Title: Moonstruck
Series: Diablo Lake #1
Author: Lauren Dane
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Published: June 20, 2016
Publisher: Carina Press
My Rating: 4.5 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:
In Diablo Lake, Tennessee, a town populated by werewolves, witches and more, magic woven deep into the earth protects the town’s secrets from outsiders.
Katie Grady left Diablo Lake to get over a humiliating breakup. But her family needs her help, so she’s back, in a sublet right across the hall from the guy she’s lusted after for years. Jace Dooley is hotter than ever, and their friendship picks up along with massive doses of grown-up chemistry.
The very scent of Katie sharpens Jace’s canines, makes the wolf within him stir. There’s nothing more alluring to a Pack Alpha than a sexy female who is so very in charge. She won’t be coddled, but if he plays his hand just right she might be convinced to become his.
Katie presents a challenge to Jace’s wolf nature, whose chief instinct is to protect. Especially now that she’s coming into the magic that is her birthright—and suddenly Jace isn’t the only one who’s interested in Katie or the raw power she’s just learning to use.
Read on for my thoughts on Moonsruck. No true spoilers, promise.
As a reader who is admittedly addicted to series, that first story in a new series always sends off the shivers and the anticipation for me. The beginning novel sets the tone for the rest of the series, and if I’m going to believe an author’s world it’s gotta be right now, right at the start of it all.
Lauren Dane weaves an intricate tale in the small, isolated town of Diablo Lake. Here magic is in the air, its soaked into the earth itself and werewolves, witches, guardians and even cats live their lives, if not in perfect harmony at least in an atmosphere where each side benefits from the presence of the other. While there are two main packs in town, the Pembrys and the Dooleys, there is only one combined community of witches. Over time the werewolves have used the power of the witches to jockey for position – when you marry a witch your pack will be the stronger, more powerful in this town. Now that is about to change for one special woman has returned to Diablo Lake and she and the other witches of the town will not allow the packs to use them any longer.
Katie Faith has returned home to tend to her parents, specifically her father who has recently been hospitalized for heart problems. While her mother is perfectly capable of handling her husband, their business could use Katie Faith’s attention. And, in truth, it’s time to come home. When a son of the Pembry Patron left her at the alter years ago, Katie Faith fled town for the big city. There she nursed her humiliation and did some growing up, she’s had the taste of independence that she needed to heal – now it’s time to come home. While staying with her best friend, Aimee is fine for the moment, Katie Faith needs her own space and when an apartment is available that puts her right into Dooley territory and right across the hall from a man who was kind to her once, and might have been a bit more if things had been different, now lived. Jace Dooley was one fine specimen of a man, that fact was not lost on Katie Faith. He’d grown up just fine.
Moonstruck easily pulled me into the lives of Katie Faith and Jace. This is a couple who is certainly steamy, yet their sexy times are such a natural part of this story that while often sizzling their chemistry is perfectly natural. The love that they have for each other is solid, true and grows with an ease and sense of rightness that gives these characters life. Serious, lighthearted, sexy, mundane events even – all parts of a couple binding their lives together.
The world building has created such a realistic small town. The politics, the posturing for effect and position, the nastiness, the bat crap craziness of one particular woman, the simple and the extreme all find a place in Diablo Lake. I never felt bogged down in detail, and even continued to “see” the town in deepening clarity as the story developed. What an amazing cast of secondary characters. From the descriptions and the actions of the townsfolk we are left with no blank faces but truly fleshed out characters with their own unique personalities, even if they’re only on the page for a short time. It’s details like this that create a world that I can fall into, one that I want to return to for however long the author will bring me back.
I found Moonstruck to be a vivid story with characters I could believed lived down the street. People who mattered enough to me to want to understand not only the main characters but the entire town. It is a solid story, with the base structure now in place to continue on to the next story in this series due out this coming Fall… I cannot wait. If you are a reader who enjoys details, getting to know the characters – and simply loves a great paranormal love story… Moonstruck is just right for you.
*I received an e-ARC of Moonstruck from the publisher, Carina Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That does not change what I think of this novel.*
Available in paperback, audio and for the Kindle
