The Leopard's Daughter

Her mother is a princess. Her father is a leopard.
Her allies are the wild hunting beasts of the night.
FE AR JENEBA
THE FIERCEST WARRIOR OF THE DARK JUNGLE
Seeking vengeance against the man who betrayed her tribe, Jeneba rides into unknown forests haunted by invisible demons, murderous spirits, shapeshifting creatures and wizards' curses... only to find that she must join her quest to another.
For the fabled city Yagana has vanished in a clap of thunder, leaving its people helpless before an invading horde. And an ancieht prophecy decrees that to save Yagana, Jeneba must lead a coward, a traitor, and a monster. Past cannibal armies, an insane demigod, a hideous messenger of death, and into the cavernous bowels of the underworld... to find a mystic lost harp carved from a dead man's bones.
If Jeneba fails, it will cost her the lives of her party, the freedom of whoie tribes, the fate of an empire—and, as important... her honor as a warrior. [back cover]
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In an ancient Africa of verdant Sahara plains, warrior woman Jeneba Karamoke has grown up scorned by her people because her father was a leopard man. When she rescues a party of fellow warriors from cannibalistic monster half-men, she hopes it will finally win acceptance for her. But no...in order to prove she isn't lying about the vanished hero Tomo Silla's part in their capture by the half men she must make Tomo face the tribe. Can she find him, and then survive more monsters, foreign tribes, and a curse laid on a fabled city to bring him back alive? [Goodeads]
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Cover illustration by Michael Herring