Search - Thunder Moon (Nightcreature, Bk 8)

I was pleasantly surprised that I ended up sucked into this book. The heroine is a small town sheriff, with Cherokee blood. Grace McDaniel is capable and independent, and I liked her. She's tired and overworked but also irreverent and snappy. This is a supernatural romance, but instead of werewolves which I was expecting because of the world "Moon" in the title, the night-creature in this instance was one I'd never heard of before, so there were elements of Cherokee folklore that was new to me. The book looks to be part of a series, with references to Claire, who is the mayor, Grace's best friend, and probably the heroine of her own book, but I had no problems following it. A pretty decent read and while I sort of guessed the identity of the creature terrorizing the town, I wasn't completely sure about it till the end, which I liked. The only thing I found jarring was the sudden sex scenes in this book, which seemed to be incongruent with Grace's wary nature regarding men. I found myself saying out loud: what the hell, you're the sheriff, what are you doing?!! which brought down things a notch for me. Still, couldn't really stop reading.

This is the second book of Handeland's that I have read. I really like her writing, in that you never know WHO the "monster" is or even WHAT it is till you are a good ways through the book. She has made me laugh more than a couple of times too with some of her character point of views. The author must also do quite a bit of research before writing her books; I was impressed with the amount of knowledge on the multicultural legends in the books. I never knew there were so many.
I really liked both of the books, right up until the end. I have to say I was left hanging...I didn't like the endings at all. Not only were they very hard to believe, but I was left with way too many questions unanswered. This was hard for me to grasp, since the rest of the book flowed so well. In reading the excerpts of her other books, all the characters/books seem to be related in one way or another. I will try to read some more in hopes that the endings are better, or something makes sense. Other than that, the other four fifths of the book was great.

I love the way Lori Handeland writes her stories. There is just enough romance to make the book fun and not enough to make it nauseating. When I finish one book, I can't wait to start the next.

Good read. Believeable characters. Always nice to have strong, believable heroines. Nicely suspenceful, but a little predictable as to who the bad guy is. Herorine and hero are sultry together. Real life, everyday drama such as the weakness of prejudice just for prejudice sake included in story. As a lover of series, I enjoyed that it was part of the Nightcreature Novel series, but really liked that the inclusion of characters of previous novels were only used as needed to connect the stories.

Another great read.

It was an enjoyable story and plot. I have come to realize that I'm either outgrowing Lori Handelands writing or her last two books were a little disappointing. The main character was likeable but story was pretty predictable in my eyes. I had figured it out very early on.