I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Shadowed Moonlight by K.C. Harper Published by Hodder and Stoughton on 2024 October 15
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Mystery
Pages: 261
Format: E-Arc
Source: Netgalley
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Loving Kane nearly destroyed me once; now that he's Alpha he could be my end.
My life collapsed the day my Were lover Kane abandoned me four years ago, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Now I need his help.
I've got one shot to save my brother, as long as I solve the murders plaguing our city, Cambria. It'll mean diving headfirst into the political minefield of our supernatural elite. But a new alpha has joined the fray. He's dangerous, he's devastating, and he's the same man who obliterated my world all those years ago.
The deal: fake being his mate to solve the case. The cost: everything.
As catastrophe looms and old passions ignite, I'm faced with the impossible choice between loyalty and love. But the killer is watching and waiting to strike. . .
Although I have been reading a lot of novels featuring weres, it seems that my love for such stories are immeasurable because when I read the synopsis of Shadowed Moonlight, I knew that I had to request it. Luckily, I got approved and here I am, writing this review. Shadowed Moonlight has its ups and downs, thus, the 3.5 star rating. I enjoyed some parts of it and some had me frowning. The book is only around 261 pages and there are a lot of things to cover given the themes explored in the story. It’s too fast paced for my liking.
Anyhow, let’s backtrack to what Shadowed Moonlight is all about. The novel follows the story of Briar, an Aura Magi, who can look into your past memories and remember things for you. Her ex-boyfriend, Kane Slade, is a werewolf who abandoned her four years ago, literally destroying her life. As part of her moving on strategy, Briar had made sure to never cross paths with Kane again. Unfortunately, a series of gruesome murders had been suddenly happening in the City where she lives in and ultimately, led her not only to meet but work with Kane. While it’s your typical lovers to enemies to lovers story, I find that I still enjoy them and Shadowed Moonlight is no different. It has the perfect formula of a tragic love story between a couple who’s absolutely head over heels in love with each other but due to uncontrollable circumstances, they got torn apart. The romantic conflict in the story was interesting and it’s something that I can understand why things happened.
What did not sit right with me, however, was that everything just happened so fast that I was not able to fully invest myself with the other aspects of the story including the characters. Every heavy conflict was resolved in a rush manner and I had a hard time reconciling why forgiveness came so easy. There was no period of processing the feelings and everything. The characters were also underdeveloped that it took some effort for me to at least relate to them at some point. I did like the mystery aspect of the novel though because it was scary and understandably so. The author did it right for I was really taken aback when the mystery killer was finally revealed. It never crossed my mind that such character would have the audacity to be the killer. Imagine the hairs on my back standing after Briar uncovered the identity of the person plaguing Cambria City with horrific murdered bodies of the supernatural.
All in all, Shadowed Moonlight has its pros and cons. I was just glad that reading it was not wasted at all because it gave me enjoyment albeit the issues that I have mentioned above. Of course, there was really a lot of smut so if you like these things in your paranormal stories, you better try this one. Plus points that this book is a standalone so no more pining for the 2nd installment to be published.