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A review by alassel
Moonstruck by Lauren Dane
4.0
This was recommended by a book blog I follow when it was on sale, so I picked it up to give it a shot. I'm a fan of paranormal romances, so a whole town built around its population of shifters and witches sounded excellent. I enjoyed the book and found it refreshing in some ways and derivative to a degree in others.
Katie and Jace, our couple for the novel, have a surprisingly adult and even relationship once they get together. There is no manufactured drama between them, they handle things like Katie's "gun-shyness" and Jace's "control-freak tendencies" like adults, usually by talking about them. Once they're a couple, they're a couple, and they present a largely united front to pretty much everyone around them no matter what goes on. This is RARE in the genre, honestly, as most of the conflict and drama is built around misunderstandings between the happy couple, so I found it refreshing and pleasing to read a story that wasn't. There is some sex but it's not explicit and tends to focus more on how amazing they each find the other, so I'd probably rate it R at most.
The witch powers and shifters were explained nicely and neatly, but the real story is the political scenarios around everyone in town. This book does a good job setting up the current situation and filling in the backstory, and leaving the way open for more books in the series to continue on the storyline. Some of the shifter bits were derivative, but then again there's only so much you can do with werewolves who have a pack hierarchy, so that's not necessarily a mark against the book.
There's a wide range of characters, very much in a small-town Southern setting right down to the names and some of the phrasing. The description on GoodReads says it's "Diablo Lake, WA" but it's not, it's set near Chattanooga TN. Some people will enjoy this sort of setting and verbiage, some won't.
I enjoyed the book and will likely pick up another in the series at some point.
Katie and Jace, our couple for the novel, have a surprisingly adult and even relationship once they get together. There is no manufactured drama between them, they handle things like Katie's "gun-shyness" and Jace's "control-freak tendencies" like adults, usually by talking about them. Once they're a couple, they're a couple, and they present a largely united front to pretty much everyone around them no matter what goes on. This is RARE in the genre, honestly, as most of the conflict and drama is built around misunderstandings between the happy couple, so I found it refreshing and pleasing to read a story that wasn't. There is some sex but it's not explicit and tends to focus more on how amazing they each find the other, so I'd probably rate it R at most.
The witch powers and shifters were explained nicely and neatly, but the real story is the political scenarios around everyone in town. This book does a good job setting up the current situation and filling in the backstory, and leaving the way open for more books in the series to continue on the storyline. Some of the shifter bits were derivative, but then again there's only so much you can do with werewolves who have a pack hierarchy, so that's not necessarily a mark against the book.
There's a wide range of characters, very much in a small-town Southern setting right down to the names and some of the phrasing. The description on GoodReads says it's "Diablo Lake, WA" but it's not, it's set near Chattanooga TN. Some people will enjoy this sort of setting and verbiage, some won't.
I enjoyed the book and will likely pick up another in the series at some point.