Reviewer: Holly Full Moon Rising (Riley Jenson Guardian #1) by Keri Arthur
Series: Riley Jenson Guardian #1
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: December 26th 2006
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 372
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Series Rating:
In this exciting debut, author Keri Arthur explodes onto the supernatural scene with a sexy, sensuous tale of intrigue and suspense set in a world where legends walk and the shady paths of the underworld are far more sinister than anyone envisioned.
A rare hybrid of vampire and werewolf, Riley Jenson and her twin brother, Rhoan, work for Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races, an organization created to police the supernatural races–and protect humans from their depredations. While Rhoan is an exalted guardian, a.k.a. assassin, Riley is merely an office worker–until her brother goes missing on one of his missions. The timing couldn’t be worse. More werewolf than vampire, Riley is vulnerable to the moon heat, the weeklong period before the full moon, when her need to mate becomes all-consuming.…
Luckily Riley has two willing partners to satisfy her every need. But she will have to control her urges if she’s going to find her brother….Easier said than done as the city pulses with frenzied desire, and Riley is confronted with a very powerful–and delectably naked–vamp who raises her temperature like never before.
In matters carnal, Riley has met her match. But in matters criminal, she must follow her instincts not only to find her brother but to stop an unholy harvest. For someone is doing some shifty cloning in an attempt to produce the ultimate warrior–by tapping into the genome of nonhumans like Rhoan. Now Riley knows just how dangerous the world is for her kind–and just how much it needs her.
Full Moon Rising is the first book in Keri Arthur’s Rile Jenson Guardian series. I’m not really sure how I feel about this series. I read the first four books back-to-back and here are some observations:
1) Riley doesn’t seem to have a lot of common sense/street smarts. She’s intelligent, but she makes a lot of questionable decisions and trusts way too easily. There were giant red flags that came from the actions of many people in her life, yet she ignored them and merrily continued on her way. I would have liked to see her be a little less trusting and a little more wary.
2) There’s a lot of sex in this book, but I wouldn’t consider it an erotic romance. Most of it is off page. In this world, werewolves have to answer the moon’s call for one week every month (which means have sex non-stop). They burn with sexual fever and, if their needs aren’t met, they turn crazed. That’s the way this world is written and that’s fine, but the point was all but hammered into the reader. The Fever was mentioned every other page, I swear. I’d rather have had less focus on that and more on the suspense plot.
3) This speaks more to the four books as a whole, rather than this book in particular, but the storyline really seemed to drag on. What starts here isn’t resolved until book four, and even then there are loose ends that still need to be tied up. It may be because I read them back-to-back, but it ended up feeling like one, long drug out story, rather than a continuing story-arc I wanted to keep reading. The same goes for the romance angle. What seemed promising in book one was just tired by book four.
4) For all that, I do like Riley. I think she’s an interesting character facing some hard battles not of her making. She keeps a good attitude and does her best to power through, regardless of what life throws at her. I also really like the secondary characters. Especially her twin, Rhoan, and his sometimes boyfriend Liander.
After binge-reading four books, I’m not sure i want to continue the series. I may set it aside and come back to it after I read some other books.
Full Moon Rising has an interesting premise and characters, but it wasn’t as engaging as I thought it would be.
3.25 out of 5
I read this book some years ago but wasn’t compelled to read more. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Holly.
I actually had mixed feelings on this book….I liked it but I didn’t ? ! I am not sure if its a series I want to be invested in. It was good hearing your thoughts on this one.