I became attached to Ms. Wilder's Shadow Dwellers series with my first taste, and the addiction only becomes stronger each time I read something by her. Tempt Not the Cat is the third installment in this series, and like fine wine and friendships, it only gets better with time. Each character in this series is connected through friendships and bonds in the paranormal world that, like still waters, run deeper than any of them really know.

Erihn has just put out another scorcher of a romance novel and is celebrating her literary popularity with her friends in a café when she's talked into reciting one of her own poems in front of a hundred people she doesn't know from Adam. When one of said strangers, a drop-dead handsome man who takes her breath away, marches up to the stage and kisses her right out of her socks, she's too stunned to do anything. While the kiss was everything she'd ever wanted, she doesn't go after the man; in fact, she runs from him. Erihn is the survivor of a vicious attack that marred her beautiful face with a shameful scar, but the real scars are on the inside where no one, and nothing, can heal them.

Erihn had been an up and coming model, with beauty that was fawned over by everyone who saw her. Except one. One man who wanted to own her and make her his own by any means necessary. He kidnapped her and held her for days at his mercy, leaving her scarred and terrified to get close to any man ever again. Even after her kidnapper was killed, his memory was more than enough to make Erihn run and hide at the first scent of attraction from the opposite sex.

She heads for Avon, high up in the mountains of Colorado, for some alone time and to start in on the research for her next book. Two of her dearest friends, Mac and Jennifer (from Retribution) have allowed her to not only stay in their home, but to use it for whatever she wants. Up in the mountains, she is truly alone. Erihn wouldn't have it any other way.

But something is about to change everything she knows.

Fayne is heading to Colorado for a few weeks of R & R before going back to his adopted son and the stresses of his every day life. Imagine his surprise when he finds his friends' mountain home not only occupied, but the very woman who he'd kissed in the café is lounging in the hot tub without a care in the world. Having lived for centuries, wandering from place to place, and woman to woman, Fayne figures that this new goddess will be a passing fancy. But something about Erihn calls to the were-cat in him to settle down. Now if he could only convince Erihn that he wasn't going to 'love her and leave her'.

Love isn't easily found, and when you do find it, hold on to it. Because you don't know what sort of actors are waiting in the wings to destroy everything that matters to you. With his love of Erihn, Fayne has put her squarely into the cross hairs of a mad man who will stop at nothing to destroy the were-cat's life. When the time comes, will Erihn trust him? Or will she run away and let the killers come?

With Tempt Not the Cat, Ms. Wilder has given us another thrilling and erotic tale of love, lust, and things that go bump in the night.
 
 
Reviewed By Marissa
© July 2006