USA Today bestselling author Cathy Clamp reboots the Sazi universe in Forbidden, a tightly-paced, high-tension urban fantasy thriller.Identifying the genre right away helps the reader focus on what they're getting in the book. Those who don't want urban fantasy or thrillers will simply put the book down, or let you know they're not interested in reading it.
Ten years have passed since the war that destroyed the Sazi Council and inflicted a horrible "cure" on thousands of Sazi, robbing them of their ability to shapeshift.The reader now knows this is the aftermath of a war--so dystopian of a sort, and the reader knows that people in the book are emotionally vulnerable.
Luna Lake, isolated in Washington State, started as a refugee camp for Sazi orphans. Now it's a small town and those refugees are young adults, chafing at the limits set by their still-fearful guardians.The reader now knows that this focuses on the children of those involved in the war, so it's both a generational clash, as well as having the potential of old problems resurfacing that the kids are. Unprepared for.
There's reason to fear: Sazi children are being kidnapped. Claire, a red wolf shifter, is sent to investigate. Held prisoner by the Snakes during childhood, Claire is distrusted by those who call Luna Lake home.So, is this part of the past war, or something new?
Before the war, Alek was part of a wolf pack in Chicago. In Luna Lake he was adopted by a parliament of Owls, defying Sazi tradition. The kidnappings are a painful reminder that his little sister disappeared a decade ago.Now the reader understands why these two people are the best to handle this crisis. They both have "skin in the game" because they were both intimately involved with prior kidnappings.
When Claire and Alek meet, sparks fly--but the desperate race to find the missing children forces them to set aside their mutual attraction and focus on the future of their people. Finally, the reader knows there's romance involved, adding sexual tension to the already tense plot.