December 20, 2011

Review: Moonlight series by Nancy Gideon



This series resonated with me on so many levels.  I fell in love with the relationship between the hero, Max, and the heroine, Charlotte.  Theirs is a great love story. 

Max is a sexy, alpha bad boy involved in organized crime in New Orleans.  Charlotte is a cop with the NOPD.  When there’s a murder, Max is the first person the cops look to for blame.  Often Charlotte and Max find themselves on opposing sides of the law. 

Max is a very complicated werewolf.  Sure he’s sexy, protective, strong, and everything we love in a paranormal hero, but he’s not our typical hero.  Setting aside all the normal sex appeal (I know that’s asking a lot), what makes him even sexier is his imperfections.  He has an extremely tortured past and faces many internal demons but he’s not scared to show his vulnerabilities to Charlotte.  And believe me, we see him at his worse.  At times he’s even a little naïve, too trusting and easily manipulated.  On the other hand, he has an immense capacity for love and is protector of everyone close to him.  And kudos to him, he doesn’t even try to control Charlotte because he accepts he absolutely could not anyway.

Charlotte is whom I want to be when I grow up!  Seriously!  That girl is afraid of nothing.  And I mean nothing!  There are times that she probably should be afraid, but fierce determination won’t let her.  She also had her share of hard knocks growing up that continue to haunt her.  Despite her tough as nails persona, she is gentle when Max needs her to be and she’s not so tough that she cannot accept kindness from others gracefully showing a high level of maturity.

The series has great supporting characters that play important roles in the story.  Charlotte’s partner Babineau and his dislike of Max lead to interesting times and many opportunities for disaster.  Babineau’s wife Tina and son Oscar become an integral part of the plot.  Jacques, the previous leader of the werewolves, is starting to play a key role as well. There are stories to be further developed and mysteries yet to be solved – The Ancients, The Chosen and it never seems to be a shortage of bad guys and homicides.  
 
Despite the inner struggles and external obstacles Max and Charlotte face, they love each other passionately and with an all-consuming intensity.  This is a story about love and sacrifice, power and corruption, inner and outer strength, darkness and light.  All wrapped up in an intricate plot and an abundance of suspense.  This one is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

5 Bad Boys – Absolute Must Read!!!!!




       



Masked by Moonlight (Book #1)

Homicide detective Charlotte Caissie is dedicated to bringing down the crime boss responsible for her father’s murder.  Using Jimmy Legere’s right hand man is a dangerous gamble, not just because of his ruthless reputation as more monster than man, but because her feelings for her mysterious and irresistible enemy are … complicated.  There’s just something about Max.
Rescued from the swamps as a child, Max Savoie owes Jimmy Legere his life. Existing silently in his rescuer’s shadow, he heeds only one voice.  Until Charlotte Caissie awakens his emotions and tests his loyalties.  Forced to step outside his cautious rules to save her, he risks more than his heart . . . he risks exposing his dark secret.
 
Working together means facing the truth about who and what they are, and what they need from one another.  If Max is the murderer she seeks, Cee Cee might be his next victim.  She can’t afford to trust any man.  Good thing Max isn’t one.


Chased by Moonlight (Book #2)

Things get more complicated for Cee Cee when she’s appointed lead investigator in a high-profile murder that points to her preternatural lover. To prove him innocent, she must distance herself from her prime suspect, but tangled emotions don’t make it easy for her to stay away.  And neither does Max.

Left in charge of a criminal empire and protector of a clan of shadowy shape-shifters, Max walks a precarious line.  Can he believe the cunning stranger who claims he can teach Max the things he needs to know to stay alive—a conman who would betray anyone to make a profit—a man who may be a ruthless killer?

Pulled between her desire for justice and the man she loves, the harder Cee Cee fights to clear Max’s name, the more he pushes her away.  He’s protecting a dark truth that could blow the top off her case. And that means hiding his motives and lying to a woman who values truth above all. The woman who can save him . . . if he’ll let her.


Captured by Moonlight (Book #3)
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.




Bound by Moonlight (Book #4)


Detective Charlotte Caissie is suddenly sharing drawer space and making media news with her shape-shifter lover Max Savoie. Knowing the reformed mobster is determined to be accepted by her peers, how can she ask him to return to his criminal roots to help her solve a complex case
Going undercover to find the vicious serial killer who kidnapped a colleague’s daughter, Cee Cee is caught between the partner whose integrity she relies on and her fiercely possessive lover. In calling on Max to use his preternatural talents to aide a hated enemy, she crosses a line that strains their relationship to its limits.
With his secret spreading beyond those he can trust, Max is forced to make dangerous alliances to protect his family and his clan. The only certainty he has is his love for his human mate, until the loyalties that define them threaten to divide them forever.

Hunter of Shadows (Book #5)
Transferring to the New Orleans Police Department, Detective Silas MacCreedy has a hidden agenda: to secure his clan’s place once again in the Shifter hierarchy. What he didn’t count on was stumbling upon a sexy assassin who could shred his best intentions and lead him into a dangerous dance that threatens to engage his heart.

Monica Fraser knows just how to make a man beg—for his life. But she has no clue how to fight her attraction to the fiercely intense detective who seems determined to get in her way, both professionally and intimately.

When emotional attachments to the past and an unexpected glimpse of a different future have her questioning her deadly purpose, Nica must discover the truth about her secret abilities in order to free herself from the forces that control her. But that freedom comes with a price—trusting those she’s been ordered to eliminate.

Seeker of Shadows (Book #6) coming June 26, 2012
Susanna Duchamps risks discovery in New Orleans to settle a debt and to temporarily escape the controlled constraints of her place among the Chosen.  What she finds is an opportunity to make miraculous strides with her research into Shifter genetics . . . and an unexpected, though never forgotten, link to her complicated past.
Shifter club owner, Jacques LaRoche is fiercely protective of his freedom. Stripped of his memories of a former life, he longs for the mate now lost to him . . . until the enticingly familiar presence of a mysterious stranger from the north ignites a primal, nearly uncontrollable need to release the untamed beast inside him.
Susanna dares not tell Jacques that she was the one who sacrificed his past and her future years ago to protect him and the secret she carried. But her arrival in New Orleans comes with consequences. When a bloody confrontation erupts between their enemy clans, will she betray her lover once again or throw her own life on the line so they can finish what they started?


3 comments:

  1. I've heard this series is really good. Great Review.

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  2. This is a great series, definitely worth the read.

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  3. Thanks PA. This is a great series! One of my favourites I've read this year!

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