Guest Review: Moon Craving by Lucy Monroe

Tracy’s review of Moon Craving (A Children of the Moon Novel) by Lucy Monroe

When Talorc-laird of the Sinclair clan and leader of his werewolf pack- must wed an Englishwoman, he’s shocked to find that she is his mate. Deaf since childhood, Abigail hopes to keep her affliction from Talorc as long as possible, just as he has no intention of telling her that he’s a werewolf. But when Abigail learns that the husband she’s begun to love has deceived her, it will take all his warrior’s strength-and his wolf’s cunning-to win his wife back.

When Abigail was 10 she was fever ridden and they thought she would die. When she survived – only to find out she was deaf – her mother, Sybil, spurned her and Abigail was told not to let anyone find out as they would think that she was possessed by demons. So Abigail has lived her life keeping her deafness a secret. With the help of her step-sister, Emily, she was able to learn how to speak clearly, modulate her voice and read lips. But even with all of her accomplishments her mother still hates her – hates her so much that she has made arrangements for Abigail to marry Talorc, Laird of the Sinclair clan – a man her mother finds to be a barbarian. You see Sybil sent Emily off to the Highlands to marry Talorc approx 3 years earlier but Emily was kidnapped by a rival clan and married their Laird. Sybil wants Abigail gone from her household so badly that she writes the King and asks for redress. What does the king say? Send another daughter! But does the evil Sybil even tell her daughter that she’s getting married? No! And when Abigail finds out and starts to stand up to her mother, she’s beaten!

When Abigail and her parents reach the MacDougal clan holdings where they are to meet Talorc they are all anxious to meet this man that had once spurned Emily. Abigail had gotten letters from Emily over the years and what her sister had to say about Talorc was never very complimentary. But when Abigail meets her intended she is fascinated by him. He is a big guy and though she is frightened some she feels protected as well – even more so when he wants to kill Sybil for beating her.

Talorc and Abigail get married and immediately begin their journey to the Sinclair lands. While Abigail finds most of the clan members friendly there are some who want her gone just because she is English. Talorc is unwilling to trust Abigail with his werewolf but is furious when he finds out that she is deaf. While he’s angry at being deceived he doesn’t see the huge paradox staring him in the face. He wants all her secrets but is not willing to come clean with her. It makes for an interesting relationship.

I have to tell you that I’ve been looking forward to another Children of the Moon novel since I read Moon Awakening back in ’08. While I didn’t like this one as much as MA it had some great parts to it.

Abigail was a pretty strong heroine. Sometimes she showed her fear but really, for everything she had been through, she was quite tough. Yes there were times when she jumped to the wrong conclusions but I always expect that to some extent in my historical reading. Talorc was a handsome man who really was very kind to Abigail. For all of his hatred of the English (his mother had betrayed his father and his father, as well as many others in the clan had died because of it), he really did try to be as gentle and understanding of Abigail as he knew how. Yes, he was very upset to be deceived about her deafness and didn’t handle it well at first, but he managed to get through it. He had found his true mate so he was keeping her no matter what.

I did read Katiebabs’s post on the usage of contemporary words in a historical novel but when I read her post, before reading the book, I didn’t think that they would bug me. When I was reading the book however words like “okay” and “wow” did kind of throw me out of the book for a time. They just seemed too 20th century. I don’t personally think it was a lack of research just maybe some editing glitches. Despite that I liked the book and I don’t feel that the word issues made too much of an impact on my overall liking of the book. I think that Lucy Monroe has once again captured the essence of who the people are who make up these werewolf clans and I enjoyed being in their world once again.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place.

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This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.