Kindle Edition Download to your Nook (eBook) Download from Apple iTunes (eBook) Download from Smashwords (eBook) Amazon Barnes & Noble.com Rowena Portch Scribed Kobo Category:  Fantasy Publisher: Aeon Enterprises, Inc. ISBN-10:  0988627558 Pages: 278 Copyright: March 10, 2014 ISBN-13: 9780988627550 Price: $3.99 (eBook) Zebastian, a young Spirian with unique gifts raises concern among his clan. The Spirian Saga continues with Shifter, bringing back familiar characters and an old grudge that resurfaces as a new and surprising conflict between the Spirians and Shadows.    Standing at the apex of this conflict is Zebastian, a young Spirian with unique gifts that raise concern among his clan. After escaping the Shadows' clutches, he is accused of killing his brother and is branded a monster. Now banned from his clan, Zebastian confronts the crossroads that divide good and evil. Have the Shadows destroyed all that is pure in him?    Kaili, a feisty female with high standards, has shunned every male who has tried to know her, earning her the detested title of "Ice Queen." That is until she meets Zebastian, a wolf shifter with a dangerous side that intrigues her spirit. Pursuing him, however, comes with a price. Is it one she is willing to pay?    Time runs short as the Shadows rise with forces that threaten the Spirian clans. Will the Spirians prevail over impossible odds or will the Shadows rise the victor and claim a promising prize that ensures future conquests?          Excerpt Prologue ~ K a i l i ~ Over five years have passed since my brother, Zhentu, was abducted. He's the youngest of my siblings and a shifter. Not much is known about shifters and why they are so different from other Spirians. It is believed that Fae blood is required to produce shifter offspring. Legend claims that when the first Angels descended from heaven to live as Spirians, they coupled with the Faeries, thus making the Spirian bloodlines strong and diverse in gifts. Despite my attempt to learn more about shifters, their origin remains a mystery. Unlike typical Spirians, shifters have an animal spirit, making them wild and unpredictable at times. They are stronger than other Spirians, and often struggle to control their instinct to fight. Something about them fascinates me, but I can't say what intrigues me the most. When they shift into their animal form, I feel their thoughts as if they were my own as I do with any animal. It's my gift, though I'm not sure how useful it is. Zhentu's spirit was the wolf. Because shifters' have unique blood, they have gained the attention of the Shadows, dark Angels who seek to imbalance the scales that monitor good and evil. Bennet Graves, is one such Shadow and a powerful leader who is not used to being thwarted. The rare female for whom he paid a lofty sum became the mate of my Uncle Seth. When Bennet had tried to take her back, my father, Khalen, defeated him in battle. This makes Bennet the prime suspect behind Zhentu's abduction. The Shadow remains recluse, however, and hasn't made any demands. Why? Chapter 1 ~ Z e b a s t i a n ~ The fury in my father's gray eyes sparkled like demons threatening to break free to stab me in the heart. I had not seen him this angry since I was nine when my brother, Carter, and I wandered too far from camp and became lost. It took Father three weeks to track us down. Today, the anger resided deeper, visceral and unrelenting. "You had one job, Zebastian: keep your brother safe. Now I discover that it was you who killed him—to save yourself?" He paced before me, eyes narrowed, mouth held firm and straight—his pondering stance, a posture he took when making a tough but necessary decision. "Your actions portray those of the Shadows, and are unforgivable." "Father, I—" As clan leader, he harnessed the ability to bind people in an energetic hold that could kill if necessary. The pain of it now gripped me like the claws of his shifter animal, the mountain lion. I couldn't breathe, let alone explain. Even if I could explain, my father spoke truth. Carter lay dead, his blood still sharp in my throat. No longer able to hold myself up, I sank to the ground, grateful to land on the cold snow-covered surface. When Carter and I escaped from the group of Shadows who took us twelve years past, the rage took over, darkening my soul to match that of our torturous captors. The only memory remaining was my brother's throat in my mouth, his copper-tasting blood coating my tongue. "You have disappointed me, Zebastian. I was wrong about you." Father's energetic hold choked my air and constricted my organs, but hearing the words he spoke hurt like the lash of a soaked bull whip over and over as it tore through my soul, ripping the flesh of my pride. My father meant everything to me. He had trained me to lead this clan since the time I could walk. Now, I had let him down, being every bit the monster he claimed me to be. "I ban you from this clan, Zebastian. You are no longer—my son." Death held mercy, but this—this was unbearable. "No, Tiban!" Mother screamed. "You can't." Ren, our clan elder, held her back. "Stay back, Shinda, leave him be for now." He was a man of stature in his own right, adoptive father of my closest friend, Teak. The elder had led this clan for many years before relinquishing it to Father. Pain laced Ren's voice, yet he supported Father's decree, pulling my mother back, keeping her from reaching me. Red hair clung to her tear-soaked face as trembling hands reached toward me. Her image etched my memory; the last I would see of her—the last I would see of our home in Canada. Father turned to step away, then hesitated to add, "You are Khalen's problem now. He will address your Shadow soul as he sees fit." Father's regal, departing form blurred through my tears. My spirit wavered, teetering on the brink of desertion. I had been banished, removed from my clan. At twenty-four, I would not survive for long. As Father so bluntly pointed out, I was Khalen Dunning's problem now. The regional leader of North America had a reputation—all bad if you were considered a Shadow. He made Father's wrath seem like a hand slap. Teak reached down to lift me. "Take him," Ren ordered. "Stay with him. Keep him safe."

Shifter by Rowena Portch
Book Review: ‘Shifter’ by Rowena Portch
Posted by: Tyler Tichelaar March 12, 2014 in Book Reviews, Books, Sci-fi and Fantasy


Shifter by Rowena PortchShifter is the seventh and latest volume in Rowena Portch’s fascinating Spirian Saga. If you haven’t read the earlier novels in the series, I suggest you do, but you can easily get up to speed by reading this one on its own. Portch begins the book with an informative list of characters and a short prologue to catch readers up on what happened in previous books. For those unfamiliar with the series, Spirians are supernatural beings, descended from Angels who came to earth and mated with Faeries, giving them a variety of special powers and gifts that make them superior to humans, although their gifts vary from one individual to another and include telepathy, healing powers, and increased physical strength. The Spirians are also benevolent toward humans and often live among them, even openly with those few they trust. Opposed to the Spirians are the Shadows, descendants of dark Angels who use their abilities for greed, to acquire power, and let’s face it, to be downright evil.
Shifter introduces us to two new characters in the Spirian world. First there is Zebastian, the shifter of the title. Shifters are Spirians with the ability to shift into animals. Zebastian is now a young man, but he has spent his recent life in slavery to Bennet, a Shadow leader whom readers familiar with the series will remember from Portch’s last book Fealty. Bennet, the kind of villain readers love to hate, is seeking to create an army of super shifters from those he has captured and enslaved. Zebastian has managed to escape from Bennet, but the experiments have caused him to have moments of rage. It was during such a moment that he lost control and is believed to have killed his brother Carter. Zebastian’s father blames Zebastian for Carter’s murder and bans him from their tribe. This places Zebastian under the jurisdiction of Khalen, the regional leader of North America.
Khalen and his blind healer wife Skye will be old friends to most readers. In Shifter, they now have two grown daughters who are ready to mate. Daughter Shaiya is quite promiscuous, but Kaili is uninterested in mating, especially since the man she thought would be hers was uninterested in her because she was not sexually experienced — even though it is supposedly an honor to be the man who takes a female Spirian’s virginity. In short, Kaili now has a chip on her shoulder toward men, but she has also been having visions of a special man who will come into her life.
Meanwhile, Bennet is plotting against Khalen’s family and Kaili is one of his intended victims. Khalen soon asks Zebastian to protect Kaili, but although Zebastian fits the descriptions of the man from Kaili’s visions, Kaili is hostile toward him, refusing to accept him as her future mate.
The plot thickens as Bennet continues his evil machinations. Added to the story is that Kaili’s brother Zhentu is missing and Zebastian has been called upon to help find him. Zebastian’s father has not gotten over the rage he feels over Zebastian supposedly killing Carter. Before it’s all over, there will be more than one showdown in which Zebastian will have to prove himself.
Portch keeps the pace moving, the plot thickening, the characters fighting, arguing, and loving to the last page. Shifter, like all the Spirian Saga, is a refreshing new take on paranormal fiction, using several elements from other supernatural tales, but adding new twists to them. The books are better written than the Twilight novels, and Portch’s world is just as complicated and entrancing as Meyer’s. Furthermore, Portch began writing her novels long before Twilight was published. These stories are also more adult than the Harry Potter series. Portch’s characters feel like real people, and despite their supernatural abilities, they are very human in their emotions, behaviors, wants, and needs.

I welcome this seventh book in the Spirian saga, and I look forward to book eight. I can’t wait to watch Zebastian and Kaili’s relationship progress further.
For more information about Rowena Portch, Shifter, and the Spirian Saga, visit the author’s website.