Thursday, December 31, 2009

Review - Full Moon Rising




Title: Full Moon Rising
Author: Keri Arthur
Publishing Date: 2006
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: B-
Sensuality: Warm
Book Disclosure: Borrowed from the library

Full Moon Rising is the first book in Keri Arthur's Riley Jenson Guardian series. Riley Jenson narrates the story from first person point of view. She is half werewolf, half vampire and considered an anomaly amongst the supernatural kind. The setting is futuristic, but I am not sure exactly what year the story takes place. She also has a twin brother Rhoan, who is a guardian and has gone missing. Guardians are supernatural police and Rhoan was working on a mission when he is abducted. Riley teams up with the Guardians to get him back. As she becomes more involved in the case she discovers that Rhoan wasn't the only target. She too, is in danger.

Riley has more werewolf characteristics than vampire. This means that during a full moon she is a slave to her body's impulses. She craves sex like a fat kid craves cake. If she doesn't get it or lets the craving go unsated for too long then she will turn into a raving beast, literally. She becomes overwhelmed by blood lust. This behavior is perfectly acceptable amongst the wolves. It's their nature. While Riley's sexuality is a large part of this book, it's not overly graphic. Most of the scenes were closed door, except for a few to show relationship development between Riley and Quinn, a very old, very powerful vampire.

Riley was a little difficult to connect to. Her personality is very direct, and not necessarily very friendly. She is an interesting mix of girly and street tough. She likes to wear feminine clothes and show off her body. She doesn’t like violence, but will do what she has to in order to protect herself or those she loves. She is smart and I was a little surprised at how she had the wool pulled over her eyes by two people who were close to her. Really, I thought she would have had more of a clue.

The world building is good, as is the characterization. I feel this series has potential and am curious enough to read another book in this series. Hopefully, after another book I will warm up to Riley a little more. Quinn already has peaked my interest and hopefully he will appear in future books.

Here is what others had to say:

Love Romance Passion
Royal Reviews
Riley's Reviews
My Kingdom for a Book

This book can be purchased in print or kindle format from Amazon.

3 comments:

nath said...

Interesting review, Jill :D I have this in my TBR pile... It sounded interesting, but I was turn off by Riley's sexuality. Even if it's closed doors... I don't know, having sex just to sate a craving, meh. I know Ames loves this series though... Actually, now that I think about it, I brought my copy to the UBS... ah well.

SusiSunshine said...

I read this one too and I really liked Riley. I agree an the trusting part. Found that strange too!
Enjoyed your review!

Jill D. said...

Nath - Yeah, the sex felt like a distraction at times in the story. But I liked that not all the scenes were explicit. Only certain ones and they gave insight to the characters or plot.

Susi - Riley is growing on me. I am going to give the second book a try and see where it goes. Glad you enjoyed the review!