Mel Reviews Diaries of an Urban Panther by Amanda Arista

Violet Jordan Rule #1 of being a superhero: No tights.

Dear Diary,

By now you know I‘m hardly a normal girl. Last night I woke up naked in an alley after fighting off some werewolves. All in a day‘s work, I guess. I thought I was dealing pretty well with the whole werepanther thing: the training, the apocalyptic prophecies. And the hot guy following me around, protecting me at every turn, is definitely a bonus. I‘m even starting to become accustomed to the bloodshed and the violence—and that‘s what scares me. What will tomorrow bring? . . .

I thoroughly enjoyed Diaries of an Urban Panther, the first book in Amanda Arista’s Diaries of an Urban Panther trilogy. I lurve me some werecats and had been looking forward to this book since I first read about it and saw the pretty kitty cover.  It’s not often that you find a heroine who’s a werecat and I was looking for a little something to fill the ginormous void that was left when Rachel Vincent’s amazing Shifters series ended.  I went into this book thinking that it was just about werecats but it was soooo much more than that.

Violet is a B-horror movie writer who fled LA after a bad breakup (with a grade A jackass) in the hopes of starting over again in Dallas. She has no living family and the only person in her life is her best friend, Jessa. Violet is a snarky, coffee addicted loner who has always felt like she was on the outside looking in. I know a little something about that so I connected with Violet immediately.  When I say Violet lurves her coffee, I mean she LURVES her coffee, especially if cinnamon is involved.  I’d never survive without coffee and just about lost my shit when Seattle’s Best discontinued their cinnamon roast.  I’m still having withdrawal pains as I haven’t found a replacement I want/need/can’t live without just yet.  In other words, Violet just may be fictional twin.  I bet she would’ve been pissed off at Seattle’s Best as well.

“Coffee was my weakness, my kryptonite and the one thing I could never turn down.  Food, sex, and shelter were optional; coffee was not.”

After a night out with Jessa, Violet gets attacked and has her life turned upside down. Everything she’s known in her life is now being questioned; there’s more to the fairy tales her mother told her at bedtime, the boy she thought was stalking Jessa is actually a Guardian sent to protect her, and Jessa isn’t who Violet thought she was. Violet takes to the supernatural world easily but quickly learns that her boring life isn’t going to stay boring for long. She has a destiny and it’s frakkin huge.

This is a great beginning to an urban fantasy series. The character development was good, there was lots of action, and a seriously evil asshat villain.  I lurve me a good villain and Spencer Haverty was so twisted with jealousy and greed that he was willing to go darkside just to get what he wanted.  Though there wasn’t much in the romance department, the buildup between Violet and Chaz, AKA Stalker Boy, was believable and I enjoyed the outcome.  Sometimes it’s the buildup that makes a book better.  That’s one of the things I enjoy most about urban fantasy.  As much as I lurve my smutty paranormal romance books, I enjoy a good chase and there are a few urban fantasy series that have done that brilliantly. *cough* Kate Daniels *cough*

I’ve read other reviews talking about Violet being unlikable but I disagree. Maybe it was her snarky attitude, maybe it was her nerdy comic book references, maybe it was the coffee addiction, maybe it was the fact that I grew up watching USA Up All Night. Maybe? Who the frak am I kidding?  It’s definitely all of the above. I really liked Violet and it was fun to see her come in to her powers and grow as a character. I look forward to reading about Violet fulfilling her destiny.  Other than an editing issue that got a little annoying, it did not disappoint.  I sometimes find that bad editing can kill a book but it didn’t in this case.  The story was strong enough for me to overlook the editing or lack there of.  I give Diaries of an Urban Panther 4 stars.

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