Aug 2 2007
REVIEW: Hidden Moon by Lori Handeland
Dear Ms Handeland,
I think I’ve figured it out. With each location change, I find the books in the Nighcreatures series get fresh and interesting again. Then as the series continues in that location, things get stale, you have to pull out more tricks to keep things interesting and I lose interest. With the geographical move to Lake Bluffs, GA, I get to perk up again. But then what next? Will Grace have a book? Something to do with Cherokee legends? And will my grade go down until you move to something new? We’ll see but for right now, I’m glad I am still sticking with this series and that I asked Jane to get me an arc.
Claire is a heroine I can like. She’s a small town girl who tried the big city and who discovered that maybe her own backyard isn’t so bad after all. She’s usually levelheaded, not prone to hysteria and neither immediately believes all the supernatural stuff with which she’s confronted during the town’s annual Moon Festival nor holds out in disbelief way past when it’s obvious that things aren’t normal anymore. She doesn’t try to act like a Wonder Woman but instead uses her head to think her way out of danger.
By having all the old werewolf stuff revealed through Claire’s internet searches, you save the info dump scenes that have been at the end of the past few books. Also, I enjoyed the fact that you used a different character to explain the Mengele thing and was frankly glad that so few Jager-Suchers were in this book. And that it didn’t end with a hundred more people learning about this super secret government society. I guess Claire and Grace are lucky that the villain didn’t
While I enjoy first person novels, sometimes I feel that I don’t get to know the other characters as well. It’s not a problem here with Claire’s best friend Grace as you provide lots of background information about the Cherokee town police chief but I don’t feel like I got to know Malachi Cartwright (and that name never did sound like a Gypsy one to me). Yes, I know his background history and what happened to him but I never felt I really got to know him. And how did Mal know Claire was The One and thus know to
Still, I’m just so darn happy that this book worked better for me as I do have a lot of time invested in the series so far and I enjoy seeing strong heroines. Bring on “Thunder Moon.” I’m ready. B-
~Jayne
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Aug 02, 2007 @ 08:05:54
I kind of lost track with this author. I read the first book and that was it. I like her writing style/voice but it’s not in ebook. Thanks for the review.
Aug 02, 2007 @ 13:47:08
Just when I’m ready to ditch this series, she’ll pull out a winner and hook me back into it again. Who knew there were so many different types of werewolves…..?