Rakshasa by Alica Knight

Review by: Nina Gomez

3.5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Libby the Loser. That's what everyone used to call me behind my back. I wasn't popular, I wasn't strong, I wasn't brave.

All that changed after a chance encounter in a Canberra nightclub. Afterward, I began to dream; dream I was something else. A powerful creature of muscles and claws, something powerful and confident and everything I wasn't.

I dreamed I was in love with a man I'd barely met.

The dream world is a beautiful, wondrous place, but there's a shadow in my dreams. An eclipse, broken with a gunshot. Then I wake up.

Now my dreams are coming true. My body is changing for real. I'm shedding Libby the Loser like an old skin. I'm growing into something else.

But there are others. Others like me, and they don't get along. People are disappearing. People are dying.

The shadow is falling over the real world, too, and everything has changed.

Book One
Rakshasa 
Rakshasa: Aurora 
Rakshasa: Tigerheart
Rakshasa: Shadowfall 
Rakshasa: Eternity 

My Review:

Libby is a normal nineteen year old girl with an unremarkable life.  On a night out at a club with some friends, she meets a man who leaves her with quite a lasting impression. His name is Ishan.  A few months later, he begins to appear in her dreams. Her dreams are vivid and erotic, and Ishan is her lover. More importantly, Libby undergoes a physical transformation in her dreams that makes her bold and uninhibited and….a tiger.

Libby finds out that both she and Ishan are Rakshasa – the “were” Tigers of India. They are part of an ancient people who look like humans but are able to transform into their animal state as they get older. Libby and Ishan are from warring tribes and their love is frowned upon by their leaders. But when one of their species manifests itself as a serial killer and commits a crime that hits  close to home, Libby and Ishan and their tribes must work together to save themselves, their friends and their existence.

This book is unlike anything I have read before. It is original and sexy, with a somewhat confusing touch of the paranormal/fantasy.  In her dreams and later on in her reality, Libby is Aurora, a strong and courageous Rakshasa hell bent on protecting her lover, her best friend and her coven.  The plot is centered upon Aurora’s quest to outsmart the Champawat Tiger who is taking human lives and pitting the Rakshasa against each other. When faced with this challenge, we begin to see that the Rakshasa are also humans in heart and mind. They too have loyalties and friendships, boundaries and conflicts. Like the humans, they embody cultural differences between races, but they readily cast those prejudices aside when it comes to protecting each other.

Alica Knight’s series of books are well written, thoughtful and in a concept all on its own. I enjoyed reading Season I and look forward to learning more about Ishan and Aurora and the future of the Rakshasa people.

Connect with Alica Here

Purchase the Book Here