Alpha Moon (Seasons of the Moon: Cain Chronicles #7) by SM Reine

Rylie Gresham’s world is ending, and this time, it has nothing to do with silver bullets… and everything to do with an impromptu visit from her mother.

Jessica has no idea her daughter is an Alpha werewolf in charge of the last surviving pack. Rylie is determined to keep her from learning the truth. But between her mate’s stubbornness, airport security, and nosy family members, Rylie is soon to learn that being the Alpha doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s the one in control.

This book marks the end of the Seasons of the Moon: Cain Chronicles series. If you’ve been following along you know that even though the series has come to an end, this is not the last that readers will see of Seth, Abel and Rylie. Actually far from it.

So, you know that I’ve jumped around a bit. I read the first couple of books in the Seasons of the Moon series and then I lost track. I was reminded again about these books when I was introduced to the Ascension series. I read Sacrificed in Shadow, the first book in that series and I was hooked. The Ascension series ties both the Descent and Seasons of the Moon series together. Unfortunately, I was 2 1/2 series and about 16 books behind. (Did I mention that S.M. Reine writes really, really fast?) The point is… I’m almost caught up and even though you can pretty much start anywhere with any of these series, I’m so glad I took the time to play catch-up 😉

Alpha Moon was kind of short, but it covered a lot of ground. Rylie and Abel were still getting to know their twins. The pack was getting ready to move to a new, isolated location. The world not only knew about, but was terrified of anything supernatural. There was an entire government organization not only out to get Rylie and her pack, but just looking for a reason to destroy them and Rylie’s mom was coming to visit. In a normal world, that would be the easiest thing to handle. Rylie’s world was anything but normal.

There was so much to love about this book. I loved getting to know Summer better and watching her get closer to Rylie. I gained a whole new appreciation for Abel who I had just recently started to like. And then there was Jessica… I gotta say, my reaction to her was totally unexpected.

I have to admit though, if I had read this as a series finale, I probably would have been a little disappointed. Reading it knowing that there is so much more to come is totally different. In that respect I suppose I can forgive myself for taking so long to catch up. If you’re starting fresh with this series and others in the S.M. Reine universe, enjoy. Alpha Moon may mark the end of a series, but the adventure has just begun.

Of Wings and Wolves (Seasons of the Moon: Cain Chronicles #6) by S.M. Reine

Summer Gresham knows that she’s different. After all, she’s the only twenty-year-old coed that shapeshifts into a wolf. But her unique nature is a well-hidden secret, so she’s baffled to be singled out for a prestigious internship. She’s even more stunned when she discovers that the man who wants to hire her—Nash Adamson—specifically requested Summer…and he won’t take no for an answer.

Nash has more than a few secrets of his own. Like Summer, he’s different, too: a rebel angel in exile. Summer is the key to his freedom, and her warmth and beauty stirs something inside of him that’s been sleeping for millennia. She almost makes him forget that he’s imprisoned.

Summer suddenly finds herself at the crux of an ancient war, and angels don’t care how many mortals get caught in the crossfire. Torn between saving Summer and freeing himself, Nash has to choose what matters most: their love, or his freedom.

Still playing catch up and still loving every minute of it. I’ve totally screwed up the reading order of S.M. Reine’s books. If you’d like to read the books chronologically, you can visit S.M. Reine’s site and start reading them in the correct order. (You can find that list here.) I, personally have bounced all over the place, but, like I said, I’m having fun playing catch up. 😉

To say that the premise of Of Wings and Wolves is unique would be an understatement. If you haven’t read the books in both the Seasons of the Moon and the Cain Chronicles, don’t read any further. Not only will this review be totally full of spoilers, you’ll be totally lost.

Basically, Summer and her twin brother Abram were whisked away by their great aunt to another dimension to keep them safe from people trying to destroy them at the end of Darkmoon.  Of Wings and Wolves picks up 20 years later (or a week or so, depending on which side of the dimension you were on.) I know, it sounds totally far-fetched and confusing, but it’s not. When you get wrapped up in this world created by S.M. Reine, it makes perfect sense. Honest.

I loved learning the story of how Nash and Summer met. (I’ve read everything in the wrong order, remember?) I also loved getting a little peek at what life had been like for Abram, Summer and their great aunt/grandmother. I couldn’t help but feel really sorry for them all. Abram and Summer grew up without their parents and Rylie and Abel missed out on watching their kids growing up.

Out of this pair of twins, Summer is definitely my favorite. Abram has a stubborn streak, but he’s also kind of gullible. Which get’s him in trouble both in Of Wings and Wolves and in the future… but since I don’t want to give anything away… 😉 This book also marks the first hint for me that S.M. Reine’s angels are anything but… well… angelic. At least not in a way that they are normally depicted.

I’m getting close to the end of the Cain Chronicles, which means I’m also almost done playing catch up. One more novella to go (Alpha Moon) and I’m ready to go back to the Descent series. Hopefully I can finish up before I start falling behind on the newest books in this world. That’s a lot harder than it may sound because not only is this author super talented, she also writes super, super fast. *sigh*

Darkmoon (Seasons of the Moon: Cain Chronicles #5) by S.M. Reine

Rylie Gresham has survived becoming a werewolf, going crazy from silver poisoning, and being hunted by her fiance’s family. But that was nothing compared to the challenge Rylie faces now: being pregnant…with twins. And it definitely doesn’t help that her fiance’s brother has declared himself the father, either.

The brothers, Seth and Abel, are at each other’s throat over Rylie, even as the twins are fast approaching term. But it may be too late for all of them. The government has revealed the existence of werewolves, threatening everything that Rylie holds dear. And the evil werewolf Cain is preparing for his final act of revenge: destroying the pack and stealing Rylie’s children.

When it comes to books in this series, or any other book by this author I could ramble on and on and on… It’s pretty much guaranteed that if I pick up a book by S.M. Reine, it won’t get put down unless I absolutely have no choice. Darkmoon was definitely no exception. I think out of all the books in the Seasons of the Moon: Cain Chronicles series, this one is my favorite.

Darkmoon starts where Red Rose Moon left off. In total and utter chaos… both physical and emotional. I’m not even really sure where to start. Up until this series I really didn’t like Abel. He’s grown on me though and in this book my heart broke for all three of them. I know that a lot of readers don’t like love triangles. I can take or leave them, depending on how they’re written. I guess it’s no surprise that I’m going to tell you that S.M. Reine writes it well. Rylie’s love for both Seth and Abel is beyond complicated. Her human heart chose Seth, but her wolf chose Abel. There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the ‘cliff notes’ version.

I think one of the things that I liked most about Darkmoon was that it’s now obvious that the ground is being laid for Reine’s Seasons of the Moon and Descent series to become intertwined. James played a prominent role in Darkmoon and I loved the interactions he had with the characters. It just reinforced the fact that once I’m finished playing catch up with this series and Descent, I’m going to have to start the Ascension series all over again.

Darkmoon was also the longest book in the Cain Chronicles so far. A lot happened. A lot that I saw coming and a lot that I didn’t expect. There were twists and turns and hints to the future that I now wonder if I would have picked up on if I had read the books in order. Hind sight is 20/20 so I doubt it. The stakes are higher, more lives are in danger and new threats are revealed. And for the record, S.M. Reine has no problem at all breaking her characters in two – and taking her readers down right along with them.

Of Wings and Wolves is next and I’m extremely glad that I have it ready and waiting. There’s still a lot to settle and the next book promises to fill in the blanks. I can’t really tell you what blanks those are, but I can tell you (again) that if you haven’t picked this series up yet, you really need to fix that.

Blood Moon Harvest (Seasons of the Moon: The Cain Chronicles #2) by S.M. Reine

Rylie’s home has been turned into a battle zone by attacking hunters – and by her conflicted heart. Her wolf and human sides are in love with different men, and neither Seth nor Abel will give Rylie up without a fight.
To save her pack, Rylie will have to find out who Cain is. To save herself, she’ll have to choose between the man she wants and the man she needs.

61 pages… that’s it, just 61 short sweet pages, but oh what was packed into those pages. Yikes!

I’ve made it no secret that I’ve read this series of books totally out of order. Well, not the individual books within each series, just the order of the grouped series. That’s one of the reasons why these books have ended up on my Seriously Series list for 2014. I not only want to catch up, I NEED to catch up. Although I totally regret not finishing the Seasons of the Moon books before I started the Ascent series, I am thoroughly enjoying my trip back into this world. Well, enjoying isn’t exactly the word I’m looking for. S.M. Reine isn’t exactly kind to her characters. They are pretty much tortured by each other or themselves in some way on every single page. *sigh*

Blood Moon Harvest started about where New Moon Summer left off…. but not exactly. The last few pages of the previous book are given in Seth’s perspective. It threw me for a minute, but it only took me a couple of paragraphs to catch up. From that moment on there was total chaos. Emotional and physical chaos for everyone. It doesn’t take long to discover that Cain is a force to be reckoned with, there’s still a lot that even the werewolves don’t know about themselves and some things just can’t be fought. There are jaw dropping revelations, mysterious characters, unexpected alliances and characters that just won’t stay gone. This is one series that doesn’t let you stop to catch your breath.

There’s a lot more to come and I’m super thankful that I started this series late (regardless of the order) because the cliff hangers in this set of novellas are brutal. Even knowing where things are ultimately headed doesn’t make it any easier. I’m glad I have the first 4 books in a collection so I don’t have to wait to pick up Moon of the Terrible.

New Moon Summer (Seasons of the Moon: Cain Chronicles #1) by S.M. Reine – Bout-of-Books 10.0 Review

Rylie is Alpha: the leader of the werewolves. They’re an endangered species living in a sanctuary, and she’s guarded them for two peaceful years.

The peace is shattered when somebody sends Rylie a threatening silver bullet. A new member of the pack goes missing. And to make things worse, her inner beast is strangely attracted to her boyfriend’s brother, leaving her torn between the love of two men–one of them a werewolf, and the other a former hunter.

Okay, I admit it. I finished the last book in the Seasons of the Moon series and I just couldn’t say goodbye. Crazy, I know, but such is the life of a book addict 😉

The approach of this series is a little different than the Seasons of the Moon. Basically because the first 4 installments are short (this one was only 53 pages.) That doesn’t mean that it is lacking though. An awful lot happened in those 53 pages. The pack has fallen into a routine and they’re even growing in numbers. Both sanctuaries are running full force with Rylie watching over the wolves in her pack. She’s still not comfortable running things alone, but she has plenty of support from both Seth and Abel.

In true S.M. Reine fashion, things don’t stay peaceful for long. There’s tension within the pack and danger from outside it. Then there’s the fact that there’s something going on between Rylie and Abel that even they’re not sure about. I’m not sure I’m happy with where things are going – even knowing where they end up (just another friendly warning to read these series in the right order.)

I picked up the first book in this series by itself then I immediately got my hands on the box set that contains books 1-4. It’s about the size of a short novel combined (246 pages) and it’s really broken up into ‘episodes’ instead of books. I’m pretty sure that’s how I’m going to read and review the rest of it. Mainly because the cliff hanger in New Moon Summer was brutal… o.O

Gray Moon Rising (Seasons of the Moon #4) by S.M. Reine – Bout-of-Books 10.0 Review

It’s been almost a year since Rylie Gresham was bitten by a werewolf on Gray Mountain. Now something is beckoning her back to the place she was attacked, along with every other werewolf in the world. But they aren’t the only ones heeding the call. A group of hunters notices them gathering and sees it as their chance to wipe out the entire species.

Seth is about to graduate high school when he learns of the final hunt. He secretly plans to save Rylie and his werewolf brother even though he has to play along with the hunters to do it. But Rylie doesn’t want to be saved. She’s already decided to solve her problems with a silver bullet if answers aren’t waiting on Gray Mountain.

One way or another, everything is about to end—whether it means Rylie’s liberation or the end of her life.

The beginning of this book was tough to read. Rylie is in so much pain… both physical and emotional. She doesn’t want to be the ‘monster’ that she’s become. She’s at the sanctuary to get better and gain control, but she has spent most of the time there hiding and protecting everyone from her wolf. She’s not trying to cope, she’s not even trying to survive.

Seth was doing better than Rylie, but the fact that he hadn’t heard from her or seen her was always weighing heavy on him. He had faith in Rylie. Besides missing her, he was happier than he had ever been. Then his mother comes back and everything changes.

This book is our first real introduction to the Union. If you’re reading these books in the correct order, just know that this will not be the last time you meet them. They have two goals: to protect humans and to destroy werewolves. The problem is that things aren’t black and white. There is both good and evil on both sides and Gray Moon Rising makes that point more than once.

Gray Moon Rising also introduced characters that readers will see later series. It was kind of fun picking them out. Of course I wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t done such an amazing job of screwing up the reading order, but I’m trying my best to catch up… or back? Regardless, I’m enjoying getting to know these characters in a different light. This book also melted some of my not so friendly feelings toward Abel and helped me even like him just a little.

Even though this book marks the end of the Seasons of the Moon series, the story is far from over. As a matter of fact, the ending is kind of open ended. It lays the perfect ground work for what’s to come and not just in the Cain Chronicles, which  continues the story of Seth, Riley and Abel. Seasons of the Moon is just the beginning of a wild, intricately woven, scary, crazy world that S.M. Reine has created. I can’t wait to see what happens next.