Review: Once Bitten by Kalayna Price.

 

Once Bitten is the first book in the Haven series by Kalayna Price and a Dark Fantasy from Bell Bridge Books.

Book Blurb:

Dead cats don't cry.  Kita Nekai finds that out the hard way.

For the past five years, Kita, a shapeshifter, has faded into the background of the human world, but when a rogue shifter begins littering the city of Haven with bodies, Kita becomes a suspect.

Hunters are after her.  She barely avoids being plucked off the street, and owes the near miss to the fact her second form is a five pound kitten - an unexpected size considering she's descended from lions and tigers.

As the night wears on and she is unable to skip town, her luck runs out and she is forced into a confrontation she can't win.  Rescue arrives in the form of vampire Nathanial Deaton, and Kita soon wishes it hadn't.

Nathanial accidentally turns her into a vampire like himself, robbing her of the ability to shape-shift.

Kita thinks her life has hit rock-bottom, but then a vigilante underworld magistrate accuses her of creating and setting loose the murderous rogue who is tormenting the city.

To avoid an instant death sentence and to clear her name, Kita and Nathanial agree to hunt down and deliver the rogue.

Once Bitten was submitted for review.

My thoughts:

Kita Nekai is the daughter of the Torin, the clan leader - and he has named her his successor.  As a cat shifter in a clan of lion and tiger shifters - Kita does not feel that she has the right or might to lead - so she bolts.

On the run for the last five years, Kita has survived by maintaining her cat form and living off the charity of those cat lovers who take in strays - something she is ashamed to admit.

Thinking she had hit the bottom of the barrel and things couldn't get any worse - Kita is surprised when she wakes up naked, chained to a bolt in the floor in an unfamiliar room - and she can't call her cat.

The situation snow balls from there.   Kita is charged with finding a rogue shifter who is murdering people - or face her own death.

And to top everything off - she's been turned into a vampire - something no one thought possible for a shifter - and now she is on the radar of the Vampire Council.

I enjoyed Once Bitten.

Kita is tough and determined to do her own thing - even if that puts her in some hazardous situations.

I am curious to see where things go with Nathanial and I don't trust the Vampire Council at all.

I give Once Bitten 3 out of 5 stars.

I have the next book in this series, Twice Dead on the tbr shelf and I am looking forward to reading it.

M