Review: Beneath the Neon Moon by Theda Black

Those of you who know me will know that I'm not a huge fan of shifter books in general.  It's not the shifting part that bothers me or that they are sometimes a bit gory and gruesome (actually I like those bits) but rather that shifter romances often rely on the form of insta-love known as 'mates' and so any sexual or romantic tension is dispelled as soon as the heroes meet.  Whilst the heroes in this book form a bond quite quickly, the circumstances around them meeting were such that I actually could see this as a realistic plot device so it didn't ping my insta-love button as much as it might have done.

This shifter book has to have one of the most unique set ups I've read in a shifter romance.  The story begins with one of the heroes, Zach, waking up from a night of excessive drink to find himself on the dirt floor of a cellar.  When he wakes up enough to be fully aware of his surroundings he discovers that he's chained to another young man, Mal.  Zach's ankle restraint is annoying, but when he looks closer he sees that Mal's restraint is studded with metal and digging viciously into his ankle.  Mal tells Zach that he was bitten by a huge dog and passed out only to find himself in the cellar.  The story then follows the two men over the next 36 hours as they wait in the cellar, knowing that Mal will soon be changing into a wolf.

As you can imagine the story itself is static and very claustrophobic in style.  The whole story only has four characters, plus the memories that Zach has of his father, and the majority of the time is spent with Zach and Mal.  This, coupled with the reasons why they are in the cellar, lent an intensity to their interactions and a heightening of emotions.  There's an attraction between them which grows quickly into stronger feelings of protectiveness as they struggle to come to terms with what is happening.  Their time together allows Zach to examine his relationship with his negligent father, and I found that aspect saddening and grimly realistic.  It adds to the sympathy I felt for Zach who has had a tough break in life.  Even his reasons for ending up in the cellar added to the feeling that bad luck just seems to follow him around, as he unfortunately happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  As Zach is the narrator we learn less of Mal, and what we do learn isn't particularly endearing.  I thought it skilful of the author to be able to present us with Mal as a flawed man, place him next to Zach who is essentially much stronger in mind and character, and yet still allow us some sympathy for Mal.  I think it helped that Mal has already started to improve himself just before the story begins, and that his time in the cellar shows his strength of mind developed further.

The romance aspect of the story is focused mainly on the beginning of the relationship: the initial attraction and them acting on that.  The tension in the story is high and there's a mix of fear and arousal in their interactions, and a desperation to thwart their fates which adds to the high emotion of their time together.  This meant that the strong feelings they develop for each other seemed realistic. I don't want to give away spoilers as to how the book ends so I won't say more on this, only that I was satisfied as to the realism of the ending and hope that there will be a sequel.

As a warning I ought to mention that there is a rape scene in the book.  It's delicately handled, not gratuitous and mostly fade to black so don't let it put you off the story.  There's also a little bit of gruesomeness in terms of the way the ankle cuff is causing hurt to Mal's ankle so squeamish readers be aware.

I do have a couple of niggles with the book.  Firstly were the opening few paragraphs before Zach woke up. I could understand why they had been included: to give us some background on Zach's past; but I found the jump from that into Zach waking up from the cellar a little disjointed.  It mentions that he's 16 and then he isn't 16 any more but much older.  I think the opening would have been more powerful and less confusing if  the book had just started with Zach waking up in the cellar.  I also thought that the characters of Aaron and Kane weren't nuanced enough to make them anything other than monsterous and I wished they had been a little more filled out in terms of characterisation.  Finally, I had a slight confusion in the shifter worldbuilding.  Aaron and Kane tell Zach that the wolves all shift on a certain night in the moon cycle.  If that was the case then how was Mal bitten by a wolf when the Were must have been out of cycle?  Or maybe I'm just confused about that bit and it's only Mal who turns on that day **.  In any case more explicit information about how the wolf-shifting worked would have been nice.

Despite those niggles, I still enjoyed this novella a great deal.  The claustrophobic atmosphere, the tension and genuine fearfulness that permeates the story was gripping and I found it difficult to put the book down.  This contrasted nicely to the awkward and yet sweet way the men get to know each other and the fierce bond of protectiveness which arises between them.  I'm giving Beneath the Neon Moon a grade of 'Very Good' and would recommend it to those looking for an unusual and interesting take on the shifter genre.

Buy this book HERE or at Amazon Kindle.

**ETA. It turns out that it was just me getting confused here and that it is only first time Weres that change with the waning moon.