Moon Called

A magical escape, a mystery to solve

Despite loving fantasy, romance, and paranormal mysteries, until now I had always found werewolf books a little off-putting: 1) the tropes of the controlling “alpha” whose red-flag-laden behavior is too-often portrayed as “romantic,” 2) blood-thirst and hierarchies not found in actual wolf packs--I will buy-in that there are werewolves and magic in a writer's universe, but at least make them act somewhat like real wolves! 3) female characters treated as chattel, “mates” to be fought over.

This author dodges these [silver] bullets of the genre by explaining that these werewolves both appear and act different from actual wolves. The old-fashioned views held by some of the werewolves is explained that because they are basically immortal (though they can be killed, they are immune to most things) some of the characters are hundreds of years old whose views are seated in entirely different eras. Add to this a wiley main character who takes no guff which helps to balance things.

This was a fun paranormal mystery thriller, with a little romance hinted at. It reminded me a little of the Dresden Files series (though with less humor) with the mystery + magical creatures mixed together. It was a fun, magical escape to the wilds of Washington, a part of the country not often explored in literature.