Review: Blood on the Moon

Title: Blood on the Moon

Author: Jennifer Knight

Date of Publication: August 30, 2012

Formats Available: Paperback, E-Book

Buy This Book: Amazon

Synopsis: As Faith Reynolds enters her freshman year of college, she is a complete and utter nervous wreck.  With her best friend Derek suddenly pulling out the romance card and her dark, mysterious classmate staring her down at every turn, Faith somehow feels stuck in the middle without dating either one.  And fortune may or may not be with her when a devilishly sexy stranger offers her a welcome escape.

Boys, romance, classes, and annoying roommates are all within the realm of the expected for a college frosh.  Trying to solve the mysterious murders of young college coeds near campus is not.  Darkness seems to be creeping into every corner of Faith's life, no matter the hour.  And when she seeks the truth, danger seems to be the only thing that finds her.

Faith is well aware of the strange currents in the air, particularly when she sets off static sparks with everything she touches.  Before long, she finds herself entrenched in the deep-seeded battle between werewolves and vampires.  The war has reached the tipping point, and Faith has the power to determine where the scales fall.  But the most important question may be with whom does her loyalty lie?

Deliciously suspenseful and immediately addictive, Blood on the Moon features a headstrong heroine and all of the thrills, chills, and otherworldly boys with deadly charm that a human could ask for.

My Review:

After hearing that this novel was a bit of a Twilight knock-off I was a little hesitant to read it. However Knight's writing instantly pulled me in and before long I found myself getting really into the story. With fun characters, an exciting paranormal/murder mystery plot, and plenty of romance I loved this book more and more the farther I got.

Yes, Blood on the Moon is a little Twilight-esque but it's as though Knight took all the best parts of Twilight, tweaked them and made them better, and put them into her own story with a much stronger plot. There were very few moments when the novel seemed very similar to Twilight and they were integrated so well into the novel that they were easy to ignore. I loved how this novel took place on a college campus and the whole new world of possibilities that idea brought with it.

The romance between Lucas and Faith is a bit sudden but not sudden enough that it qualified as an "insta-love". They have a cute relationship and Faiths ability to control werewolves holds a lot of promise for future novels. The most painful part of the novel was that I felt like I was re-reading Twilight as Faith went to visit Lucas's "family", which isn't really his family at all but a group posing as his family. On a side note I know that I'm not alone in my hatred for love triangles and thankfully this book is love triangle free (even though it doesn't seem that way at first)!

Finally, the strongest point in favor of this novel is that it's just plain fun. It's an extraordinarily fun novel to read and I honestly loved every second of it. Faith is such a real character that it was easy to relate to her and the back story about her family added an interesting twist that I wasn't expecting. Brimming with action and excitement I found it nearly impossible to stop reading this book once I started.

Fans of Twilight will no doubt adore this novel and non-Twilight fans will love it as well. A cute college romance, plenty of action, and a mix of vampires and werewolves thrown in the mix make for a great paranormal mystery!

4/5