Review--Moonglow by Kristen Callihan

Once the seeds of desire are sown . . .

Finally free of her suffocating marriage, widow Daisy Ellis Craigmore is ready to embrace the pleasures of life that have long been denied her. Yet her new-found freedom is short lived. A string of unexplained murders has brought danger to Daisy's door, forcing her to turn to the most unlikely of saviors . . .

Their growing passion knows no bounds . . .

Ian Ranulf, the Marquis of Northrup, has spent lifetimes hiding his primal nature from London society. But now a vicious killer threatens to expose his secrets. Ian must step out of the shadows and protect the beautiful, fearless Daisy, who awakens in him desires he thought long dead. As their quest to unmask the villain draws them closer together, Daisy has no choice but to reveal her own startling secret, and Ian must face the undeniable truth: Losing his heart to Daisy may be the only way to save his soul.

I read Kirsten Callihan's Firelight a long time ago as an ARC. I remembered liking it, but not totally loving it. I decided to give the other books a try and to my surprise I quickly fell in love with Moonglow! Granted, I couldn't quite remember much from Firelight and some of the previous occurrences and causes for tension between characters, but I soon pushed past that and enjoyed the incredible story. I find that I am total sucker for werewolf stories! Vampires were my first love, but somewhere down the line, I think I became more enamor with werewolves! 

Daisy has just finished her "mourning" for her a-hole husband--yes, he was an a-hole and yes, society still expected her to "mourn" him properly by wearing black and basically not coming out in public unless necessary--and is ready to get on with her life. Her husband was not the good sort and she was wanting to find a connection with someone, it didn't have to be love. When she went to a party she was close to finding that with a young man, but then the werewolf attacked and that pretty much put the party to an end.

Ian, our lycan from last time--as there is a difference of sorts with weres and lycans, lycans is more the man holding the wolf and a were is more wolf than man, it sounds better in the book, trust me--ends up there because he smelled the wolf. The wolf has been wreaking havoc around town and when he comes across an unconscious Daisy, he is stricken. Not only is her scent alluring, but there's something about her that has him left wanting.

And so begins the complicated romance between Daisy and Ian and yet I gotta say, that I loved it! It wasn't the insta-romance kind, yay!, but there was definitely a lot of tension between them. Daisy has quite the mouth on her and I love her for that! She says what's she thinking and isn't the obedient type. Ian is your classic he-man-wolf type. I wouldn't quite say he's an alpha male, I've read books with alpha males and he doesn't fit the bill, but he is still protective and a mite possessive when it comes to Daisy. Pretty much it's the wolf in him.

Daisy insists on helping him solve the case of the renegade were, for the were seems to be attacking women who are wearing Daisy's personal perfume. A concoction she created for herself, so the fact that other people have her formula upsets her and she wants to figure out who stole her formula.

I was surprised to learn that Miranda isn't the only "special" one amongst the sisters. Daisy too learns she has a power when it suddenly pops up in a moment of distress. And we soon learn a little insight to the sisters and their abilities. Not a full blown explanation as to the whys and hows, but it's enough to satisfy for the moment!

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. Having recalled only mildly enjoying Firelight, I was expecting something similar here, but I ended up loving it! Daisy and Ian were quite the pair, they are quite literally perfect for one another. There was lots of delicious tension between the two, each fighting the other over some matter or another and then there's finally the romance! Wow. It was very nicely done, as I can be a stickler for having too much romance in my books, this one just flowed nicely. The scenes were built into, they weren't random nonsense there for the sake of sex on the page. 

This one does end happily, albeit being a part of a series, it does read as a standalone. So a happy ending becomes necessary! Plan on reading Winterblaze soon, as Moonglow does build up some threads of that particular storyline. At least with the tension between those characters and they're already married! So that one will definitely be making its way into my reading que shortly, I hope!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars