Book of the Month: Sequel Review- Gray Moon Rising

It’s been almost a year since Rylie Gresham was bitten by a werewolf on Gray Mountain. Now something is beckoning her back to the place she was attacked, along with every other werewolf in the world. But they aren’t the only ones heeding the call. A group of hunters notices them gathering and sees it as their chance to wipe out the entire species.

Seth is about to graduate high school when he learns of the final hunt. He secretly plans to save Rylie and his werewolf brother even though he has to play along with the hunters to do it. But Rylie doesn’t want to be saved. She’s already decided to solve her problems with a silver bullet if answers aren’t waiting on Gray Mountain.

One way or another, everything is about to end—whether it means Rylie’s liberation or the end of her life…

The series is over. The final book in the final series of this year’s book of the month. Wow. It’s been so long. Voting for the favorite will start in December and a page focused on the BoM will be going up soon. Next year I’ll be switching gears, and rather than promoting little-known books the theme will be “Books Gathering Dust On The Shelf”, so basically the books that you’ve had for a while and just haven’t managed to get to yet. They’ll be buzzier books and hopefully we’ll have more to talk about. I’ll also be doing it differently, reading the book throughout the whole month, and every 25% (or there-a-bouts) I’ll post a review so far. Feel free to read along and we can have all kinds of fun.

Now, onto the actual review.

The endings in these books have always been really good so I was excited to figure out what was in store for the final chapter. I was a little let down by the anticlimactic ending. The book itself was the best so far, really full of plot and action. There weren’t any really dry spots and the story is pretty strictly paranormal. Reine has certainly found how she writes best so it’s refreshing to read something so clearly defined (especially since it hasn’t gone through a traditional publisher).

There are very few new characters, and none that are worth mentioning at all. We get a larger sense of the werewolf hunter’s, or the Union, opening a whole other half of this world. I’m pretty sure she uses that half of the series for her Adult Urban Fantasy books (which I’d love to dive into… if only I had the time).

All in all, I’m giving this book a very generous rating of 4 ¾ stars. I’m sad to see the characters go, and if you are, too, there is a spin-off novella series, Cain chronicles. I don’t think I’ll continue on, it feels like a real ending to me, but I won’t discourage you!

Book of the Month: Sequel Review- Long Night Moon

Something is killing innocent people around Rylie Gresham's town. The police think it's a wild animal, but she has other suspicions. There are new kids at school, and they have a lot in common with her: gold eyes, super strength, and a habit of turning furry. It seems Rylie's not the only werewolf around anymore.

It's up to Rylie and her werewolf-hunting boyfriend, Seth, to stop the killings. But saving lives doesn't come naturally to a monster, and territory battles could risk the life of her sickly aunt--not to mention her own. Rylie has no choice but to stand her ground, protect her home, and stop the murderers before anyone else gets hurt.

This picks up soon after the previous one and Riley is still settling into dealing with being a wolf. Recent murders have her on high alert and when she notices the new kids, Levi and Bekah, are werewolves too she’s sure it’s them. The whole book is almost a murder mystery in that they’re searching for the killer the whole time. The twist ending threw me off for a few moments but wasn’t too unbelievable. Gwyn’s disease also plays a larger part in this one, amping up tension throughout the story and giving everyone a non-paranormal stake.
We don’t get to know Levi and Bekah too well but they do play an important role. We see more of Abel and, dare I say it?, we start to like him! Gasp! Actually, I really do like him. He’s a good guy at heart, just with a tough surface. I could get used to seeing more and more of him in the series, which I think is the point. Seth is still as adorable as ever, though, and I hope he stays with Riley. Speaking of Riley, as a narrator she has grown so much since the last book that I can barely imagine her as the same person. The writing, and the fact that it’s become very good, is what truly works the magic, here, though. Without Reine’s newly discovered talent at spinning words I don’t know if I could stomach the story.

I’m giving this one four stars.

Music: I Need Your Love (feat. Ellie Goulding)

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.  

Book of the Month: Six Moon Summer

This is my final book of the month before it’ll be done for the year.  Next month there will be voting for the best one of the bunch, but more on that later.  This month I chose Six Summer Moon by SM Reine because it was short and has been sitting on my kindle for about a year now.  It’s about werewolves, one of my favorite supernatural creatures, if you didn’t know, and is the first in a series of four (although there is a spin-off novella-ish series, too).

Rylie's been bitten.

She's changing.

And now she has three months to find a cure before becoming a werewolf... forever.

Rylie Gresham hates everything about summer camp: the food, the fresh air, the dumb activities, and the other girls in her cabin. But the worst part is probably being bitten by a werewolf. Being a teenager is hard enough, but now she's craving raw flesh and struggles with uncontrollable anger. If she doesn't figure out a way to stop the transformation, then at the end of summer, her life is worse than over. She'll be a monster.

The book takes place over about three months and rushes straight through those days, taking time only for the important plot points.  Little is given to background story and side characters, making a simple, linear story that is pretty flimsy if you want something to dig into.  As it was, I was hoping for a quick read and that’s exactly what I got.  The ending, though, was amazing!  I would give the ending alone five stars because of the action, romance, and just plain flash-bang excitement of it all!  This pinnacle of story telling proves that Reine really does have a gift with the pen.  This ending was so worth it that I can’t wait to start the next one.

Rylie changes as the book progresses.  She actually realizes and puts it best when she says something along the lines of “I was no longer the whiny girl at the beginning of summer”.  It’s true.  She was whiny, a little annoying, but as she goes through her six moons in the story she grows stronger, braver, and just an all around better person.  The moons aren’t the only things that have this effect on her either, nor her love of Seth, but I’m not going to spoil the shocker for you.  It actually had me gasp out loud, that’s how out of the blue it comes.  Did I mention Seth yet?  He’s pretty swoon worthy after you get to know him, although it’s pretty obvious right away that he’s not who he says he is.  That’s a flaw for pretty much all of the characters, really.  The final two chapters are told from his point of view and that was pretty awesome.  I honestly think he’s a stronger narrator than Rylie, and it looks like in the next book it’ll be split up between them.  Now, onto villains!  There’s a bad were-wolf and an evil camp counselor, Jericho.  Really pretty basic, but they’re pretty see-through and the mystery is killed pretty much from the get-go.  Trust me when I say, guessing who the bad were-wolf is isn’t hard.

Overall, I’m giving this book a 3 and a half out of five stars, and I’m looking forward to watching the series go up from here.

PS

Sorry this review was up so late things just got away from me.  NaNoWriMo, work, school, football (finally over) and reading in general have stolen all of my time.