Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Review: Bayou Moon


Reviewed by Jen
 
We first met William in On the Edge. He is a changeling, a shapeshifter, who has been rejected his entire life. He was given up at birth, raised in a heartless facility, then forced into military service. He is estranged from his only friend, Declan, and he simply doesn't believe that he'll ever have love or a family of his own.

He's been living in the Edge for two years now, largely cut off from his old life. But he is pulled back in, when given the chance to finally track down and kill his old nemesis, the Spider. That mission takes him into the bayous of the Mire and it's there he meets Cerise.

Cerise has her own issues to deal with. Her parents have been kidnapped. The Spider is responsible, which gives her and William a common enemy. There's a lot more going on.... a family feud between Cerise's people and a neighboring clan, a mysterious monster, a secret journal. But the the single biggest draw in the book is William. He is such a heartbreaking tortured hero. Watching his tentative steps towards a relationship with Cerise is riveting. Seeing him find his first feelings of happiness is lovely. And getting the payoff on the phenomenal sexual tension was awesome. (A very, very satisfying love scene.)

But there were times I got lost. There were too many characters. I understand that it's sort of the point that Cerise's clan was really, really big. But it was really hard to keep track of everyone. And once we started learning the names and skill sets for the Spider's enhanced soldiers, my retention skills were kaput. I applaud the idea of big and sweeping world-building in theory, but I just couldn't keep up in some parts, which took me out of the moment more than once. It was also hard to keep track of the geography in my head.

It was still good. Especially the parts of the story that focused on Cerise and William. It was also a treat to revisit Declan, Rose and the boys to see how they are doing. 4 stars.

Click to purchase: Amazon or The Book Depository
Bayou Moon
by Ilona Andrews
Release Date: September 28, 2010
Publisher: Ace

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5 Comments:

At Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 9:28:00 AM CDT , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've read the Kate Daniels series (loved it!) but I haven't had a chance to pick these books up. Sounds pretty good.

 
At Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 11:52:00 AM CDT , Blogger Lover Of Romance said...

I just love the cover!! Great review...I think I should really start reading Ilona Andrews the next time I go to the library. Thanks for sharing!

 
At Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 12:58:00 PM CDT , Blogger Brie said...

I love William! He was creepy in the first book but in his story was heartbreaking. And who doesn’t love a misfit, right? This book was so interesting, it was a bit all over the place, with so many characters, but I couldn’t put it down! I can’t wait to read the next one because Kaldar was my favorite secondary character in Bayou Moon and I just knew that he would make a great hero, I hope it lives up to my expectations!

Now that you have read both, how do these books compare to the Kate Daniels series? Obviously the style is completely different, but in terms of characters, romance and all that…

 
At Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 1:10:00 PM CDT , Blogger Jen at Red Hot Books said...

It's very different. The only big thing they have in common is that the world-building in both features magic --and each is unlike any other series I have ever read.

It's far easier to contrast them to compare. The Edge book has rotating leads, like many PNR series do... they're plucked from a large pool of characters who interact, but different couples are the focus of different books. But for KD... Kate is the lead every time. The world orbits around her.

For the romance fan in me, I prefer rotating leads, because the romance never gets stale. It's new and fresh with every book. I prefer the Kate series to the Edge in this particular case, mostly for the sardonic and snappy dialogue --and for Kate herself. But as much as I love Curran, I wonder how long they can hold my interest as a sexy couple, KWIM? When the newness wears off, it's hard to maintain the heat factor.

(I really could go on and on...)

 
At Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 4:29:00 PM CDT , Blogger Brie said...

That’s the exact same reason I’m weary of reading series with a recurrent main couple. I’m afraid that I’ll get bored or that the author will do something bad to them in order to keep people interested and I won’t be able to handle the angst. I don’t care if the characters go through hell and back, as long as they remain together…

I know that you haven’t read Nalini Singh’s books, but she has two series, one with a recurrent main couple and one with rotating characters, and even though they are both good, the one with the recurrent couple didn’t keep my interest enough and I was ready to quit, but then she published a new book that was part of the series but that had a different set of leads and it improved a lot.

I also think that the narrator makes a huge difference, I like first person POVs but you get much more from third person multiple POVs and that’s another reason UF doesn’t work for me as much a PNR does.

 

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