I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Dragon's Moon
by
Lucy Monroe
It is part of the Children of the Moon #4 series and is a erotica, paranormal romance in a paperback edition that was published by Berkley Sensation on September 4, 2012 and has 308 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Beach Blanket Bad Boys, Close Quarters, Moon Burning
Fourth in the Children of the Moon historical paranormal romance series. The couple focus is on Prince Eirik and Ciara Donegal and covers 1142 to 1149.
My Take
This is the equivalent of reading about Dick and Jane for adults. It’s actually a great premise for a story. It’s just too bad that Monroe’s editors couldn’t bring up the quality of the sentences. Nor did they pay attention to the language used. Yes, it’s bad enough that it is very noticeable. “Stay on topic”. Really??? A twentieth century boardroom, sure, but in the twelfth century…?
The pre-Prologue provides a background on the Chrechte, the shapeshifters who populate this series. The prologue provides a more recent background on Ciara and how she came to be living with the Sinclair clan.
Monroe keeps leaping from crisis to scene to spectacle attempting to create drama and tension, yet nothing rings true. It’s more gag-worthy than interesting and simply spoils the story. Mairi’s statement that she should have stayed; the reason behind Lais’ belief that he is not worthy; Miss Drama Queen, oops, I mean Ciara’s stumbling discovery about love and sex; and, the initial sexual interaction between Lais and Mairi…gimme a break. In fact, make it two or three!
Oooh, “I feel so strange” as she “touches her own nipple”. Gag. Ciara is willing to mate with Eirik, but she refuses to marry him? What difference does it make? Of course, we have to have the obligatory “oh, he doesn’t love me”, which lasted about fifteen minutes. I think that Monroe has now checked off all the “required” elements for a romance…please, god…!
What healer wouldn’t assess the patient’s overall status? I mean, he starts with the scratches on her feet?? What? Ciara can’t take a hint and just has to keep talking when they’re on MacLeod land??
The whole bit about Eirik not accepting his kingship and the whys behind it are very confusing. Then there’s Ciara’s stupidity over Galen’s death. Gimme a break. Sure, it makes sense that she would hate Eirik for what happened, but at least Monroe could write it believably! She’s had seven years to figure out that what her brother was doing was wrong and that the dragon was protecting children. Children she was considering…uh-huh, just considering…protecting from her brother and the friend she knew was a cruel man. One her brother planned to give her to.
It is cute how Eirik is so upset over Talorc’s catering to and listening to his women. It’s too bad that Monroe doesn’t actually do anything with this. She wants him to be an alpha male, but is just so ineffective.
Monroe has Lais living with the Donegal laird, Rowland, before Barr took over and I can’t believe that Ciara didn’t know about Lais.
Monroe is so busy throwing all sorts of details in that she forgets to connect them.
The Story
After the losses, Ciara has suffered, she has decided it is so much safer to not love. To not accept Talorc and Abigail’s love. The love of their children. She certainly won’t accept love with a dragon! Especially when that dragon is the cause of her brother’s death.
It’s her dreams about the Faolchú Chridhe that hastens the changes to Ciara’s life. A valuable artifact greatly needed by the Faol if they are to survive. A quest that Ciara and Eirik and Lais and Mairi undertake.
The Characters
Ciara Donegal is now a Sinclair. With all the deaths, the Donegal laird (a Faol), Barr who is married to Eirik’s sister Sabrine, thought she would be better in a different setting without all the memories. If Sabrine is Eirik’s sister, then wouldn’t it be realistic to believe that Eirik must have visited the Donegal territory and Ciara would have seen him, met him?? She’s also a Faol and a seer whose dreams come true. Galen is her idiot brother seduced by their father’s beliefs. Luag is Galen’s friend and cruel in his desire to hurt. Crispin is the laird-in-training under Barr.
Prince Eirik Taran Gealach Gra should be king of the Éan, but he has chosen a different path. He will still be a protector of his people as a dragon and a raven shifter, but they need greater protection than even he can provide. Anya-Gra is his grandmother, a raven shifter, and the spiritual leader of the Éan as well as the oldest member of the Triumvirate. Lais is an eagle shifter and a great healer.
Laird Talorc Sinclair is a Faol married to the pregnant Abigail, an English woman and full human. They have two sons and they have taken in Ciara as their own. Niall is his second-in-command and neither will force her into marriage.
Laird Lachlan of Balmoral Island is another Faol and Barr’s twin brother; he sees himself as Ciara’s uncle and he’s married to Abigail’s sister, Emily. They have a nine-year-old daughter, Abigail Catriona, who will always be fully human. Another Catriona lives at Balmoral and she is Talorc’s sister. Gart, Artair, and Vegar are guards at Balmoral. And they know about Eirik’s abilities…oh, no. It must be a betrayal. Somehow…*gagging…again* Boisin is a storyteller, seer, and teacher for the Balmoral. He will take in Mairi and teach her how to use her abilities.
Mairi MacLeod has fled her father’s lands. Her inability to shift into a wolf is almost worse than her being a woman as far as the MacLeod is concerned. It is against Faol laws to hurt a child and that he would beat his own daughter unto death is…just wrong. She is also a seer.
The Chrechte is a general term for all the shapeshifters: the Faol are the wolves; the Éan are bird shifters; and, the Paindeal are cat shifters who left Scotland.
The Fearghall is a society of wolf shifters who believe that only wolf shifters should be permitted to live and that only men have value. Well, you can guess where my thoughts fall on this one! The KuKluxKlan of their time. The society took its name from a man. An ancestor of Ciara’s. The Cahir are a society meant to eradicate the Fearghall.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a wide range of reds from the bright reds that make up the background of lochs, mountains, the moon, and the cloudy, starry sky with an extremely well-muscled and tattooed Eirik standing at the top of a mountain in the rocks, wearing a leather kilt and leather wrist gauntlets and clasping a broadsword, point down.
The title refers to two different things: Eirik as the dragon shifter and the moon as it pertains to the series, so it’s a Dragon’s Moon this time around.
