Review: Really more 3.5 stars, but I'll round up
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 19, 2013
Here's the short answer - if you liked the other Dark Hollow Pack books, you'll like this one too.The long answer contains spoilers.SoBad Moon on the Rise (Dark Hollow Wolf Pack 7)starts out with a murder investigation, and one of the lead detectives on the case is James Tucker. But this isn't a murder mystery, or a crime novel; in fact, all of the technical aspects of police work are glossed over, as if the author didn't want to sidetrack the story with less relevant details (or didn't bother to do the research). We get some nice character development, seeing Tucker on the job, interacting with his partner, cruising the club in his not-in-the-closet, but not-out-at-work way. Tucker hooks up with a really hot guy for a quickie in the club, then ends up seeing him at a crime scene the next day.Another interaction with the hot guy - Gavin - should have given Tucker reason to pull him in for questioning on the murder investigation, but as the reader, we know that Tucker is Gavin's mate, and it's all downhill from there. Tucker's investigation gets totally thrown out the window about halfway through the story, and Gavin's doing everything to beg, bribe and threaten Tucker to come home with him.And this is where my comfort-level with Shannon West's books always takes a nosedive. In traditional D/s relationships, the sub has all the power. In Ms. West's books, the Dom - usually an Alpha - has the power, and the sub falls in line because he LOVES his alpha. In Bad Moon, Tucker quits his job, throws over his friends, moves away and agrees to be a pet, all because he's Gavin's mate. Tucker's (ex) partner even compares the whole thing to a cult, and the minute Tucker gets uneasy about the truth of that, he realizes how much he LOVES Gavin. It really bothers me that ALL of the pets put up with their uneven, tumultuous relationships because it's their mate, and they LOVE them.Anyways, the Dark Hollow books are oddly compelling, and aside from the insta-love syndrome, this is a good story. Tucker is an interesting character. I would almost call him a strong character, except that he passes out no less than four times (maybe five) during the events of the story; what a fragile flower of a man!