INTO THE NIGHT - Caitlyn Willows
Into the Heart, Book 2
Loose Id - www.loose-id.com
ISBN: 978-1-59632-770-2
September 2008
Erotic Paranormal Romance

San Diego, California - Present Day

For Trina Tate, the last six months have been nothing but confusion and fear.  An archaeological dig introduced Trina to the fact that shape-shifters exist, as the people who hired her were skinwalkers – a shape-shifter’s natural enemy.  During the dig, she also was inhabited by another spirit, that of Ka-ra, the former jaguar queen who had been killed by skinwalkers centuries ago, and Trina also met, for the first time, her boss, Wyatt Caldwell, the alpha jaguar.  Though the remaining shape-shifters left the site, Trina stayed behind to finish her work.  Then, strange things started happening to her: unusual spots on her skin, enhanced vision and sense of smell, blackouts preceded by vertigo and nauseousness, and the feeling that something inside of her is trying to claw it’s way out.  Unsure of what is going on, and wondering if something of Ka-ra besides her memories remains, Trina decides to find the shape-shifters and ask them to help.

Hunting down the skinwalkers slimmed the numbers of Wyatt’s clan down considerably, and after the final showdown six months ago, the men returned to find wildfires had decimated their group even further.  The thirteen still left are trying to bond again, and Trina’s presence is putting all of them on edge, so Wyatt decides to frighten her away.  Trina however, is remarkably not frightened by his aggression or his jaguar form, and she calls to him as no one has since he lost Ka-ra.  Unlike the old Trina, who would step on anybody in her way to the top, this woman seems vulnerable, which intrigues Wyatt.  When tragedy once again strikes his clan, Wyatt needs to determine whether Trina had anything to do with it, or if she is an innocent bystander, once again caught up in the circumstances around her.

While INTO THE NIGHT is an interesting paranormal tale, it might be better to have read the first of the Into the Heart series first.  This story starts with Trina, Wyatt and the other shape-shifters dealing with the fall-out of the battle with the skinwalkers and the wildfires, and without knowing the details of that, INTO THE NIGHT may be a bit confusing at first.  However, once some of this background is explained and the story focuses in on Trina and Wyatt, readers are treated to a compelling sensual tale.  While Trina once felt all of Ka-ra’s emotions, and still has the shifter’s memories, the attraction she feels for Wyatt isn’t just an echo of his lost love, but Trina knows that he doesn’t feel the same way.  The past six months have had Trina re-evaluating her life, and she doesn’t much like the person she was.  The person she’s becoming, while at times is a bit scary, is at least more likable. 

The possibility that Trina is a shifter brings nothing but questions to Wyatt and his clan but, as it becomes apparent that the mountain lions forced closer to the city by the wildfires are more of a threat than the jaguars had assumed, those questions may have to wait.  An intriguing novel, be sure to look for INTO THE NIGHT.

Jennifer Bishop