read those parts. I looked forward to reading the interactions between the two bad guys than these two because it was weird, it was more interesting to read about the others.
The plot was what kept me reading the book. I wanted to know who was behind the breaking and entering, the possible kidnapping, who stolen the item and what they wanted. The suspense was more interesting than the relationship. At times, the writing was awkward, I felt there was a lot of telling but no showing, but there were also times where it was good enough for me to imagine what was going on so it was inconsistent. I did enjoy the way things ended but I could have done without Vivian and Pavel's wooden relationship.
March 2, 2010
Vivian and Marc's business is under attack presumably by the Russians. They hire Pavel's security firm to protect them from further attacks. I liked Vivian and Pavel but they had little passion so the sex scenes felt flat and sexless. Oh they had sex but you had to use your imagination for most of it. If I wanted to use my imagination, I wouldn't have spent $7 for the book.
Pavel ahs the Russians under surveillance (both audio and video) but at a critical point, the security team doesn't hear or see anything which leads to disaster. This is just not believeable and was beyond irritating.
This book wasn't nearly as good as the first book, . I didn't like the Russian backstory and the top Russian was an absolutely greedy bitch. The author did a great job on the characters of the Russian bad guys (and gals) but the good guys, other than the H/H, were slighted and not as developed.
Pavel ahs the Russians under surveillance (both audio and video) but at a critical point, the security team doesn't hear or see anything which leads to disaster. This is just not believeable and was beyond irritating.
This book wasn't nearly as good as the first book, . I didn't like the Russian backstory and the top Russian was an absolutely greedy bitch. The author did a great job on the characters of the Russian bad guys (and gals) but the good guys, other than the H/H, were slighted and not as developed.
February 21, 2011
You know how the Lord of the Rings Trilogy has lots and lots of boring walking and scenery? Well I love those books because they also have a lot of awesomeness mixed in there...wonderful characters, amazing mythology, etc.
Well, this book has lots of going from place to place, lots of phone calls, lots of planning...and nothing emotionally arresting or even mildly interesting in between. Event the fight scenes are kind of matter-of-fact. The villains aren't even that threatening.
This was shelved in romance at the library but there is absolutely no spark, no tension, but lots and lots of sappy dialogue and an instant "we're together forever" thing that's just like "huh?" The two main characters are perfect, no hidden secrets, no apparent character flaws, and to make it even worse, they are specimens of physical perfection. *Snore*
Well, this book has lots of going from place to place, lots of phone calls, lots of planning...and nothing emotionally arresting or even mildly interesting in between. Event the fight scenes are kind of matter-of-fact. The villains aren't even that threatening.
This was shelved in romance at the library but there is absolutely no spark, no tension, but lots and lots of sappy dialogue and an instant "we're together forever" thing that's just like "huh?" The two main characters are perfect, no hidden secrets, no apparent character flaws, and to make it even worse, they are specimens of physical perfection. *Snore*
February 9, 2014
This story started out very well and interesting, but about 1/3 of the way in it got very slow and the mystery lagged. There is not much romance, a little sex but more PG or like in the older movies they start kissing and then moves to the window, in this case to the next chapter.
World building was interesting but again just didn't go anywhere for me.
So first part of the book solid 4stars but the rest just got boring.
It can be read alone even though it is the second book in this series. I will not be reading the rest of this series.
If you like a mystery that is slow and convoluted with very little romance, then I recommend this. Just not for me. To bad because it started out so well.
World building was interesting but again just didn't go anywhere for me.
So first part of the book solid 4stars but the rest just got boring.
It can be read alone even though it is the second book in this series. I will not be reading the rest of this series.
If you like a mystery that is slow and convoluted with very little romance, then I recommend this. Just not for me. To bad because it started out so well.
December 28, 2009
I enjoyed Prey. The relationship of Viv and Pavel was good, but again, it was more of a gradual, off the scenes, chemistry and we're not really given a lot of the details. We get the sly glances and the knowledge that these two are going to hook up, but it kind of just happens. I don't really know if I can pinpoint the exact moment where they are together because they just seemed to be. It was good though. The plots were well meshed together and they were definitely interesting enough to keep my attention.
To read my full review, .
To read my full review, .
November 7, 2014
Good storyline. There were a lot of typos but was pretty well written. The ending left a few things out, such as the leader for Vivian's clan. What was the reaction in Russia to all that happened. There were a lot of details up to that point. Then nothing to spesk of. Overall a good read though.
October 26, 2008
If this is on your TBR pile, you may want to give it a miss - it is tedious and bland- not at all up to my standards in reading material! I kept hoping it would improve, but it just didn't.
Read
November 3, 2008I'm going to have to find her first book. got this oe at a book sale.
January 14, 2011
Did not finish. Not at all my cup of tea.
November 27, 2008
One of the dumbest premises ever with poor execution. Boring.
February 4, 2012
A follow on from Devour. You would do well to read Devour before starting on Prey, though they both stand alone. Still a great read!
Want to read
September 8, 2009#
Read
October 29, 2012tiffany finally returned this. geez i lent it to her like 2 years ago. lol. :P i havent read it in a few years so i may re read it one of these days.
June 2, 2015
Pretty good read.
August 11, 2015
I just didn't get into this one. For a bunch of shape-shifting spies it was pretty tame. Probably didn't help that I skipped chapters at a time because the love scenes weren't that strong.
April 13, 2016
The dialogue in this one was really cheesy. The were-cat aspect would have been a nice one, but it's hardly used. The story itself is fairly predictable. There's really no surprises.
January 9, 2021
this book was so bad i couldnt finish it. the writing was terrible.
August 8, 2011
I loved the concept of were-cats. Strong characters and a solid story line in this paranormal.
Want to read
September 22, 2013#
March 14, 2014
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