My blog birthday celebration continues today with Tynga from Tynga’s Reviews. I was so pleased when I first discovered her blog. Tynga has really great reviews, features, and her vlogs are so cute because she has a cool accent. Definitely stop by to check her blog out.
Welcome Tynga!
Hello everyone!
I am very honored to be here with you today to celebrate Angela’s first blog-anniversary. I’ve been following her since pretty much the very beginning of her blog, and enjoyed each day *winks* I’ve never done a guest post before, so please bear with me in this epic adventure!
I chose to talk to you about one of my favorite creatures in paranormal books, the shapeshifters! May they be werewolves, werecats, or something completely out of this world; they are always strong and fascinating.
In older lore, werewolves were the most common shapeshifter. Savage and roaming the night alone to chase their victims, they were pictured hairy, ugly, bulky, not quite human, nor wolf. And thankfully, modern stories paint a different portrait of these fabulous mythological beings. While every author has their own twist, werewolves are most referred to as pack members, very in touch with their inner beast, with their own set of rules and an Alpha to lead them. One of the series I really love is the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. Mercy is what they call a Walker; she has the ability to change into a coyote thanks to her father’s native genetic. She was raised in a pack of wolves and fights her way to earn respect and freedom. Of course, all werewolves in that series are hunks (not that I mind!), but they all have their own personality, and pack relations are rather interesting! Everything in a pack is about power and mind games, and the stronger wins, beware to anyone getting in the way. Briggs series is unique, but closer to the typical werewolf lore (minus the driven by full moon shift). Andrea Cremer, debut author, wrote completely different wolf lore in her book Nightshade. I’m kind of reticent to calling them werewolves, because it’s not quite the case. In her story, Guardians are people able to change into wolves by some magical power, and while they are very powerful, they are not at the top of the metaphorical food chain, because they have to obey orders from their masters.
Another amazing pack animal, not as popular as its former far-fetched cousin, is the werecat. The Shifters series by Rachel Vincent is by far my favorite in this genre. Alpha, the last book in the series released just a few weeks ago, and if you haven’t read this series yet, I strongly suggest you do. The main plot turns around Faythe Sanders, big mouthed-rebel werecat, daughter of Alpha and surrounded by a bunch heavily masculine male werecats. She lives in a world where a council, formed of 10 Alphas (one for each area) rules democratically, with their own set of rules, hidden from the human population. Werecats are fierce, loyal and strong, and even though they have cat instincts while shifted, they remain men (and woman!) in spirit, and their human feelings sometimes get in the way.
There are also many other shapeshifters, like Leah Cypess’ Shifter (a mythological creature able to take any shape) or Karen Kincy’s Pooka (shapeshifting spirit who turns into a black horse), but I will close this post by talking about Cassandra Clare’s latest release, Clockwork Angel. The main character of this series is a shapeshifter, but you’ve never seen one like her. She doesn’t change into an animal, but she can change into another person, accessing their thoughts, if she touches an object of theirs. As far as they know, Tessa isn’t a demon, nor a warlock, but she’s not human either. And being able to access someone else’s very soul brings up identity issues. How does one know if they are really who they think they are? Is it her real face in the mirror, or is it still someone else’s?
The paranormal world, and specifically the shapeshifters world is so full of possibilities, and I’m always amazed by our favorite author’s imagination. I hope I piqued your curiosity and that you will pick up some of those great books, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!
Thank you very much Angela for having me along! Happy Blog-Anniversary!
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Love that loyal trait lol 
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