Looking Good In Moonlight

Making the Grade: A-

For My Thoughts

The CeeCee and Max saga continues in Nancy Gideon’s Moonlight series Captured by Moonlight.

This 3rd book brings about more conflict, relationship struggles and trust issues for this duo as they try to work on their complicated relationship and CeeCee always the cop has her loyalties tested yet again.

The conflict CeeCee and Max must endure would test most normal couples, but add in CeeCee’s police status, Max’s questionable business practices and his non-human status plus the fact that Max and CeeCee have a history of keeping secrets from one another and the struggle between these two is only enhanced by their conflict.

Captured by Moonlight focuses more on Max and delves deeper into his past as he deals with his developing shape shifter abilities that even he doesn’t begin to understand and he must cope with discovering and realizing the importance of his potential.

I found Captured by Moonlight to be grittier and darker than the first two. Max undergoes some pretty terrifying changes and given CeeCee’s background, there were times their story was not all roses and rainbows. Thank goodness these two realize that their relationship is worth all the ups and downs because they are a potent couple.

I loved all three books in this series (and this from someone who is not a big paranormal fan) and the fact that it is a continuing series featuring a great couple. I am so glad that there will be a couple more next year and I can’t wait for more goodness from Ms. Gideon. Max and CeeCee are too good together for their story not to continue.

If you love sexy paranormal romance then you must read this series, but please start with the 1st book Masked by Moonlight. You must experience CeeCee and Max’s wonderful relationship from the start. You would be doing yourself a disservice if you miss out on their beginning.

From The Author's Website

A mysterious death begins a dangerous chain of events, forcing choices that mean no turning back as Max’s past catches up to him. But as the unexpected discovery of a family thought lost to him threatens the existence of Max’s paranormal world, his awakening senses strain the bond he shares with Detective Charlotte Caissie.

Driven by instincts he can’t control, Max fights the need to claim his human mate. How can he protect her when she’s not safe with him? She’s strong enough to keep his secrets, but can she survive the test of his love?

Separating business from pleasure just got more difficult. To have Max, Cee Cee must face her greatest fears by accepting who and what he is . . . someone deadly, unnatural and outside the law she serves. Loving Max Savoie isn’t easy, but holding onto him could prove fatal.

This Is One Big MAX You Won't Find on the Menu at Micky D's

Another Paranormal series? Another new to me author Nancy Gideon? What is up with me lately?
I'm going to have to retire my Para-newbie status and fully embrace the Para-fan label cuz I think I am well and truly hooked.

If you enjoy Paranormal romance, then this is the series for you. The only thing I have to compare it to are Nalini Singh's Psy/Changling series and Lora Leigh's Breed series. The biggest complement I can give the series is it reminded me a lot of Nora Roberts In Death series featuring Eve and Roake.


 

Masked by Moonlight
(I'm showing you all three covers just because I can)

Making the Grade: A-

For My Thoughts



Storyboard:

Cut to me at the grocery story,  I spy with my little eye book 2 in the series (unbeknownst to me at the time), Chased by Moonlight.  Hellz ya it's got a hot cover. Rippling, sweaty back muscles, ripped white shirt and some claw marks.....Okaaaay you now have my attention.

Flip to Chapter 1, Page 1 for a little preview...

And Action:

(Ringing phone, yadda yadda yadda)

Oh, that's it, baby.  Right there. That's the spot.

(blah blah blah)

As her hand unfisted from sleek dark hair, a low voice came from under the covers.
"Don't answer it."
The request was punctuated by her body's greedy shuddering, but her hand was already on the phone.

Cut!

Whatever you are selling Ms. Gideon, I am buying.  Sold!  Or it would have been except after I read the back cover, I quickly realized that this was book 2 in the series and I just knew this was one series I was going to want to read in order and enjoy from the beginning...and it was the right decision. 

One of the reasons I found this book (and the series) so appealing was that this story took place in current day New Orleans. There were no underworlds or mythical beings with names I couldn’t pronounce or strange powers and no slimy disgusting creatures that made my skin crawl.

Cops and crime lords, hired muscle, grizzly murders and the hottest werewolf since True Blood's Alcide (yes he was who I imagined for Max while reading), Masked by Moonlight has it all.

Max Savoie and Charlotte “CeCe” Caissie have a wary, contemptuous, flirtatious association. She’s a ball-bustin’ homicide detective keeping the mean streets of New Orleans safe and Max is....well he's a lot of things including the hired muscle for a major crime boss Jimmy Legere and he's definitely CeCe's grade A prime piece of succulent beef suspect when bodies start piling up in the Big Easy murdered in a grizzly, inhuman way.

I could talk about Max for the rest of this review *swoon*. Man is he yummy.

Max is definitely caught between a rock and a hard place in Masked by Moonlight. Max owes his entire existence to his crime lord boss and he's 100% loyal and devoted to the man who has been like a father to him since he was a young boy. But Max has definitely had Charlotte on his radar for a number of years. In fact, she owns Max's heart, but has no idea.

Max is one complicated alpha-dog - literally. Turns out he’s a werewolf. When transformed he is ferocious and unstoppable, but Gideon also writes him with great child-like innocence and vulnerability depending on who he is interacting with in the storyline. You can not help but fall in love with this complex man as his heart wrenching background is revealed. It literally tugs at your heartstrings.

Cece is undeniably drawn to Max even though she knows she can’t be; doesn’t want to be; doesn’t trust the man as far as she could toss him….and yet she is. She has MAJOR trust issues, but not without basis. Yet at times I did find myself frustrated with her and wanted to yell at her to give the man a break. I understood her trepidation with trusting the man, and I had some inside scoop about Max that she didn’t have, so I cut her some slack.

I love the fact that Book 2 Chased by Moonlight (read excerpt) Pocket Books / June 29, 2010  and Book 3 Captured by Moonlight (read excerpt) Pocket Books / July 27, 2010  continue the story of Charlotte and Max because this is one Big MAX attack that you can never get your fill of.

Back Cover Blurb: Masked by Moonlight
Pocket Books / May 25, 2010

Read an excerpt

They were lovers who feared nothing…except each other.

Troubled by secrets, torn by loyalties, a deadly shape-shifter and a dedicated cop fight impossible odds in steamy New Orleans where a criminal empire built on treacherous alliances and a clan of ferocious Shifters searching for their prophesied leader conspire to pull them apart. Debuting in May, June, and July 2010, three more books have just been SOLD to Pocket in this addictive new series.