ALMOST HUMAN CAT MARSTERS ISBN# 1-4199-0513-9 February 2006 Ellora’s Cave www.ellorascave.com E-Book $6.49 184 pages Fantasy Rating: 3 Cups Chance is a rare combination; she is both an Associee and a Phoenix.  The first is a highly trained combination of geisha and courtesan, the second an even more highly trained mercenary and assassin.  Her father Striker is known as the most evil man in the world, which leads many to give her a wide berth. Tal is the King of the Nasc, a shape shifting people.  His brother has just been murdered and his sister kidnapped.  He finds, much to his disgust, that he needs his brother’s murderer to find his sister—and even worse, that he cannot stay away from her. Chance and Tal travel throughout their world looking for Tal’s sister and her other form.   They should be enemies—she killed his brother, and her father has killed many of his family—but they are so attracted to each other that they spend too much time making love to kill each other. Chance, in her guise of mercenary/whore, seems to enjoy her career enormously until fate brings her Tal.  The last thing she needs is a mate and she fights the feelings she has as much as Tal does.  Striker is scary, but not as evil as he would like to think, and Chance’s mother has a lot more power than anyone realizes.   The author brings us into an interesting world full of paranormal beings.  The reader will have no problem picturing herself in this setting, as the descriptions of both people and places are vivid.  The sex scenes are numerous and inventive, and although the dialogue can be a little crude at times, it fits in with the storyline.  This is a very entertaining tale. Maura Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance Reviewer for Karen Find Out About New Books