Prey by Katy Mann #bookreview @goddessfish

Christa, a shy college student, is interning at a Chicago law firm. One morning, she spots a mysterious stranger across the street from her office. This seemingly casual incident tears Christa from her world and sends her into a terrifying struggle with the remorseless immortal, Mack.

Mack comes from another time and place, not so long ago in years, but very far from Christa’s urban world. Mack came of age in the era of bootlegging, where the strong took what they needed to survive, and he has become interested in Christa.

On a trip to Europe, Christa comes across evidence of the supernatural, which she tries hard to ignore, but on her return she ends up being trapped in a clandestine network where human blood is farmed to satisfy vampire thirst.

Soon she becomes caught in a power struggle between two covens, a fight that threatens her mortal existence and forces her to make choices leading her into a deeper understanding of humanity and her own soul.

This is not a love story.

Buy on Amazon (free as of this posting)

Read an excerpt of the book:
From Chapter 25, “Looking Out My Window”

I dreamed of getting away but never found the opportunity.

The season was changing outside my bedroom window. I spent afternoons looking outside at the woods, watching the world. The leaves on the trees at the edge of the property had been changing from green to bright yellows and reds. I had been brought here in August, and it was now mid-September.

I had managed to keep this window for myself. I hadn’t tried to climb out—I had seen too many demonstrations of vampire speed and hearing to have any hope of getting far. I wanted this one thing left to me. In the early evenings I watched as darkness grew, first inside the woods just behind the house and then crept across the backyard. I listened to the breeze rustling though the trees and scattering the leaves that had fallen to the ground.

The sounds of the night brought back a sense of normal life. I could close my eyes and imagine I was hearing birds at my grandparents’ home in Michigan, not in my current prison. We had often spent summers in their small house outside of Traverse City. The twins, Simon and Simone, would run and yell in the backyard as they played with the dog after we came home from a day at the sand dunes.

One night, as I looked out, I saw a shadow on the patio and watched as Mack walked into the backyard. He was moving at human speed and stood still for a moment, his head lifted in the air, eyes closed.

Was he scenting the breeze?

I watched, frozen, as he seemed to change from man to animal and back again.

His eyes shot up to my window, and I pulled back slightly. Then he ran off the patio and into the woods.

I wondered what it was he was tracking. Or whom.

The next morning I had my answer. At breakfast his eyes were bright red, so he must have fed during the night.

I was horrified to realize I felt relief. He had killed someone, or at least fed on someone last night, but that meant that I would be spared my ordeal for a few more days.

My review:

Prey starts out in my second favorite city (Boston being the first) Chicago. It’s main character Christa is a college student who embarks on a trip that left her uneasy to begin with but she took anyway. It’s a dark book with a twist ending. Honestly the jury is still out with me. The author has me hooked because I want to see what is next.

About the author:

Katy Mann grew up in the Midwest where she attended the University of Chicago. She moved to California with her tabby cat, Gus, in 1995. A life-long reader, she divides her time between the real world, when necessary, and the worlds created in books and her imagination, when possible.
Visit her at www.KatyMann.com