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Shape-shifters’ Rule #1: Don’t let the humans know you still exist.

Rule #2: If a human finds out about you, silence them.

Some rules were meant to be broken…

Ranealya ruthlessly plays by the rules and has outlived most of her race because of it. If she wants to survive, she’ll have to stick to them, especially with a genocidal tyrant hell-bent on destroying all the non-humans in the realm. But everything falls apart when a human saves her life. Gregor knows he’s inviting trouble when he helps a wounded shape-shifter, but he can’t pass up the opportunity to study one before they become extinct. She disturbs the quiet order of his scholarly existence, vexes him in more ways than he can count, and encourages him to break enough of the kingdom’s laws so that not even being the king’s cousin will save his head. The problem is, he’s already lost his heart.

Left amazed and wanting more – 4.5 out of 5

The ending was blah, there were a few grammar problems, but did I care? No way. The Tears of Elios by Crista McHugh was honestly one of the best books I read in a long time. The nonhumans of the world are being hunted to extinction by the King. In retaliation, the nonhumans have formed a resistance. All have chosen a side, but Renealya, a shape-shifter. Being that shape-shifters are the most hated creatures in the realm, she has learned if she wants to survive she can trust no one.

When she is attacked, something happens to make her change her values. Left alone to die in the woods she finds herself saved by the most vile creature she can think of, a human. A handsome, but socially awkward magician named Gregor, his encounter with Renealya sets him on a most unlikely path to saving the magical races from being overpowered by the King.

Honestly, you cannot help, but laugh out loud as you watch Gregor and Renealya’s relationship unfold. The two might be extremely attracted to each other, yet they get on each other’s nerves.

McHugh has this wonderful ability to create engaging characters, and that is what keeps her story going. Somewhere in the middle of the book she forgets her overall plot. If one really thinks about what their reading, they realize the King is a lot of angry emotion and very little action. Few things actually occur in the story to push the resistance into war, but they feel they must fight. And by the end of the book they do. Plot fiends might notice this (yes, I am a plot fiend). Everyone else will simply leave this book amazed and wanting more.