SEDUCTION'S SHIFT – A.C. Arthur
The Shadow Shifters , Book 2
St. Martin's Paperbacks
978-0-312-54911-4
October 2012
Paranormal Romance

Gungi Rainforest, South American; Washington, D.C. – Present Day

Aryiola Serino lives in the Gungi rainforest with her parents, who are curanderos , the healers of their tribe, and Ary is even better than they are.  Ary has also taken healing lessons from Yuri the shaman for years, and once wanted to go to the United States to learn real medicine.  Unfortunately her father Davi refused to let her go, and her mother, who worships her father, dared not disagree with him.  Their tribe members are Tope'tenia , or jaguar shifters, but even as far away from civilization as they are, trouble lurks.  Sabar is also a shifter with a business in the States, a drug empire, and with Ary's help, he can take the herb damiana and mix it with another herb that will create a new drug that will give him the power he craves.  After Sabar kidnaps Ary and gives her some of his drug, she turns into her jaguar self and kills one of his jaguar rogues.  It's only her mate, or companheiro, Dominick Delgado, who finds her and rescues her from the evil Sabar.

Sixteen years before, Nick and Ary had mated, but both his parents and her parents put pressure on him and persuaded him that going to the United States was the best route to take.  Now Nick is a lawyer and is a member of the East Coast Faction of the jaguar shifters, along with Roman Reynolds, another lawyer, and Xavier Santos-Markland, an FBI agent.  Roman's wife Kalina had been captured by Sabar months ago, and he still wants to possess her, but it is Ary whom he needs to make his drugs.  After finding and bringing Ary back to the tribe, the men realize Sabar is still loose and determined to again capture either Ary or Kalina, and Ary needs to be protected.  Ary is delighted to be given the chance to go to Washington, but she still holds a large grudge because of the way Nick left her all those years ago and never contacted her again.

As one of the leaders of the shifters for the East Coast, Nick knows the trouble Sabar and his rogue shifters can cause with a drug that turns a person into something else and leads to killing.  A drug with unknown capabilities could cause chaos all over the country, and they must locate Sabar before he finds Ary.

Sabar has rogue shifters distributing the drug with the added ingredients around town, but people are ending up dead after taking it.  The added ingredient needs something only Ary can supply, and it won't take long before he can find her and get the information he needs, and then all power will be his.  As soon as Nick and Roman and X are taken care of by his drugged-up rogues, then he can get Ary to work on his drug and make Kalina his own.

The secondary characters are essential to the story of Nick and Ary.  Roman is the East Coast Faction leader of the jaguar shifters, and Nick and X are his right hand men.  Yuri is a shaman and had been a teacher of Ary's for years; but even wealth can change the beliefs of a shaman.   X has seen his two best friends become mated and feels his own loneliness; he knows there is no one who would want to be with him.  And the mysterious Caprise, Nick's sister, returns after five years away and is keeping secrets close to her vest.  And last but not least is Sabar, also a shifter but now a dealer in illegal drugs and determined to completely control his Rogue shifters and become a leader of all.

SEDUCTION'S SHIFT is definitely an action packed story of the jaguar shape shifters trying to live in harmony in the United States without letting their secret out.  The first book in The Shadow Shifters, TEMPTATION RISING (March 2012) features the story of Roman and Kalina, but you do not have to have read it to enjoy SEDUCTION'S SHIFT.  I personally hope X's story is next, but there is no information about the next chapter in the jaguars' story and whether Sabar will cause mass destruction with drugs that turn people into something else.  It's not an easy road for Nick and Ary to come together, but it's one they work hard at to succeed.

Carolyn Crisher