The Cat
Jean Johnson
Berkley, Jun 2008, $14.00
ISBN: 9780425221495

Amara was to be the queen of the shapeshifters, but instead was forced to flee her kingdom in order to save the life of her twin sister Arora. The mages want Arora for her unique special magic. The siblings barely make it to Nightfall Island after surviving a nasty swim from their wrecked ship.

There on Nightfall Island reside eight brothers, four sets of twins, with four of them having found their soulmates. Trevan the shapeshifter has waited too long for his to arrive. Now that she has, his Amara distrusts Trevan, his siblings and their women as mages want to kill her and kidnap her sister to use as their tool.

Once again Jean Johnson does, as she has done with the four previous Sons of Destiny tales, creates a stand alone tale that focuses one of the brothers and his beloved, but it behooves the audience to read the previous books first (see THE SWORD), etc. because there is also an overarching theme developing. The key to this fine entry that starts the second half of the saga is the audience sees deep inside the hearts of Trevan THE CAT and the ex Queen Amara so what matters to each of them is fully understood; especially her distrust of magic using males. Fans will appreciate this visit to the Johnsonian Universe.

Harriet Klausner