A pack in turmoil. A ray of sunlight. A moon that demands blood...
Randall Carter is in love. If only he could say it to Ellis’ face, but he’s been too busy - or too much of a coward - and now he may never get that chance. With the threat of a blood moon looming in the night sky his Alpha is on the warpath against both a new pack invading his territory and the vampire lover he ordered Randall to destroy.
Ellis O’Neill’s problems are mounting fast. Randall’s Alpha wants to kill him, a vampire neighbour invites him to join some sort of coup, and his secrets are stacking up like firewood waiting for a single spark to set them ablaze. The last person he expects to betray his trust is the man he’s fallen in love with.
Torn between love and obligation, Randall soon realises that he can’t satisfy both. He’ll have to choose, but the cost may well be more terrible than he can imagine.
COVER ARTIST: Cover Design by Amelia Faulkner and Jen Fowler
PUBLISHER: Ravensword Press
YEAR: 2015
LENGTH: 268 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Romance
RECOMMENDED: Highly
Queer Rep Summary: Gay/Achillean Main Character(s).
*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.
BLOOD MOON RISING picks up soon after BLIND MAN'S WOLF left off, with Ellis not sure why Randall has been avoiding him, and Randall trying to figure out how to deal with the idea that he might be in love with Ellis.
As a sequel, BLOOD MOON RISING was very easy to pick up even though it had been nearly a year since I read BLIND MAN'S WOLF. Any necessary recap was very smoothly handled, and there was no one section that I could point to as coming close to infodumping, even though some additional context was needed early on. While BLIND MAN'S WOLF focused much more on Ellis's situation, BLOOD MOON RISING turns more to Randall and the abusive dynamics within his pack. Randall's alpha has been encouraging a lot of toxic ideas about pack dynamics that don't have anything to do with how werewolves behave in reality, but are instead an easy excuse for him to encourage the other members to bully Randall in order to vent their frustrations. The pack storyline was set up in the first book, and it pays off here in a very cool way. By starting off with this pack made up of unrelated people (except by marriage), the conditions are ripe for abuse because they don't have easy access to other support structures. This combines with a common misonception about real wolves which is based on a famous study of unrelated wolves in captivity to allow the pack to point to science to justify bullying and bigotry. By starting a relationship with a vampire, Randall finally has someone who isn't directly related to him, knows that he is a werewolf, but also doesn't have anything to do with the pack and isn't easily bullied. This outside context and perspective (as well as meaninful interaction with someone who cares for him as a person instead of a wolf to manipulate and control) helps Randall confront the abuse from his pack and try to make a change for himself.
BLOOD MOON RISING isn't the last book, and the framing provided by the prologue and epilogue hint at some things that will play out in future stories. I've enjoyed this particular storytelling method in AK Faulkner's other series, Inheritance, which began releasing several years after Tooth & Claw's was underway. When done well, such as here, teasing future story lines through prologues and epilogues lets most of the book stay focused on what is specifically happening to the main characters. The framing allows for brief setup for the next story's pivot to establish a clear origin. Without that lead-in, it would be easy for each book's antagonist to seemingly comes out of nowhere. Instead, it cultivates the impression that Ellis and Randall are just the latest obstacles in some plan which has been underway since long before Ellis was turned, making it feel more believable when the villain finally makes a move too overt for them to misattribute.
I love Randall and Ellis, their relationship is very fun to read. Even though I spent a lot of this book wanting them to just talk to each other, the narrative moved in a way that mostly kept me from getting frustrated. The tension generally balanced at the edge of what was comfortable for me as a reader, as I'm sensitive to plots which drag out instead of being resolved by what seems to be a simple conversation.
BLOOD MOON RISING leaves several plot threads for later, putting the next book, BALANCE OF POWER, in a good position to wrap up a trilogy within the longer series. While someone could start here and have things make sense in terms of the actual plot, these are pretty short and I highly recommend starting from the first book, BLIND MAN'S WOLF, in order to understand more about Ellis and to get Randall's state of mind when he isn't ready to face the abusive dynamics within his pack.
If you like this you may like:
- How to Bare Your Neck and Save a Wreck by D.N. Bryn
Moderate CW for cursing, ableism, blood, physical abuse, emotional abuse, body horror, violence, murder, death.
Minor CW for cannibalism, homophobia.
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