Lysene Nexus has never lived by anyone’s rules, human or werewolf. As a sister of the mountain pack, she has always lived on the wild side. A fatal mistake one full moon results in her being sent to live in Shreveport and suffer the less than tender mercies of Eric Northman, the vampire Sherriff of Area Five.
Ok, want to hear something a little funny??? I didn’t read the synopsis on this AT ALL before I started reading. I had no clue that I was reading a True Blood fan fiction until one of the characters made an appearance. I was all like….what the WHAT?!?!?! So yeah, that’s my exposed moment of stupidity.
This story is written by one of the people that runs the Fangreaders Chat. She goes by VicVega66 when writing and she goes by @FangreadersLJ on Twitter. I had the pleasure of chatting with her when I was invited to a Fangreaders Chat as a special guest. There was so much going on during the chat that I missed what exactly the story was about, only that it was to be reviewed.
Anywho….
On with it….
Werewolf Moon is an incredibly unique story. I was a touch unprepared for what I was about to encounter in its 167 pages. As I said, I had no clue what it was about, for one thing. I am no stranger to fanfiction and especially fanfiction with “lemons” (sex scenes). However, the lemons in this story were a bit too much for my eyes.
I am going to run on the assumption that everyone here is familiar with Fifty Shades of Gray and what that book is all about. Well, I am one of like 3 people in the entire world who has no interest in reading it. Sex + violence of any kind does not = hot for me. I like passion, obviously. I just don’t get my jollies from actually being hit. I also don’t do submissive well. You want to slap me around and tell me how much of a low piece of shit I am, you can do it while trying to pry the fire axe back out of the side of your skull. Yes, I read a lot of fiction that has sex scenes but (I swear I will poke you in the eye hole if you give me any crap on this!) all of the couplings in my books are, for the most part, consensual and between two people who are hooking up in a larger sense than just pelvic buddies. It’s still hot but it’s usually based in love, not a need to get their asses whipped.
On that same note, because of the nature of the relationship between Lysene and Eric (and Eric’s nature alone, for that matter), their sexual interactions are a cross between sex and him trying to “break” her. It makes total sense for the story line and doesn’t detract from it at all. The scenes don’t seem out of place at all.
There’s also some highly visible character development in this story. From the Lysene that we meet at the very beginning to the Lysene at the end are two completely different people. Same with Eric for that matter. Lysene starts out as a devil may care psychopath and by the end of the story, she’s…..well, I don’t want to say and ruin it.
I also stated that this is a True Blood fanfic. I am not 100% sure if it was supposed to be True Blood and not SVM but I feel that it definitely leans much more towards the show than the books. Imagine the Eric of True Blood Season One and that’s the Eric that we encounter at the beginning of Werewolf Moon. He’s ruthless. He’s cold. He’s really kind of a dick.
The core story itself was excellent and well thought out. There’s a good start to a series here. I would, however, send it through a round of betas. The core of the story is there. It just needs a little polishing.
One specific example would be the sex scenes. And I am not talking about the content. It may not trip my trigger but I know it trips other people’s. Keep the content but fluff it up a bit. Draw it out. The best sex/love scenes that are out there are filled with tension and I feel like the scenes in this story are a bit rushed.
That “fluffing” could easily be applied to the rest of the book as well. Don’t be afraid to get descriptive. It helps the reader see that mental movie. I found that there were a few times throughout the story where I lost that picture in my mind.
With that being said, there’s a note at the beginning of the story that states it is 100% unedited and that it was her FIRST venture into fanfiction! Knowing that AFTER reading the whole thing, I am rather blown away. Very, very little grammatical editing is needed! Fantastic job!
Overall, I am going to give Werewolf Moon 3.5 stars! Halfway between “well written and entertaining” and “an excellent work, this would make a good addition to your library”. A little polishing and fluffing and that rating would easily climb.
I want to thank the folks at Fangreaders Chat and encourage anyone who likes to write (fanfiction or originals) to pop on over to their site and check them out. I had such an amazing time when I did my chat with them. Unfortunately, scheduling has made it so I can’t get back but I will, I swear!! Skip over to http://fangreaders.blogspot.com for more info!
Hi, thanks for reviewing Werewolf Moon, I appreciate it. I do agree with you on most of your points. It is un-edited, I only aquired a beta by the third story in the series which helped a lot. I had never written a ‘lemon’ before this and after a lot of thought – where do various limbs and body parts go – managed to get it down on paper and not be embarrased by it.
Lys is my own character, as you know, fiesty, strong and a complete fruitcake, Eric is more how I imagine him to be, a Viking, vampire sheriff.
Thanks again.
Oh and you can read it here on A03: http://archiveofourown.org/works/419258
;~} vic
Thank you so much, Jena, for reviewing VicVega’s Werewolf Moon. It was great and thoughful review. Having read all her works, you will see that her talent shines through and her skill gets even better. Having read her original works, I feel we’ll all be seeing her published one day.
And many many thanks for all that you said about the Fangreaders. You always light up the chatroom when you come in and do such a marvellous job with your blog *hugs*