Leopard Series

The first book of Christine Feehan’s that I read was Dark Secret (Carpathian Series).  I was home sick from work and my husband picked it up at the grocery store to make me feel better.  I enjoy that series, but my favorite series of Feehan’s is her Leopard one.   Ms. Feehan is probably one of the most prolific romance writers; her Dark Series alone is up to 22 books.    Her series:

• Dark Series
• Drake Sisters Series
• Sisters of the Heart Series
• Ghostwalkers Series
• Leopard Series

The basic world

The basis of this series is that the Leopard people are a separate race that has the traits of both the leopard and man.  A quote from her Wild Rain novel:

…they were a species able to shift into the form of a leopard, or large cat.  They had some of the attributes of the leopard, but also attributes of humans and of their own species, sort of a three-way mixture.

The leopard people are typically found in the rain forest (Malaysia, Borneo, and Indochina), as far away from other humans and civilization.  Although in later books they are not confined to rain forests.

A strong point of this series is the strength of the female lead, so often we have the female who is weak and the big strong man just comes in and saves the day.  I enjoy a strong Alpha male, but sometimes it is nice to see a  woman who can stand up to the male and hold her own.  In this series, we see females who, even in their moments of delicacy have an inner core of fortitude.

Summary:  Ms. Feehan does a superb job of bringing the animal characteristics into the form of the human.  Not even just that, I love her descriptions of when the man is in leopard form, the unadulterated joy that the character seems to have is extremely moving.

While there is an overall story arch connecting the series, each book is a stand-alone.  While the traits of the leopard race are consistently described in each book, what I like is the unique approach each book takes, expanding the lore and world.  The writing is excellent and the character development is always something I enjoy in a Feehan book.

I would suggest reading them in order, although I started with Wild Rain and never read the previous story.

The Books:  I advise reading these in order.

• The Awakening/Fever (2003) Novella
• Wild Rain (2004) Main Characters:
• Burning Wild (2009)
• Wild Fire (2010)
• Savage Nature (2011)