Escaping from her abusive boyfriend, Devra accidentally beaches her boat on a sandbar near Tiger Island. Drunk and exhausted, she makes it to the island’s shore before she passes out. In this semi-conscious state, she dreams of having sex with a half man, half tiger. Upon waking, she meets Lillia and her brother Gannon, who care for her while she recuperates.

Gannon Tremain has a secret. Cursed at birth to be a man by day and a tiger by night, he roams the island, seeking a mate. When he stumbles over Devra’s unconscious body, he is overcome by lust and has sex with her before he takes her to his home. Something about Devra allows him to assume a half man, half tiger form, which he previously was unable to do.

Devra quickly discovers Gannon’s secret and she must decide whether she can accept his dual forms without fear. Add a vengeful voodoo priestess, several dead village women who interestingly had sex with Gannon before they died or disappeared, and a sister whose mental disorder has probably been discussed in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, and you get a hint of what you’re in for when you read A Sinful Tiger.

I picked up and put down this story several times before finally reading the entire thing. It sort of reads like a Penthouse Letters submission. Normally, a good shape-shifter novel makes the time fly, but I found myself counting the minutes until it was done. First off, Lillia’s actions toward her brother are disturbing, to say the least. She touches him inappropriately, calls him things like “my darling” and “dearest”, and likes to watch him have sex. That aside, there are several gaping plot holes that jarred me out of the story. Trapped on a tiny island with a small population, one would think that a villager or, hey, maybe one of the women Gannon slept with, might have explained to him who Lillia really is. (Sorry, you’ll have to read the story to find out.) Lillia’s motives for doing what she does aren’t consistent throughout the story. And finally, Devra realizes early on that Lillia is drugging her coconut milk. Why would she willingly take anything food-related from her again?

If you read A Sinful Tiger just for its numerous explicit sex scenes, female/female interaction, and detailed male masturbation sequence, you’ll be very satisfied. If you are expecting a rich plot, you may be disappointed. Brenda Williamson started out with an interesting premise and an exotic locale, but the characters’ development is secondary to the sex.