Faythe is not just your average master of arts student at the University of North Texas. She's a werecat -- and one of only eight females in the U.S. of breeding age. It seems, girl-children (aka "tabbies" in author Rachel Vincent's parlance) among this species are extremely rare. There are only a few females, and daughters are limited to only one girl per alpha were-couple.

Faythe is furious when she's attacked by a "stray" werecat and Daddy calls her home to the ranch instead of being allowed to finish out the summer semester. What she doesn't realize til she gets home is that Sara, one of the other seven female werecats, has been kidnapped, plus several normal human girls have been mauled and murdered with werecat evidence on them. The family is concerned that Faythe's next, and her over-protective father will literally put her in a cage before he will allow her to be at risk.

Faythe's scared, too -- not just of the abduction of werecat tabbies, but every woman's primeval fear. She's scared of becoming her mother, as she describes her, "the June Cleaver of werecats." Her relationship with the Pride's chosen mate for her, Marc, is out of control. That and drunken grief over Sara's death propels her to make mistakes that put her in jeopardy.

At 600-plus pages and approximately 120,000 words, Stray is surprisingly long for a new author investment. That number of pages was too long for the plotline. Vincent needs to learn to evaluate her novels more closely to see what is essential and what material could be shortened or cut altogether without any serious loss to the novel.

While the book comes highly recommended, Stray does suffer from some debut novel flaws.

One of the most serious of those flaws is originality. Kelley Armstrong, one of the blurb circle for this book, wrote a very similar plotline for her Women of the Otherworld series. Writers really need to think of a more scientifically plausible explanation for few females in a race if they are going to use it as a literary device.

Additionally, while the immediate bad guys are caught, we don't precisely have closure as to why the women were stolen. In 600 pages, it seems like we should have had some resolution to the main storyline and move on to something else for the next book.

Vincent also could do a little more research into big cats before her next venture into this world. Her "Pride" structure works more for a wolf pack than felines. My chief complaint here is that cats in Prides are monogamous pairs. Lifetime bonding is a wolf trait. Also, considering the well-known fact that the male of the pair determines the sex of the children, it's a sound idea for the "tabbies" to mate outside the Alpha-pairing not just for the possibility of having better odds at female children, but also to provide a more diverse gene pool.

There's a fine line authors walk between creating a plausible heroine and a bully with a Jane Wayne complex. Vincent crossed that line with a heavy-handed hunting scene where Faythe knowingly killed "Bambi's mother." Faythe managed to redeem herself somewhat when she offered herself up to her kidnapper instead of a younger cousin. Faythe still has maturing to do before she's much more than primarily self-involved, but I don't doubt there will be more novels in the "Stray" universe to come. I think near the end, she discovered a passion and purpose in defending those who cannot defend themselves. I really hope that Vincent continues writing with that vein in mind.