Review: Once Bitten by Kalayna Price

Once Bitten
Author: Kalayna Price
Publication: Bell Bridge Books (January 9, 2009)


Description: Vampires and Shapeshifters. A Fictionwise bestseller: No. 1 on the Fictionwise Dark Fantasy list in Feb. 2009 


Kita Nekai, on the run and the smallest of her shifter clan-a calico cat among lions and tigers-is being hunted. She was expected to accept her role as her father's successor whether or not her cat was up to the task of leading the clan. She disagreed. Now she's less than a step ahead of the hunters, bone-tired, cold, and living hand-to-mouth in the city of Haven. And that's the high point of her day. She's also drugged, "accidently" turned into a vampire, and sentenced to death for recklessly creating a rogue shifter who tortures its human prey. She's got seventy-two hours to find the rogue, evade a city full of hunters, prove she's not responsible for the rogue, and keep the vampire council from killing her. All while sorting out an apprentice mage, a married ex-boyfriend shifter-hunter, and the vampire who made her. 


My Thoughts: Kita is having a very bad day. She is a runaway from her home world and is attacked by a rogue shifter, changed into a vampire, sentenced to death by a demon judge, and has her sentence delayed to give her time to bring in the rogue shifter. But she only has two days to find the shifter and get used to being a vampire. Kita is not pleased!


Nathaniel is the vampire who turned her. He becomes her companion on her hunt and is trying to convince her that being a vampire is a good thing. Kita is not convinced! In fact, she nearly starves herself to death before she can be reconciled to taking blood from a human. And then there are the vampire politics to play....


One of the hunters sent from her home to bring her back home where she is supposed to be the heir to leadership of her clan is her childhood friend, first love, and is now mated to someone else. Bobby is conflicted about bringing her home and helps her on her rogue hunt too.


Kita ran away for a number of unspecified reasons but one was surely that she felt that her form as that of a calico cat isn't really what the clan needs in a leader. Another reason was that she was not allowed to mate with Bobby. She has spent the past five years on Earth mostly as a calico cat moving from owner to owner as whim takes her. She moves on before she can become attached to anyone. She has become used to leaving.


This was a fun urban fantasy with great characters. I look forward to reading the sequel which is somewhere on my TBR stack to find out if Kita ever gets used to being a vampire and ever takes the chance on a relationship.


Favorite Quote:

I looked around to see if anyone else was waiting in line to threaten and utterly turn my world upside down. Vampires, demons, and psychos with wicked magic, so far. Perhaps Frankenstein's monster would show up next and demand my head for his bride. My quick search turned up only Nathaniel and Bobby, the latter disturbingly still. I crawled through the snow to him.

Source: Free book for the Kindle downloaded on Dec. 29, 2009.