Review: Full Moon (The Crescent, #3) by Jordan Deen

You know her story. You know her painful initiation into the werewolf world and you’ve seen her struggle to find the truth.

Now, Lacey Quinn is ready for the war to be over. Are you?
Lacey has been used, lied to and cheated out of the only thing she ever wanted: independence. Struggling with her newfound knowledge of being pack leader, Alex coming back into her life and the kidnapping of Lily’s mate—Matt—Lacey is faced with one of the biggest decisions of her life: fight or flight. While she knows running from the war will risk many lives, but staying means she would never have the life she wants and quite possibly never know a world without werewolves, witches and war.
Sometimes doing the right thing isn’t always the first or most obvious choice. Lacey Quinn is about to challenge what everyone thinks is the right thing to do. Unfortunately for her, most will not agree with her decision or the painful outcome.

Sometimes, love means death.

Jordan Deen will forever be someone who never ceases to surprise and impress me.  Her Crescent series made me a fan from the first installment and without question kept me interested long after that.  A good amount of time has passed between the sequel and Full Moon's release.  As a fan I fell right back into step feeling that it wasn't difficult to pick up where it left off or that it required any re-reads on my part.  Publishing company changes, new cover art, but Deen's writing style remained consistent, her plot kept up with the action and her characters were as likable as always.

There were lots of new faces this time around but Deen somehow managed to minimize the confusion that inevitably can occur with so many elements in a series as detailed as hers.  But I was left wondering if this was the end of the series to be honest.  There's definitely room for more installments in my opinion and it would of course be my preference, but its unclear.  Her spin off series involving the recently introduced Lune coven is in the works and maybe that's what readers will have to content themselves with and maybe that will work out.  These are all questions I'll be eager to have answered and I'll be checking out the Web constantly hoping for updates.  But if I had my way I'd ask for one more installment centered around the wolves...there's still a few details I'd like to see play out...and I'm just not ready to say goodbye for good to these characters that I've grown so attached to over the years.

In My Mailbox (135)

This is a meme that I first heard about from Kristi over at The Story Siren and immediately wanted to jump on board. I'm always picking up new books, because I never tire of reading, but the other thing I like about this meme is that it gives everyone an opportunity to check out what other book fanatics, bloggers, etc... got for themselves. I've gotten great recommendations from this meme and hope that keeps up in the future.

Here's what I got, what did you guys get this week?

  For Review:

 

Dark Craving (The Watchers, #4.5) by Veronica Wolff

 

WE'VE FOLLOWED ANNELISE DREW'S JOURNEY AS SHE'S FOUGHT TO SURVIVE THE ISLE OF NIGHT.

NOW IT'S TIME TO HEAR RONAN'S SIDE OF THE STORY.

Tracer Ronan has cared for only one person in his life: Charlotte, his sister. With her death, a consuming desire for revenge and destruction ignited in his heart. But when new recruit Annelise Drew arrives on the island, Ronan finds he craves more than revenge. She is a threat to his mission, his sanity, and his heart. Now Ronan will need every ounce of will and strength to avenge his sister and prove where his true allegiance lies.

Tracer Ronan shares his secrets with no one. But will he survive his darkest cravings?

 

Beauty At Home by Aerin Lauder

 

Style icon Aerin Lauder reveals what it means to live beautifully

Extravagant and fun to be around, Estée Lauder, Aerin's grandmother, loved jewelry and chocolate-covered marshmallows. She adored flowers and rooms full of exuberant patterns. When Aerin was a child, weekend visits with Estée meant ice-cream-and-late-night-TV adventures and spending time together at her grandmother's dressing-room table with its intriguing lipsticks and creams. From an early age, Aerin understood that Estée's passion for family was equal to her love of beauty.

Now, Aerin has made this legacy her own. For the first time, she shares memories of the family celebrations and world travel that formed her sense of style. Aerin opens the doors to her New York apartment, where on any given night she might host a relaxed dinner with firends under a vintage French chandelier or, just as often, an impromptu get-together for her sons. Aerin also reveals how she preserved Estée's heritage in her former Hamptons home while adding her own twists. The traditions Aerin has created in her own family--from pool parties with her sons to walks along the beach collecting sea glass to breezy summer lunches--blend elegance and fun in equal measure.

Throughout this book, evocative photographs by Simon Upton show Aerin's world in inspiring detail and enhance Aerin's insights into surrounding oneself with beauty and family in every aspect of life.

 

Full Moon (The Crescent, #3) by Jordan Deen

 

You know her story. You know her painful initiation into the werewolf world and you’ve seen her struggle to find the truth.

Now, Lacey Quinn is ready for the war to be over. Are you?
Lacey has been used, lied to and cheated out of the only thing she ever wanted: independence. Struggling with her newfound knowledge of being pack leader, Alex coming back into her life and the kidnapping of Lily’s mate—Matt—Lacey is faced with one of the biggest decisions of her life: fight or flight. While she knows running from the war will risk many lives, but staying means she would never have the life she wants and quite possibly never know a world without werewolves, witches and war.
Sometimes doing the right thing isn’t always the first or most obvious choice. Lacey Quinn is about to challenge what everyone thinks is the right thing to do. Unfortunately for her, most will not agree with her decision or the painful outcome.

Sometimes, love means death.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar with her boardinghouse roommate stretching three dollars as far as it will go when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a tempered smile, happens to sit at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a yearlong journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool toward the upper echelons of New York society and the executive suites of Condé Nast--rarefied environs where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.

Wooed in turn by a shy, principled multi-millionaire and an irrepressible Upper East Side ne'er-do-well, befriended by a single-minded widow who is a ahead of her time,and challenged by an imperious mentor, Katey experiences firsthand the poise secured by wealth and station and the failed aspirations that reside just below the surface. Even as she waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her life, she begins to realize how our most promising choices inevitably lay the groundwork for our regrets.

Review: Full Moon (Dark Guardian, #2) by Rachel Hawthorne

I may be promised to another...but thoughts of Rafe consume me. I don't know how much longer I can resist.
Lindsey is wild and reckless, a natural rebel—maybe because her entire life was laid out for her even before she was born. Her parents are among the most powerful members of the Dark Guardians, an ancient tribe of werewolves, and they arranged Lindsey's betrothal to Connor long ago. The next full moon is coming all too soon, and then her commitment to Connor will be final—no turning back. She should be happy...so why can't she stop thinking about gorgeous, brooding Rafe?


When a dangerous threat on the pack escalates, so do tensions between Connor and Rafe. A fight over Lindsey is imminent, but will it be to the death?


Can I just say....love triangle anyone? Wow, talk about being torn between two guys....poor Lindsey! Full Moon, the second installment in the Dark Guardian's series by Rachel Hawthorne picks up right where Moonlight left off and we're immediately thrown back into the action and romance that I came to love about this series. Lindsey's transformation is coming up and a girl needs a guy to get through it, but not just any guy...her one true mate, and wolves mate for life...no pressure on making the right choice huh? Yikes!

So is Lindsey going to go with her constant friend over the years and current boyfriend, Connor or will Rafe pique her interest with his bad boy ways? You guys have to read this book, it's just so good. I've seen and read stories with love triangles before and usually I've got no sympathy for the girl or guy who's in the middle, because who hasn't dreamed about having two people fighting for their attentions right? But not so much in this case, I actually felt for Lindsey and was feeling just awful for her, I mean this was not just about choosing a guy to go to a dance with or have a romantic dinner, we're talking FOREVER here and if you choose wrong, there's no turning back and nothing you can do about it, ouch!

Rachel Hawthorne's writing is compelling and you'll find yourself flying through the pages and having no trouble finishing this one in no time at all. I've read the first and now the second book of this series in two days, yep you heard me, it's been a book a day. It's a great read for a rainy day or one where you just want to be entertained by a book and nothing else. Full Moon will keep you guessing, make you miserable for the main characters and the struggles they're going through and at the same time you might just find your heart breaking over events that take place one minute and the next you could be overjoyed...I guess it all depends on who you're rooting for in the end.

Most of you know by now that I love a good series because I never have to say goodbye to the characters I've grown to love and can't get enough of, and the Dark Guardian's series is no exception. Hawthorne might move on to focus on other characters more fully with each new book, but she doesn't leave behind our old favorites. All the characters are brought back into this installment and I was glad.

This series has everything I'm usually looking for; romance, action and intrigue and enough suspense that I had to keep turning the pages in order to find out what happened next....and did I mention romance? There's no way to resist the characters Hawthorne's created and the story she's spinning, and to be honest you won't want to.

So if you haven't given this series a try I totally recommend it.

I gave Full Moon (Dark Guardian, #2) 3 shamrocks, lots of fun to be had with this read.