3.5 stars

Walk on the Wild Side was alright. Even though this is a novel of the Others, none of the characters from previous books show up. I felt that Kitty reacted to most things appropriately. Even though she was set on a certain path concerning her birth father, I liked how she was able to make realistic adjustments once she visited him. I thought Kitty and Max had some good chemistry. Things got a bit jumbled toward the end of the story, IMO. I don't think I will continue to read the rest of this series. ( )

I was having a hard time getting into book three and so four is also still waiting to be read. This came via the library and was an enjoyable read. Looking forward to going back and taking a look at book 4 and for book 6 to come out. ( )

When Catherine "Kitty" finally accepts the invitation from her father to visit him in Las Vegas she discovers that not only can he help her control her leonine side but she also meets Max, her father's second in command. Everyone thinks she's there for the money but honestly she's not all that taken with it. Plus she's a rare books librarian (though what she's going to do with her life isn't discussed really).

She's determined to spend the least amount of time possible with the man who abandoned her mother and ignored her existence until now. But now he's dying (and I loved the link between cancer and were-ness, it was such a logical conclusion) and she has to hang around for longer, but someone appears to want to kill her and Max is feeling very protective.

I enjoyed the read and liked the characters but felt annoyed for the assumption that his work had more value than hers. ( )

This is the first of Ms. Warren's books in this series that have dealt with Others away from New York. These others are lion shifters. I liked the setup for the story and the follow up. Kitty drew me in and made me like her from the very first. She is a strong and intelligent woman that has made the best of a mother that wasn't there for her most of the time and a father that left before she was born. Kitty isn't bitter, for the most part, she has a very southern outlook on life. Ms. Warren's way of introducing Kitty to her Other side was refreshing and a little scary.

Marcus "Max" Stuart was also a refreshing change from most dominant male shifters. He was willing to let Kitty get use to the idea of being with him before things got to carried away. Max is all protective male mate though. He is willing to let Kitty make some mistakes but he takes her putting her life in jeopardy very seriously, even though Kitty isn't looking for trouble most of the time.

The suspense starts at the beginning and goes through to almost the end of the book. I was a little surprised at who all the bad guys were. Their motives for trying to kill Kitty are of course as old as time.

Ms. Warren writes a good story with great humor and some really steam up the windows sex between Mas and Kitty. I like this series of books and look forward to reading the rest of them. ( )

To be honest I didn't finish this one. The book is about 330 pages long, I made it through about 290. That was the point when I realized I didn't care even the faintest amount what happened next and was probably wasting my time forcing myslef to continue. So this review is based on the first 90% of the book.

To begin, I've been on the fence about this series since I started it. For the most part I rated the first four novels (I have not read any of the E-books) as average--good premises, decent characters, but weak or downright sloppy execution. I continue trying anyway. I think part of that is that, like many people, I like the series factor--repeating characters, continuity, etc. So my first caution to readers about this book is, if you are thinking of reading based on it's value of fitting into the series you are going to be disapointed right off the bat. It takes place in Las Vegas and has none of the same characters or plot threads introduced in previous books that I'm aware of.

The premise of this book is actually very interesting. Kitty finds out that she's a werelion, a trait inherited from a father she never knew. She travels to Las Vegas to meet him and learn what it is to be a Leo. She her father, Martin, and discovers that he's dieing. She meets and falls in love with Martin's second in command, Max. Martins family are hostile toward her, she struggles with her new and comlex emotions, and tries to find a place for herself between the human and Leo world.

I liked Kitty. I liked Max. I didn't feel that either one underwent a tremendous amount of developement (which is disapointing, considering the plot) but at least I liked them. The romance is even decent. I can't say spectacular, because frankly the instantly in love and choosing you as my mate thing has been done in the genre way to much. As it appears in this book, it seems like a cop out for the author--it means she doesn't have to take the time to actually build the chemistry and the relationship. But I can live with it, because it's sexy in it's own way.

The best way that that I can explain this book is that it's a lot like a soap opera. There is in fact a scene where Kitty looks at the melodrama unfolding and thinks just that, that everyone is behaving like soap stars, and its ironically accurate to the entire book. At the core of this are the "villains" Drusilla, Nadia, and Peter--Martins ex-wife and two children respectively. They are so much like fairy tale stepmother and siblings that it's laughable. Shallowly written, painfully simplistic one dimensional characters who exist only to make the heroine's life difficult. The problem with this is obvious--the character's are flat and predictable, so the conflicts are flat and predictable. Again, I think the author chose to show that these people are just plain bad, rather then showing them as layered complex characters who change and develope. I was pretty disapointed that the relationship between Martin and Kitty, the one conflict with a lot of interesting potential, petered off without what I would call satisfactory resolution. Nope, everything is surface level, mindless,simplistic. Why bother?

This book may have finally ended my efforts to continue with this series. I had hoped it would only get better. ( )