Title: The Moon Tells Secrets
Series: N/A
Author: Savanna Welles
Genre: Romance, Paranormal
Blurb: “Don’t trust nobody. Not family. Not friend. Don’t let it get him like it got my son, not until he is ready to meet it. And remember that blood must pay for blood. A debt must be paid. Your boy can never forget. That is his destiny.”
Raine is at her wits’ end. Her eleven-year-old son Davey, whom she has raised by herself, has the power to shift into any animal—a “gift” from his dead father.
Raine doesn’t know how to control this legacy nor protect Davey from the skinwalker bent on killing them both. And if the skinwalker fails, she fears the sinister fate that awaits her son.
Cade, still grieving the brutal murder of his wife, finds solace in Raine’s companionship. But as the savage details of his wife’s death mirror the powers that Davey is soon to have, Raine must fight to protect her child…in The Moon Tells Secrets by Savanna Welles.
Thoughts: I admired the idea of matching a little historical background and twisting it into the story – that would have went over amazingly well had the author been able to pull it off. I loved the idea behind the book – after all, the blurb pulled me in enough to pick the book out in the first place. Where it falls apart for me is the in the overall execution. So much so that I have trouble trying to decide where to even start. My biggest issue was with Raine herself – she just blindly accepts whatever everyone seems to tell her, first with her son’s father and his family, and then with the first people she seems to run across within the span of the book. “Don’t trust nobody?” Yet, she blindly goes home with the first set of people she meets within the pages of the book? Doesn’t gel too well with me. Sure, supposedly they are distant family relations, but she doesn’t remember them, doesn’t know them, and even more important (if things she has been told are to be believed) family pose even more of a danger than anyone else!
Then there is the constant referral to the skinwalker that is chasing them as ‘the thing’ or other such ambiguous term that really began just grating on my nerves after the first dozen times. Not to mention the incredibly stupid decision to stay and fight said ‘thing’, when you are a single mom who is not a kick a%@ fighting female with superpowers – and you a eleven year old who changes into small predatory animals like rabbits – umm, really? What normal parent would do that? Why not wait till he gains some control over his powers, till he gets older?
Shockingly, the book was also listed on Netgalley as only under the genre of romance – yeah, I so didn’t get that vibe from this book. What little romance there was to it, really didn’t come across as believable.
There was also just a disconnect with this whole story for me…part of it was the writing style. There were instances where writing switched from first to third person, and things like that which detracted from the story. However, what really bugged me was that “outside looking in” vibe, where the author is telling you the story (and perhaps even telling it well), but you just don’t feel that intensity and connection with the characters that you should. That was a huge issue with this book. I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters – and I wanted to with this story, but it just didn’t come together here.
Rate: D
