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New Moon Summer (Seasons of the Moon: Cain Chronicles, #1)

S.M. Reine

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Nov 23, 2012 A Book Vacation rated it really liked it

To see my full review:

http://bookvacations.wordpress.com/20...

I was so excited to see that there was a spinoff series to Season of the Moon! I really enjoyed S.M. Reine’s werewolf novels, and though it ended extremely well, every reader is always dying to know what happens next, after any tale concludes. Luckily for us, Reine is giving us more to the story—much more—and she even let her readers have a say in what happened, which I think is extremely awesome!

This spinoff series is written as shor To see my full review:

http://bookvacations.wordpress.com/20...

I was so excited to see that there was a spinoff series to Season of the Moon! I really enjoyed S.M. Reine’s werewolf novels, and though it ended extremely well, every reader is always dying to know what happens next, after any tale concludes. Luckily for us, Reine is giving us more to the story—much more—and she even let her readers have a say in what happened, which I think is extremely awesome!

This spinoff series is written as short novellas, perhaps 50-74 pages in length, if I had to guess (since my Kindle doesn’t do page numbers), and it looks like they’ll all end on cliffhangers, at which point Reine asks her readers to help out. I missed the bandwagon on the helping part, and am so kicking myself in the butt, but I’m also really excited because, so far, this novella is everything I wanted it to be.

I love Rylie—I always have, and it’s exciting to see her take on her role as Alpha. The novella opens with a quick rehash of events from the final novel in the original series, cluing readers in to the characters in case they need a refresher (or perchance because they haven’t read the original series—which they need to read, stat!), and then jumps ahead two full years. I liked that this novella gives this time and distance because I feel like Rylie, Seth, and Abel all deserve some down-time, and that’s exactly what is alluded to during these two years off, but if you know Rylie, you know it can’t possibly stay that way for her, or her pack, forever.

I loved the relationship building that we see happening in this novella concerning the brothers and their love for Rylie. Of course, Seth is somewhat allusive in this novella, and we certainly don’t get enough of him, but I enjoyed seeing Rylie interact with her pack, and Abel. She is a bit confused, it seems, when it comes to her love life, but so far she has remained true to Seth, which makes me a very happy girl. But I love Abel’s angst, and I believe Reine does a superb job portraying angst it between all the characters.

And, kudos to Reine for glossing over the sexual encounters. I mean, I just have to say it. Most YA novels nowadays exploit sex like it’s going out of style—there’s the slow taking off of clothes, the wet, slimy kisses, and way too many details that I just don’t need (or want), but Reine refrains from following the crowd. We know sex has happened between the characters without having all the grimy details, and that, my dears, makes me one happy reader. In my opinion, young adults already have sex thrown at them from every angle imaginable. They don’t need it written out for them, detail by detail, in their novels, too. Seriously, Reine is my hero!

Anyway, though, this novella is just the tip of the iceberg; it’s somewhat slow paced in its reveal, but once the plot thickens, Reine slams her readers with some fast-paced action that happens all at once, and then she leaves us with a deadly cliffhanger. The good news? The next installment is already out (as is the third and fourth, all for just 99 cents a piece), so these cliffhangers won’t hurt too badly, because I’m about to pick up the next installment as we speak. And I can’t wait to see where Reine and her readers’ input takes us.
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