Dragon’s Moon by Lucy Monroe (Children of the Moon #4)
Paranormal Romance
Released: September 4, 2012
Berkley

Reviewed by May

This story takes place in 1149AD Scotland, where the groups of shifters have been forced to live with human clans so that they do not become extinct. They keep their true identities secret from all but a select few – but they are more in the open than ever before. They also have issues between themselves, as over the years the wolves and crows have come to distrust each other, some extremists even hunt and kill each other.  With so much drama between the factions of shifters, it is no wonder that some (cats, etc) no longer live in the highlands at all. That this generation of wolves has never seen – only heard the myth of- the days of lots of kinds of shifters.

Ciara (a wolf shifter) has visions of a sacred wolf stone that means the world to her people, but was lost long ago. It calls to her, shows itself to her in dreams, and she searches for it with her brother. Unfortunately on one of these quests with her power hungry brother they come across the one thing they never imagined: a dragon. Worse still, her brother threatened the dragon’s young charges and is killed while in wolf form Ciara watches on from the bushes.

Scarred from losing her brother in such a gruesome fashion, and reeling from her mother’s suicide, Ciara goes to live with another clan. Things change – and get wild – when the dragon she saw years ago appears and worse yet – is leading a number of his people into their clan where they will now live. Ciara is already on edge enough from lack of sleep and relentless visions that demand she search for the stone. How will she cope with her brother’s murderer, the prince they call Eirik, being in close proximity?

I’ve got to be honest – I’m not entirely sure what to tell you about this book. While I liked the set up and the idea that the shifters in this world each have their own culture, myths, rules, and keep to themselves, very little else worked and none of the things I liked initially developed well.

Lord Talorc and Abigail treated Ciara like a cherished member of the family, to be protected and watched over. She knew they thought she was broken.

Too broken to be forced to mate.

She did nothing to dissuade them of that belief.

She wanted no true family to lose again; she had no desire to ever marry or have children that could be taken from her by that undefeatable enemy, death.

After her entire family died the heroine was shipped off to another clan – to a laird and wife who treated her as if she was their own daughter. She keeps separate from them, keeps emotions locked down because she fears losing those she loves again. While I understand that she lost her whole family, I didn’t buy into this whole emotional shut down deal. Mostly because she is so quick to be emotional when the dreaded dragon Eirik shows up. She wasn’t icy, cold, or detached then – and if she truly had spent seven years locked down would a moment cause her to flip back? I would think meeting the murderer of her brother face to face would have made her more icy, shut down even more, and harder to get than she was.

Ciara’s weakness as a heroine combined with Eirik’s blandness as a hero and the lack of good tension or believable romance made it very hard to care about what happened to either of them.

Also taking away from the main couple was the secondary romance in this book. The woman who shows up beaten nearly to death paired with the shifter/healer was so tender, emotional, and honestly it was the best part of the book and the only part I truly enjoyed. Their place in this book raises this book out of the D range for me and gave me something to look forward to.

This caused a huge problem because it really made the faults within the main story line and the lack of depth in the main characters glare. I think this would have been a far stronger read – perhaps one I’d even have recommended – if this secondary couple had taken the lead instead and more of the kind of depth and writing that they were given had been shown throughout the book.

My final complaint that I will share, is that for me overall this book had no good action, adventure, character depth, drama, comedy, or romance. If you send me a paranormal romance I’m going to expect a hearty dose of two or more of the aforementioned items. The only real satisfaction comes from the secondary romance, and that wasn’t enough for me. The quest that they go on was anti-climactic and almost silly feeling, and I never understood why Eirik and Ciara were so perfect together – aside from the fact that he liked to rub his semen on her like it was lotion and she liked that.

Grade: C-

Recent Reviews:
Rabid Reads – 4/5
That’s What I’m Talking About – A-
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