Sunday, November 17, 2013

Book of the Month: Sequels and three-quels: All Hallows Moon

Rylie survived becoming a werewolf at great cost. She moves to her aunt’s ranch in the hopes she can enroll in a new high school and quietly continue her life... with a few distinct changes. She transforms into a beast every new and full moon and struggles to control her murderous urges.

Without many werewolves left, it’s hard to stay in hiding. A family of hunters -- Eleanor, Abel, and Seth -- recognize the signs and follow Rylie to her new home. They want to stop her before she murders someone, and the only way to do it is with a silver bullet. Seth soon realizes the werewolf is Rylie, the one monster he failed to kill. Worse yet, he’s still in love with her.

Torn between family and love, Rylie struggles to reconcile her feelings and control the wolf within while Seth fights to do what’s right. But what is right-- obeying desire or duty?
The story takes another step in the right direction with this installment. The writing is twice as good as before and the characters really endear themselves to the reader over the novel. The ending is just as amazing as the first one and it’s hard to put down.

There are several new characters introduced, most notably Gwyn, Abel, Tate and Eleanor. Gwyn and Eleanor are pretty fully fleshed out but Tate, as handy as he is to have around, seems little more than a best-friend character the author is forcing on the readers. Not bad, but a little unnecessary. Gwyn is certainly an important addition to the story. At first she’s hard to like, but as with the general writing, over the course of the book she gets more likeable. Eleanor is an okay villain but I think there are shades of her we haven’t seen yet. Most importantly is Abel: I don’t know how I feel about him. He’s a more complex character than the other newcomers and he’s painted in an evil light, but there are parts where you can’t help but feel like he’s actually a good guy. I guess we’ll see, right?

Overall I’m giving it a 4 out of 5 stars because I think it could have been better.  

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