Review: Good writing, characters not for me
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 10, 2013
Have you ever read something that you really wanted to like but didn’t? Yeah. As much as I loved loved loved the second book in this series, Hunter’s Moon, I just couldn’t get behind the characters in Moonlight.Adam is the Alpha’s son, the next Alpha so you would expect a man of strength and leadership. And yet he is so wishy-washy and cowardly when it comes to telling his family “This is my mate.” I love a strong Alpha-male character – it’s probably why I read so many shifter novels – but Adam just never quite got there for me. I needed him to man up and it really took too long for him to do it.Lana also didn’t quite give me what I needed to respect her as a strong female character. So much of the first half of the book was her mentally telling herself how she was going to leave Adam. How she didn’t deserve him. How she couldn’t come between him and his family. While I understand the sentiment (except for the not good enough thing – that one always bugs me), it seemed as if the whole “I’m going to leave him” thing was told a number of times without an action backing it up.All that being said, Lisa Kessler and her writing style are wonderful. Do I sound like a hypocrite? Let me explain. There is nothing in the style of the writing or the plotline that detracts from the book. It is a solidly written, well-thought out adventure through an inter-species romance. My issues with the book were more personality conflicts with the characters. There’s nothing wrong with them – no out of character moments or ridiculous behavior – I just got irritated by them. It’s like when you meet a friend of a friend. You’ve heard so much about them and want so badly to be friends with them as well, but something about them just makes you say “nope.” There’s nothing overtly offensive about them, they’re just not someone you want to hang with and tell all your secrets to. That’s Adam and Lana to me. We’re meant to be more acquaintances than BFFs.Aren and Sasha from Hunter’s Moon on the other hand…I want to curl up on their couch and just watch them interact. Jason too. And Luke. Maybe even Gareth. Hopefully we will get to see more of these other characters that have already piqued my interest in future books in the series. I know I’ll be waiting ever-so-impatiently for them.You may like Moonlight – there’s plenty of drama and mystery, a nice amount of heat and a slow-burn mating romance. I just couldn’t keep my head in the story. That being said, Hunter’s Moon was one of my favorite books of 2013 so I will continue on with this series. If you start Moonlight and find yourself putting it down and agreeing with me, give Hunter’s Moon a read. The author wrote a strong, stand-alone novel as part of the series so the important details of Moonlight are covered without a big information dump.Overall I give this one three stars for a solid plot and wonderful writing style.