Moonburn by Alisa Sheckley - review

Moonburn
Alisa Sheckley
fantasy, urbanish (U.F.)
2009
****
cover - it's fine, interesting.  You have some wolves running there, some trees, a woman and THE MOON...

Quite a while ago I read a book called The Better To Hold You.  It was an interesting take on werewolves, cheating husbands and other things.  I liked the book - enough to think I would enjoy a sequel, just to see where the main character ends up.  

Just about a year ago I saw Moonburn at the store, and thought - wow!  there's the sequel!  I was so surprised to see that it's been out since 2009!  Especially since I didn't hear about it at all, or even see it in stores until recently.  And I KNOW I've been browsing the shelves from A-Z in both Borders AND Barnes & Noble in the last three years.  Weird.  Anyway, I bought it and stuck it on my shelf and kept reading other novels.  So finally, after reading many very good books, and then deciding I needed to read a 'palate cleanser', I tried a palate cleanser and went right over to Moonburn after a chapter of 'palate cleanser' book.  What can you do?  Just go with it. :)

**the following review does contain some spoilerish words**

Moonburn was interesting.  I'm not gaga over it, but it definitely kept my interest long enough for me to finish it, and that was AFTER reading the most amazing novels in the last month or two.  That's saying something.  

Abra (Abs to her friends) has been living with Red in the small town (or rather on the outskirts) of Northside, where things are a little different.  Otherness, with a capitol O, is tolerated, though not always spoken of.  However, Abra isn't quite sure of her relationship with Red, which is understandable, having been burned in her previous marriage to Hunter.  Hunter, is the man who not only cheated on her, but infected her with the lycantrhopy virus.  Not only is she dealing with fallout from the breakup, a new relationship, and her virus which causes her to turn Wolfy once a month - she also is living next door - or rather on the property next to (in the country next door is different than in the city, after all) Hunter AND his new woman, who happens to be an alpha wolf.  An alpha wolf who really wouldn't mind seeing Abra dead.

But that's not all - nope.  Red is acting different.  Kind of secretive and odd.  Red also wants more from the relationship than Abra is prepared or ready to give.  Remember, she's newly divorced.  From a cheater.  Abra is also feeling different, more aggressive and downright....lustful.  Then there's her boss.  Her boss is getting skinnier and skinnier, looking like he's wasting away.   Weird things are happening...and it all comes to a churning burning raging head that almost leads to the demise of the town, of Abra and others.  

Though I did find myself a little frustrated with Abra's indecision and mistrust of Red, really, it fit with her recent past.  Any normal person would be wary of a new relationship after dealing with a cheating husband, and Abra has many abnormal things to contend with.  So it all fits.  Sheckley does a pretty good job with all the events leading up to the end of the novel - doing a find job with dialogue per character.  I was a little put off by the almost stiff narration of Abra - almost too formal, especially when she's first noticing that she's losing her inhibitions and seems to be gaining charisma - but after a while, the narration seems to 'settle down'.   

While I was a little put off by Abra's tone in the beginning, the further I got into the novel, the more I enjoyed it.  Her confusion, the way she began even having a hard time thinking, the new characters, learning more about some of the characters, other supernatural myths and legends... - it all added up to a fun read with a hell of an ending. 

Wild by Naomi Clark - e-book review

Wild
e-book
****
Naomi Clark

I really like this cover - the moon, the night, the whole feeling, definitely a fool moon type of book. I think it really captures the feel of the novel.

The main character of this book is a mess - a real mess. Lizzie is hitting rock bottom, in a huge way. She's living la vida loca, angry at her boyfriend (who she really doesn't even like), probably angry at herself, at her life...and just keeps on her merry-go-round of drugs, partying, being broke, more drugs, fighting with the boyfriend, more drugs, partying, more drugs.....

One night, she's attacked....she heals remarkably fast and begins to notice cravings and this rage that blossoms out of nowhere. It seems like she might have some help though with this one guy....Just when she thinks she's going to finally stop the rollercoaster and get off, she goes through a major change ....and begins to repeat her previous vida loca. Only this time, it's just a bit worse.

Wow. I believe that Naomi Clark captured very well, the feelings of hopelessness, the rage, the mess that this girl's mind is. It's painful, witnessing this girl try to think about getting off drugs, and then so easily slipping right back into it....cause stopping is hard. Especially when you think that's all you deserve and all you're capable of. Lizzie is to the point when it's easier to allow beatings and hide behind drugs. This guy who appears to be a lifesaver...is he really?

Well - maybe, maybe not.

I enjoyed reading about Lizzie's struggles and her frequent falls into the depths of despair...but there's this little spark in her that keeps her thinking about climbing out that pit...This is a good read with a interesting character. You may not like her, but she's interesting and she's a fighter. It's not apparent what a strong person she is right away, because she's been hiding from herself...but there's a strong character in Lizzie.

If you are ready to read something besides the standard good-girl-who-has-bad things happen to her, then this is a nice change of pace. The narration is good, the situations are gritty and believable - the dialog pretty good. Enjoyable, twisted read - which I liked. Because I like reading a wide variety of main characters - I like them sweet, I like them sour, I like them strong and brave, I like them good, and I like them twisted. Variety - the spice of life! :)

Wild is part of the Vargulf trilogy and can be found at Amazon
Naomi Clark is also the author of Afterlife (which I have in trade book form), Silver Kiss and numerous e-books. Go take a look at her website, she has some interesting pages up.

Red

I just finished RED by Jordan Summers. I was lucky enough to win an autographed copy from one of Cheyenne McCray's contests. The author of Red describes her book on the inside as a "gritty love" story. It's gritty. Set in the future, America, and presumably the rest of the world is suffering from a depleted ozone layer, resulting in depletion of forests, grasslands, etc. Some animals of become extinct. The United States of America has dissolved, with republics arising, like the Republic of Arizona, the Republic of the Floridian Islands, etc. The outside of the republics are considered no-mans land, with no law. The larger cities are contained withing huge domes to provide atmosphere, protection from the sun.

Gina Santiago, the heroine works for an elite tactical team (International Police Tactical Team, IPTT) that protects all the republics from each other. Her grandfather is in charge of this agency. There is mystery surrounding her families' death. Both parents and a sister have died, so she was brought up by her grandfather. She has episodes, where she wakes up covered in blood, with torn clothing but no scratches. She has no memories of whatever has happened. Gina has a nickname, Red, that has nothing to do with hair color, and a lot to do with her expert marksmanship. Gina is an outsider, many of her co-workers consider her strange.

Bodies have been found of women who have been partially eaten and Gina, who finds one of these bodies has the gut feeling that there is more to the supposed animal attack than meets the eye. She insists of investigating, but has to do it on her own time. This leads her to a border town, where she meats Morgan Hunter. She finds the townspeople strange, and the sheriff (Morgan) seems to have an amazing amount of power over the townspeople. She is attracted to him, even though she suspects he is hiding something.

There are passages written in the first person from the person who is killing the women. The rest of the book is written in third person. There are myths of werewolves and vampires - "others' with supernatural powers, who some people believe, but most people deny. The version of Vampires and Werewolves here come from military tweaking and experiments of soldiers from centuries ago. Gina finds out things about herself and others that she doesn't want to believe.

I enjoyed this book very much. There is some sex, a few horrific murders narrated by the murderer, an alpha male, lots of plotting by various characters and adventure action. The world building is good. Jordan Summers paints a believable world with quite a lot of changes from the world we know.

Jordan Summers has written two sequels to Red, Scarlet (coming out in June) and Crimson (November 2009) that continue the story of Gina and Morgan. For her world building, suspense, horror aspect and mystery I would give this 5 out of 6 stars. ***** I am definitely interested in following this series.