Not having read any of the other books by this author, and since it was a start to a new series I thought I'd give it a try. Unfortunately it fell flat for me. The premise and different occurrences throughout the story were too contribute and a little over the top. I'm sure there are those readers who would disagree with my review, if it was a genre I enjoyed reading, perhaps I might have read it differently and enjoyed it.

This ARC book was complimentary, provided by the Publisher and NetGalley. I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

I started the book and found it to be well written. Having said that the story line did not hold my attention and it was a did not finish.

MARK OF THE MOON was.....all over the place. From the characters to the plot, I really had to stretch my imagination to even remotely believe what was happening.

Some BDSM with a vampire turns into Dana getting scratched by one of the vampires crazy lovers, leading to Dana contracting the cat-shifter virus she was 100% positive she could never get. Now people are trying to kill her—between her many sessions of passing out— and she can't seem to pick between the vampire or the new shifter she meets so she continuously has sex with both. I can honestly say that I didn't know what the heck was going on half of the time.

The love triangle was a bit annoying, but the sex scenes were pretty hot. I don't feel that we got enough information half the time. I mean Dana is passing out constantly and when she passes out not only does SHE not know what is going on, but us as the reader are also left in the dark. It made it very hard to connect to the story.

I was able to finish MARK OF THE MOON, but it wasn't for me and I have no interest in continuing the series.


* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I thought thought this was a great introduction book to a new series. Even though some of the book was a little annoying, like all the passing out she did, I think this series could grow into a much better series than is out there now. I'm looking forward to seeing what is going on with Sam and Dana.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Jon and Dana were doing some BDSM things and then there was some pounding on the door . Jon had unmasked Dana and then a feline shifter breaks through the door but also leaves a scratch on Dana’s thigh. Then the male feline said to Jon i wasn’t enough for you that you had to take a mortal female. Then Dana tried to get Jon’s attention to let her out of the bondage he had her in but then her leg started to throb and Dana passed out. When Dana came to she couldn’t move as she was strapped to a bed but also in horrendous pain. Dana was surrounded by shadows of beings but didn’t know how many. Then Dana passed out again. When Dana comes to again she is sore and still strapped down to a hospital style bed. A wild looking lady with white matted hair had went to Dana and said” here kitty, kitty- a while ago . Dana had seen the woman three times in seven days. Dana had pretended the woman didn’t exist. The woman had reached out to Dana and asked her if she knew who she was. There was a cat by Dana's ankle and it introduced itself as Jun. before all this happened Dana had been a bartender at the Swan Song for three years. and one night ended up at Jon’s place. Jon was a vampire. Dana also did a little freelance writing and that is how she originally met Jon. Goth Libertines had hired Dana to do an article on a local Toronto artist who was rumored also to be a vampire. That artist had been Jon. Dana had been vaccinated against being turned into a shifter . Something Dana had been trained to hunt. Teachings Dana had abandoned when she had left the Agency behind. Madame des Perth had been Dana’s training officer in Covert Preternatural Operations . It all started the night Dana went to do the interview with Jon, the drinks, the interview, the jokes. and easy banter. Then meeting for coffee, more drinks and casual conversation and always after dark. Jon spent a lot of time laughing and they did get along so well. When Dana really came to it was Wednesday what happened to Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday? The Swan Song was a three story warehouse that functioned as a barf/meeting place/ conference facility where mortals and others met. Sandor was Dana’s boss and she liked him as he was a good friend. Dana told Sandor what happened as she was making her way to her truck she noticed the Goth guy who had been at the bar held down by several knives and vampires feeding off him.then Dana heard a voice asking her if she was ok . Dana wasn’t sure as one of her hands had become a paw. Together they got rid of the vampires and got the barely alive man to her truck. The man behind the voice said his name was Sam. The Goth guy’s name was Joseph Dalton. Dana’s best friend was Lynna and she had gotten a message that they had Lynna . Sam and Anshell- the doctor or whatever he was that had been there when Dana came to - went with Dana and rescued Lynna. Dana went to Ezra to see her vaccination had expired and noticed Cybele was Ezra’s assistant and she is the one who had tried to pick Dana up in the bathroom at the bar. All Dana wanted to know was what was going on.
I just didn’t really connect with this story I did read it just really didn’t WOW me and had a lot of trouble keeping my interest. I needed more information on Dana and other aspects of this story and didn’t get them. I also didn’t like how the story ended I felt it left you hanging but not quite a cliffhanger if that makes sense anyway I am sure someone else will love this story just wasn’t for me.

First time reader for this author, and I'm intrigued! I'll happily hand sell this, and look forward to see where she goes with it!

This book knocked my socks off! I could not turn the virtual pages fast enough for my liking and yet was still completely sad when I reached the end and there was no more awesome book...

This book introduces Dana and right away, I fell in love. She's sarcastic, quirky, independent, damaged, and super tough. She's an ex-paranormal-fighter turned paranormal bar-bartender who prefers her men with no strings attached. Unfortunately for her, she appears to be the center of some pretty strange happenings. It all begins when her current vampire lover's ex (or current?) lover barges in on some bondage play. While tied up and unable to fight back, Dana ends up with a scratch from the partially shifted cat. This ends up putting her in a shifter hospital, where she meets some even more dangerous and alluring people, one of which pushes all her sexytime buttons.

There's the inevitable love triangle play, Dana's struggle with possibly becoming something she once captured, trying to keep everyone safe, failing to keep everyone safe, failing to keep herself safe, and a crapload of mystery and deception all rolled into one addictive book. I absolutely love where this world is taking me and cannot wait for more - there is more, right? I really want to see Dana's next step into her even more complicated life.

I DNF this book, although I really wanted to. I tried - but the length due to meandering storyline made it a chore. I'm from Canada - I love TO, but for the love of god there is no reason to geographically flog a dead horse. The streets, neighborhood and parks are superfluous to the storyline, there's never any need for that much detail. It had real potential to be energetic and sexy and suspenseful... but it seemed lost in itself by abut 70% (I read on a kindle). There were just too many people involved in too many mysteries that are likely to tie in by the end - but loses the reader before it gets there. Her "one step forward, two steps back" approach to relationships got old and boring about the same time as the story itself stalled out. Sorry! Would be interested in reading an edited version though!

This book is ridiculously unoriginal, has horrible characters, and literally has no plot whatsoever. Reading this book was a complete waste of time . The grammar is awful and the sentence structure made me want to throw my head through a window. It's pretty much like any other cheap dimestore novel that you can get anywhere else that has a bunch of porn written in it.

I was excited to be approved for access to this book and sat down to read it. Dana is scratched by a were-cat and is feeling side effects which should be impossible as she has had the shots. Along with this new normal, she keeps getting kidnapped and everyone seems to be after her. Will she figure out who she can trust and find out what’s going on before it’s too late? This book was a very interesting urban fantasy with some new elements I haven’t really seen before, or if I have, not very much. Yes, there were vampires and shape shifters, but there was a new element of which I can’t say much as I’ll spoil some points of the book. It was very well-written; the plot was, as I’ve stated, very interesting; and the characters also worth mentioning. And, wow, the sex was hot, if you are into that aspect of things. The book was a dark urban fantasy with a few scenes not for the faint of heart. The only down side of the book was I was never quite sure who could be trusted except for her mom and best friend. Almost everyone else was suspect. That aspect of the book almost made it a little too dark for me; I like for the protagonist to have some very true allies, somewhere to turn. And, towards the middle of the book, Dana seemed to be running around everywhere with no clear destination in sight and not getting answers to any of the questions she had about what was going on. That threw me off a little bit. However, that stuff aside, I did really enjoy the book and can’t wait to see what happens next. Recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and Carina Press for the e-book which I voluntarily reviewed. This exact review posted on both Amazon and Goodreads.

Mark of the Moon, Beth Dranoff

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:  romance, Sci-fi and fantasy

 Looks as if this is a debut book, I can’t find anything else Beth has written and its a really good start.

I loved the idea of this series, and from the beginning I was quickly brought into the action.
There’s a few issues though that stopped it being a five star read for me, though I think it has that potential. Maybe if it is a debut book, and Beth learns more as she writes –practice makes perfect and all that – hopefully later books will grow and evolve into the kind of reads they could be.
Think of some of the early books of now well known authors, some have really polished their craft as they get more used to the world of creating stories from nothing, and making us readers believe in them.

The biggest issue for me is that Dana spends so much time “in her head” mulling things over, rambling to herself, that the story becomes tell-not-show and that format really doesn’t work for me.
There’s also a lot of action, so much so that at times it becomes hard to sort out who’s doing what and why, what's really going on, and I ended up seeing Dana escape yet again but uncertain of how, or why it happened. That’s possibly because I found myself skimming some of her meanderings, and some of the what felt like repeated attacks.  
I’m the kind of reader that needs answers, needs to know that the protagonist gets free using skills I know she or someone else already has. I don’t like new-skills-discovered-at-the-critical-time kind of read, the quick fix answer where they are in a scrape that looks inescapable and then someone comes in, does something hitherto unknown, and everything is perfect once more.

That said I love the characters, the mystery of the seven moon pack – or whatever they were called, wondering who Ansell is, the triangle (or quad?) of Jon, Dana and Sam, with jealous Claude making up an unwilling fourth!! I’m kind of confused over that, as Jon tells her after the first crisis she finds herself in that Claude is an ex, that there’s nothing between them. However Claude doesn’t seem to feel he’s an ex, more a current, and the interaction between him and Jon seems to back that up – so what is the truth?
I like Jon, can feel he genuinely cares for and about Dana, but his relationship with Claude is odd, and i didn’t see how he could let go the things Claude did and said when he cares so much for Dana.
I liked Sam too, but he’s more complex that he first appeared, and did things that made me feel somewhat differently about him.

There’s some serious heat in the scenes in this, with some very sensual sex going on but...I could have done with a bit more attraction between them, not just sexual, lust, physical but emotional, actually liking each other, wanting to support and help.
Jon seems to do a bit of that, but in an understated way, and it’s really hard to tell if he’s doing it because he likes Dana, or whether he just feels its the right thing to do, kind of old school traditional behaviour that many vamps show.

I think – and I really hate to say this as usually I’m banging on about stories being too simplified – this series will work better as it grows, as Beth works out what she wants her characters to be, where she wants them to go and how. Once they know who they are, then maybe their actions will become more simpler, more understandable instead of the random we see curretntly,, and we won't need this constant rescue from unnamed sources with untold skills.

Its a great idea, and by the end I can see that its going to get more complex, so something needs to go, or to get more slick and polished or the plot(s) along with non stop, over-complex and over-explained action is going to spoil what could be for me a terrific 5* series.

Stars: Three and a half. A really good start to a series that has the potential to become a favourite for me, but still needs some fine-tuning IMO.

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

Dana is a human with a rather unusual history. One night while engaging in a hot romp with a vampire, she ends up getting scratched by a jealous were-cat... and those vaccines she had several years ago don't seem to be doing the trick. Now she's trying to figure out if she's actually going to turn into a kitty... or if there's something else different about her. When she starts getting attacked by strange demon-like creatures, she begins to think that there's definitely something hinky going on.

First... the positives... From the first few pages, the book is downright... HOT. I immediately got sucked into this new world of vampires, shifters and demons. I loved the descriptions of the strange demon-like creatures -- both gross and really freaking cool! The author has a talent for creating rich descriptions and crafting an intriguing plot with lots of action. This isn't some fantasy fairy tale world with sparkles and glitter... it's darker and far more edgy than your traditional urban fantasy stories.

Unfortunately, I struggled a bit to get through this book. The author lost me more times than I can count to the point that half the time, I wasn't quite sure what was going on. The main character, Dana, must have passed out in the book at least half a dozen times. There were so many fade-to-black moments that it got a little annoying. Those moments made it even worse because not only did the main character not know what was going on, but as a reader, I didn't have a clue either. The main character also didn't really stop to ask the important questions or demand answers. So for the majority of the book, I felt like I was along for the roller coaster ride, but everything around me was pretty much a blur.

My biggest issue though was the stilted and fragmented writing style. I think this was what lost me in the majority of the book and why I didn't really know what was going on. Some people may be fine with it, but I stumbled over this repeatedly. There was also a bit too much description about things that I didn't really care about -- like the clouds -- but then not enough description about what was actually happening. I would have rather seen the plot unfold through actions and dialogue. Dana got stuck in her own head a bit too much.

There was a little bit of a love triangle in the book... and some of the sex scenes were downright hot. *fans self* However, I didn't get those delicious tingles that I was looking for. I like a bit of emotion with my sex, and I didn't really get that from this book. It was mostly physical attraction and Dana didn't seem to have deep feelings for anyone or anything. I have a hard time classifying this story as a romance, but I guess since there was sex in it... that falls under the "romance" genre.

Overall, I'd give this book 3/5. I think the author definitely has talent, but I didn't care much for the style of writing. Maybe in the future, I'll check out some of her other works, but I probably won't be following this series.