REVIEW: Hidden Moon by Lori Handeland

JayneB Reviews Category / B- Reviews / Book ReviewsGeorgia / Lori-Handeland / nightcreatures / shapeshifters2 Comments

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 decide to turn the entire town into werewolves with the swastika incantation once the lightning bolt hit apple tree was found.

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 use the mist on her to get her used to him? Or did he just guess and take a chance? And how did the gypsies trace the descendants of the witch? They’re not exactly hooked up to the web. Plus the romance between Claire and Mal is a little fast even with the LoveMist. A week by my calculations.

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

Jayne

Another long time reader who read romance novels in her teens, then took a long break before started back again about 15 years ago. She enjoys historical romance/fiction best, likes contemporaries, action- adventure and mysteries, will read suspense if there's no TSTL characters and is currently reading very few paranormals.

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