Bad Blood (Crimson Moon, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Sep 13, 2019 Midu Hadi rated it it was ok

Shelves: series, read-in-september, us-author, src-read, series-completion-in-progress, shifters, vampires-and-other-bloodsuckers, first-in-the-series, reviewed, person-on-cover

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Feb 28, 2010 Nairabell rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy, 4-star, read-in-2012

Sasha Trudeau is a highly trained Special Ops soldier, part of a team of survivors of werewolf attacks working for the American government to prevent the world from discovering the paranormal. But when Sasha returns from a solo mission to discover her team has mysteriously disappeared, she knows something isn't right. Turning to the mysterious Max Hunter Sasha uncovers dramatic secrets, government conspiracies and shocking realities about her own nature.

This is the first book in the Crimson Moon Sasha Trudeau is a highly trained Special Ops soldier, part of a team of survivors of werewolf attacks working for the American government to prevent the world from discovering the paranormal. But when Sasha returns from a solo mission to discover her team has mysteriously disappeared, she knows something isn't right. Turning to the mysterious Max Hunter Sasha uncovers dramatic secrets, government conspiracies and shocking realities about her own nature.

This is the first book in the Crimson Moon series and one that I've been looking forward to reading as I enjoyed books from the author's other series Vampire Huntress Legends. The narrative is grittier than I expected which took me a little while to adjust to and I was a little disappointed with how long this book took to get going. It suffers a lot from first-in-a-series-itis and there is plenty of info-dumping near the beginning which meant I struggled to get into the book itself.

That said, the book picks up about halfway through and once the world has been laid out the info-dumping subsides rapidly. The world building is complex, albeit poorly handled, and is very unique. Rather than just having werewolves there are three distinct species of wolf: shadow wolves who can literally move through shadows; demon wolves who are crazy and infected with a demonic virus; and werewolves or familiars who just have the basic wolf gene. There is also a demonic realm running parallel to our own with gates that allow demons to cross over.

The military angle is well handled and reminded me somewhat of Christine Feehan's Ghostwalker series. Adding a military aspect can derail a narrative, but in this case it runs alongside Sacha's personal journey and gives her a fascinating background and interesting skill set. It isn't surprising that a military force would try to harness the paranormal and the idea that they would actively fight to remain the only one with it is equally realistic. I loved the conspiracy angle and how cleverly it was handled.

Sasha is a great lead character, managing to be seriously kick-ass but also human too. Her world changes immensely in this book and she copes in a realistic way. Max manages to be the perfect mix of love interest and truth teller, and his Native American background gives the book a unique feel. I loved how Sasha didn't immediately fall madly in love with Max, despite their connection and her resistance is a refreshing change from most paranormal books these days.

All in all, this was an interesting read and I'm looking forward to Bite the Bullet.

Plot: 8/10
Characters: 8/10
Ending: 9/10
Enjoyment: 7/10
Cover: 8/10

Overall: 40/50 ...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Carlyn rated it really liked it

I quite enjoyed this although it seemed a bit rough at times and it seems the story could have been pieced together a bit better. The story was good and I really liked the characters. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series to see if some of the more mysterious characters have a bigger role to play. ...more

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Dec 28, 2009 Lily rated it really liked it

Shelves: paranormal-romance

This book would have been a three star book for me except I get so hungry for a little color in my urban fantasy, paranormal romance and sci fi reads. Just for that, I bumped it up to a four star book.

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