Frayed by Blakely Chorpenning – a Review

Description:
Fray loves being a semi-pro fighter and free spirit. However, when a deadly faction begins abducting supernatural teens in the Blue Hills of North Carolina for excruciating experiments, she quickly learns there is more to life than glitzy opponents and late night trysts. Fray and a crew of unlikely allies must rescue the children before they are dissected alive. Being a leopard shapeshifter helps. Confronting personal prejudice and traversing feelings for a tempestuous ex do not mix. But Fray is willing to go all the way to stop her world from changing. That is, until the ultimate sacrifice forces her to realize just how overdue change is.

Her most shocking discovery: Everyone’s human. At least a little…

Review:

Frayed is Blakely Chorpenning’s debut book.  It is a novella leading into her new Madison Lark Urban Fantasy series.

We meet Fray early on, when she is in the midst of a semi pro fight.  Fray is a leopard shifter, who likes to fight, to use up her restless leopard energies, and she gets paid for it.  Fray is a tough, hard ass heroine, who is not afraid to speak her mind openly, no matter if it hurts, and she is very independent.  But despite her stubbornness, she cares, and this makes her an excellent heroine. 

We also get to meet Fray’s friends and pack members, as she lives with some of them.  I will get back to this, as part of this bothered me a bit.  At the end of the fight, Fray is met by her brother Darien, who has a stranger with him.  She smells him, and knows he is Vampire and we all know that all shape-shifters hate Vampires.  Fray is nasty to Nash, the vampire, but is told to behave by her brother.  Nash is there for a reason. 

Fray learns there are more missing children from various local packs.  She cares about the children, and is determined to help find them. Blaire, the head of the pack, feels Fray is the best person to team up with Nash, who has also been assigned to help investigate why the children are disappearing. Fray puts aside her immense dislike for vampires, and is willing to work with Nash.  Willing does not mean she will treat him nice.

There is no real romance in this novella, though you know there is past history between Blaire and Fray.  Something that is still very much alive, but at this time Fray is trying to fight her feelings by staying away from Blaire, as she does not want to get hurt again.

Nash and Fray work together meeting families of the missing children to try and understand what and why this is happening.  Finally we meet Lucy, who is also a vampire and Nash’s ex.  At this point, we learn a bit more about who is taking the children.  The story for the last half of the book is very exciting, tense, even sickening.  But it is well written and flows very well, and at times pulls on your emotions.  Fray is a wonderful character, and you can’t help but like her.  She takes much of what happens to her heart, and she knows that prejudices must change, and people must work together, if they are to survive.

This story had a lot of action, character building and many tense moments for a novella.  On thing I had mention is the secondary characters.  I thought the introduction of many of the pack members, was a bit too much at the same time.  It was hard to know who was who.  I got to know Lucy a bit more then Fray’s own friends.  However that being said, this was an excellent novella by Chorpenning.  I want to know what happens to Fray, how much has this case changed her and what will she do to; will she ever try to resume her relationship with Blaire; what happens with the packs and children; Lucy and Nash are interesting and I want to know more.  So Chorpenning has gotten my attention in this excellent first book, and now I want more. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Author