Review: Pawprints

Title: Pawprints
Series: Pawprints
Author: Anne Cain
Publisher: Loose Id
Publication Date: 6 November 2007
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 114 pages

Rating: 3 out of 5

Review: Veterinary student Adrien works for a local animal shelter, where he meets a scared black and white cat. Little does he know that the cat is not just a cat, but rather has a second human Nature, and that he has escaped a bleak life as a sex slave. Adrien can't help but fall in love with Lal, even as Lal is hunted by his Master's minions, who threaten to shatter the new relationship.

My disclaimer: I am so not a fan of the slavery trope that it's not even funny. As such, my regard for the story is perhaps biased more than it should be.

This is a novella that wanted to be so much more. There is a lot missing when it comes to meat on its bones--the concept of the Realms, Natures, the magic system, they all could easily have been fleshed out to provide a richer experience. It's never clarified why/how Lal escaped, or how Caleb came to do the same. The magic of the world, including the many Realms and the Natures of the shifters, is barely touched on; although it didn't need to be fully explored, a little more exposition would have made the central premise slightly less gratuitous.

The relationship between Adrien and Lal moved with the unrealistic speed so common to the romance genre (and the male/male romance genre in particular); they meet, they have sex, they fall in love, all within the span of a few chapters. This is another way in which the story could have benefitted from greater length. The relationship never seemed to develop naturally, rather rushing along to meet the plot devices.

The characters themselves never really get fleshed out enough for me to be very invested in them, either. Kal, Caleb, and Jaylen in particular remained shallow; I couldn't bring myself to care much about the forbidden love between the latter two as they, Jaylen more than Caleb, were barely established as personalities, much less characters I should care about.

In truth, despite my complaints and within the constraints of a novella, it's not a bad little story. It just has the potential to be so much more. I'd have liked to see more of a resolution for Kal and more development overall, but it's certainly possible to do worse.