Otherby Karen Kincy

Gwen Williams has been hiding a strange and fantastic secret: she's a shapeshifter. Although society may tolerate vampires, centaurs, and "Others" like Gwen, there are plenty of folks in her small Washington town who don't care for her kind.When a new werewolf pack moves into the area, tensions rise—and Others start showing up dead, including someone close to Gwen. Despite the methodical murders, the police are ignoring evidence that suggests a serial killer. In the midst of terrible loss and danger, Gwen—along with a mysterious and sexy guy who happens to be a Japanese fox spirit—risks her life to find the murderer. But Gwen is already the killer's next target . . . (goodreads.com)

First, I'd like to thank the lovely Susan of Wastepaper Prose for my copy of Other as she kindly mailed me an extra copy of an ARC she had.Next, I'd like to say that this book wasn't what I was expecting at all - in another positive way (like my love affair with the Parasol Protectorate series). By reading the summary above I was convinced that "shapeshifter" meant werewolf. I mean the last few years YA paranormal has been littered with nothing but vampires (bleh) and werewolves (bleh) so in the first couple of pages when Gwen desperately needs to change, I wasn't expecting her to have hooves.. and turn into a big black horse.I remember saying out loud "Well, that was unexpected" after I read those pages. I closed the book, took another look at the cover and decided this book had gone way up in my esteem. I love original paranormal type stories and this was certainly one of them. Yes, there is teen romance and a tiny love triange, but it wasn't bashing me over the head with undying lust and emo-crap. There was a neat twist to the breaking up after sex theme between Gwen and her boyfriend Zach. I have to say that was a clever way to stick that in there. Sort of after school special for the paranormal. hehI liked Tavian much better than Zach although I felt he was a little too good to be true. Potential soulmate or not.Admittedly, the story was rather predictable, despite the original take on the paranormal. The Others are being murdered and the police refuse to see the connection, Gwen does, she gets involved, she almost dies but doesn't and finds true love along the way. What set this common story apart for me were the likability of the characters and the paranormal world that Kincy has set up. I was pretty certain from the start of the story who the killer was, so it surprised me when I wasn't completely right.There are some shows where you just know how everything is going to turn out, but you really enjoy watching them regardless because of how fun it is to watch. Well this is how I felt about Other. It was just entertaining enough for me to ignore the sort of cookie-cutter murder mystery and say that this is a pretty fun read and I will certainly be reading the rest of the series as it comes out!Other series

1. Other
2. Bloodborn (September 2011)
3. Foxfire (September 2012)