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I read a young adult novel back in high school (so it must have been written before 2009-10) about a guy who was a shapeshifter - and I swore he shapeshifted into some type of jaguar.

There was a girl involved and while I’m not sure if she could shapeshift as well. but I do remember the house they stayed at being some type of castle.

I think there were others in this house/castle thing that could also shapeshift. I also remember there being some romantic parts and definitely at one time a love triangle.

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    Google informs me that there are quite a number of were-jaguar erotic novels. – Buzz Jan 14 '18 at 19:52
  • One of these? goodreads.com/series/44249-den-of-shadows – Valorum Jan 14 '18 at 19:56
  • It seems like your details are not entirely unique, take a look at this guideand see if you can edit in any more details – Edlothiad Jan 14 '18 at 19:56
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    That sounds like it might be Andre Norton's The Jargoon Pard. Was the transformation triggered by a belt with a pard on the buckle? – Mark Olson Jan 14 '18 at 20:32
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    That really looks like the trilogy L'Autre by Pierre Bottero, but I don't think it was translated in English. Do you read French? (Story about a boy and a girl, the girl shapeshifting into a jaguar, the boy having other abilities; there is a love triangle of sorts in the first tome, and they manage to hide inside a "mansion" accessible only to them, surrounded by magic grass. In other tomes, you also meet other shapshifters). – clef Jan 16 '18 at 13:19
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This could be the trilogy "L'Autre" by Pierre Bottero, but I don't think that his works have been translated to English (answer per request of @Jenayah).

I read a young adult novel back in high school (so it must have been written before 2009-10)

L'Autre (The Other) is a young adult fantasy trilogy written between 2006 and 2007.

It is about a boy and a girl, who have inherited powers from their family lines, and must defeat a recently freed evil.

about a guy who was a shapeshifter - and I swore he shapeshifted into some type of jaguar. There was a girl involved and while I’m not sure if she could shapeshift as well.

The girl can shapeshift into a panther/jaguar (and other animals, technically, but it comes in the later tomes). The boy can not shapeshift, but he has other powers.

but I do remember the house they stayed at being some type of castle.

Through their bloodline, they inherit a magical mansion/castle, hidden to those not of the bloodline and in a semi parallel universe.

I think there were others in this house/castle thing that could also shapeshift.

They are also other people who have access to the house and can shapeshift, such as Elio, in the last tome. Other shapeshifters in the book include werewolves.

Regarding romance, I think one of the plots (probably tome 2) was partly about a love triangle, but I can't remember it well and haven't read the book in some time. The two main protagonists date throughout the book, and have married before tome 3.

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    His works haven't been translated in English as far as I know, but we don't know whether OP read it in English and that certainly matches a lot :) – Jenayah Jan 22 '19 at 16:17
  • Yep, but OP's ask was super vague, a lot of books could fit ^^ – clef Jan 22 '19 at 16:18
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This quickly made me think of Isabel Allende's City of the Beasts. The main character doesn't outright shift into a jaguar but he does have a vision of turning into one:

Alex, being fifteen, is put through a rite of passage into manhood; during the ceremony, unusual things happen. Firstly, he turns into a jaguar, his totem;...

Also the original covers heavily featured a Jaguar and it was published in 2002.

Edit: there is also a girl involved she also has her own animal and visions i the form of an eagle. the only thing It doesn't match is the castle since it's set in the Amazon but they do spend a lot of time in the city of El Dorado.

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Since this hasn't collected an accepted answer yet, I'm going to suggest another possibility might be The Jargoon Pard (1974) by Andre Norton. It's definitely a young-adult novel, with no overt gore, sex, or gratuitous violence.

The hero, Kethan, is nominally the heir to the keep Car Do Prawn, but in this he is supported only by his mother Lady Heroise and the Wise Woman Ursilla, who seeks to control both Heroise and Kethan to her own ends. He is opposed by Maughus, his cousin, who would be heir were Kethan disqualified, the Lady Eldris, his grandmother, and other lesser members of the household.

The Lady Eldris arranges things so that Kethan is gifted with a strange belt brought to Car Do Prawn by a trader named Ibycus. The belt, made of the fur of a pard and set with a jargoon stone, awakens an animal spirit in Kethan. (A pard is a large solitary hunting cat, larger than a dog but not so large as a tiger.) His mother warns him about it, but desiring to be free of her power and based on something Ibycus told him, he keeps it on. After a couple of days of vivid dreams, it transforms him into a pard. At first he can transform back by taking it off, but because of Ursilla's machinations he becomes stuck in the form of a pard just when Maughus bursts into the room, revealing Kethan as a Were and unsuitable to be heir.

Kethan flees and discovers a trio, man, woman and daughter, living in a star-shaped tower of ancient and great Power deep in the forest. The girl, Aylinn, has a talent with the Power and an affinity for the Moon, and he first meets her collecting collecting moonflowers by moonlight. After first being turned away, becoming trapped and needing rescue, Kethan is brought to the tower. He stays with them in the tower a short time while they heal the wounds on his back that Ursilla's hawk inflicted. The man, Herren, is also a Were, with the form of a snow cat, larger than Kethan's pard.

Kethan, healed, leaves to seek an end to his curse by regaining the belt that Ursilla has stripped from him. A series of escalating confrontations with Ursilla ends with her destroyed, Kethan renouncing any claim to Car Do Prawn and joining with the trio as Ibycus reappears to tell them that the four of them together now have a greater role to play in coming events.

The only thing that doesn't really fit is the romance aspect. Yes, at the start Kethan is betrothed to Thaney (his cousin), but there is no love there. There are hints when Kethan meets Aylinn that he might be attracted to her, but those are understated and their interactions aren't romantic.

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The story is called Midnight Predator by Amelia Atwater Rhodes,

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  • Welcome to the site. Can you provide any evidence that this is the correct book? For example, could you specify some plot points that match the description given in the question? – LogicDictates Jan 29 at 1:31
  • This is a vampire novel with a female protagonist; you'll have to provide some concrete details to establish that this might be a match. – DavidW Jan 29 at 2:25

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