Every one of us has the beast inside. But for Kyrie Smith, the beast is no metaphor. Since she was 15, when she first shape-shifted into a savage, black panther, Kyrie has questioned her humanity. Although she's managed to keep her inner beast secret most of the time, the panther occasionally emerges to strike unbidden. Terrified she'll hurt someone while in panther form, Kyrie moves from town to town, searching for a way to feel human again. Kyrie's lonely life changes forever while waitressing at a cheap diner in Goldport, Colorado. Investigating frantic screams from the parking lot, Kyrie stumbles upon a blood-spattered dragon crouching over a mangled human corpse. The dragon shape-shifts back into her co-worker, Tom, naked, dazed and unable to remember how he got there. Thrust into an ever-changing world of shifters, where shape-shifting dragons, giant cats and other beasts wage a secret war behind humanity's back, Kyrie may find the answers she seeks-with help from Tom, a mythical object called the Pearl of Heaven, and her own inner beast. Every one of us has the beast inside. But for Kyrie Smith, the beast is no metaphor. Since she was 15, when she first shape-shifted into a savage, black panther, Kyrie has questioned her humanity. Although she's managed to keep her inner beast secret most of the time, the panther occasionally emerges to strike unbidden. Terrified she'll hurt someone while in panther form, Kyrie moves from town to town, searching for a way to feel human again. Kyrie's lonely life changes forever while waitressing at a cheap diner in Goldport, Colorado. Investigating frantic screams from the parking lot, Kyrie stumbles upon a blood-spattered dragon crouching over a mangled human corpse. The dragon shape-shifts back into her co-worker, Tom, naked, dazed and unable to remember how he got there. Thrust into an ever-changing world of shifters, where shape-shifting dragons, giant cats and other beasts wage a secret war behind humanity's back, Kyrie may find the answers she seeks-with help from Tom, a mythical object called the Pearl of Heaven, and her own inner beast.

1. Gentleman Takes a Chance is a fast-moving urban fantasy adventure of a desperate clash of shape-shifters in a modern city, and will appeal to the readers who have made Mercedes Lackey's urban fantasy novels top-sellers. 2. Quotes for - Publishers Weekly called Ill Met by Moonlight "A literate first novel... a quality item with crossover appeal." - Library Journal called it "fanciful and charming." - Booklist praised the concluding novel in a starred "Exceptional, wonderful and enormously entertaining." 3. Advertising in Locus, more 4. Large distribution of ARCs 5. Featured book on Baen.com 6. Co-op available There are those living secretly among us who have the power to change their physical form from that of a human to an animal, even animals thought to be mythical, such as dragons. Throughout out the ages, these shape shifters have come together in a loose organization to protect themselves from humans—and other shape shifters. According to their code, killing another shifter is a crime, no matter if the shifter was slaughtering humans. Kyrie Smith, a young panther shifter, must decide where she will with her group or with humanity at large. And she’ll have to do it while both older shifters and her boyfriend Tom Ormson—a dragon shifter—push her from quandary to quandary and police detective Rafiel Thrall—who happens to be a lion shifter—demands her help in solving mysterious murders that he suspects have been committed by a shifter. But when Tom begins getting telepathic warnings from the Great Sky Dragon that his life is in danger, the same dragon who recently almost killed him, he and Kyrie realize that much more is involved than a homicidal shape shifter. Someone—or something—has been killing shifters in large numbers, and the most ancient and powerful of shifters are converging on the city to find the killer. And anyone, human or shifter, who gets in their way will be eliminated without mercy...

ORIGINAL TRADE PAPERBACK – URBAN FANTASY. Sequel to Draw One in the Dark and The Gentleman Takes a Chance. Sequel to Draw One in the Dark and The Gentleman Takes a Chance—a new entry in Sarah A. Hoyt’s celebrated Shifter contemporary fantasy series! For years, Rafiel Trall, one of Goldport's finest, has been walking the fine line between enforcing human law and protecting the shifters who come his way. A lion shifter himself, he's found this duty onerous. Lately it's been lightened by his friendship with Tom Ormson, a dragon shifter, and Kyrie Smith, a panther shifter. This should make it easier for him to find a solution for the crimes of a feral shifter—but not when an as yet unnamed entity takes out the Great Sky Dragon, the head of all dragon shifters. With his power devolving on Tom Ormson just as Kyrie finds that a mysterious ailment prevents her from shifting, Rafiel must rely only on himself, a seductive dragon girl and an even more seductive and unreliable old shifter to solve the crimes, maintain shifters hidden and keep his best friend in the world from becoming a dragon of unimaginable mass destruction.