Midnight Moon (Nightcreature Novel, Bk 5) by Lori Handeland

This is Cassandra's book. We met her in the last book, so at least we know someone as this book opens, as opposed to the last one. In this book we learn about Cassandra's past. 

As a mom, watching someone come to grips with the death of a child was hard. It's the unthinkable, that you could lose your child. And to see someone in that much pain over it so many years afterwards... I didn't like that part of it. Not at all.

But other than that, this was a good book. The plot was good, the characters were either totally likable or totally hate-able, and the action kept me involved. And the further world building that we get was very well done. We learn more about what magics work in this world, and what Cassandra's powers are. I have a feeling she's going to be a very big part of future books as she comes more and more into her powers. I can see a lot of fuel for thought when it comes to the grey areas between good and evil that Cassandra may have to deal with, also. Unfortunately, it's doubtful we'll see things from her perspective again, since it seems each character only gets one book. That's a shame, there are several characters I'd like to see again, from their own perspective.

Speaking of Cassandra and her powers, there is one thing I have to say: As much as I respect and usually like Edward, the idea that he'd tell her to do something that would (technically) define her as evil, and then consider killing her because now that she's done as he said it makes her (technically, as definitions go) evil... that just really annoyed me. She isn't evil, she raised the dead to help someone... in this case to help Adam try to break the curse on his great (great great...) grandfather so it won't pass on to him. She did it to be helpful, mostly. Never mind she also considered it practice so she could do it on her daughter later. Err, okay, I guess it wasn't solely to be helpful. And since Edward knew her past he might have figured that out. Okay, still, she wasn't (and isn't) evil. And Edward annoyed me with that.

I'm giving the book a 9 of 10, but the series remains a 7 of 10 at this point. Much of the reason for the 7 is because the books aren't tying together in a cohesive series as much as I'd like for them to. The books are good, but the purpose (for me) of a series is that you get to see characters again and again, watch them change and grow. And I'm not really getting that with this series. There is hope for more of an ongoing plot, we'll see where things go after this book.

Book Rating: 9 of 10
Series Rating: 7 of 10





Blue Moon (2004)
Hunter's Moon (2005)
Dark Moon (2005)
Crescent Moon (2006)
Midnight Moon (2006)
Rising Moon (2007)
Hidden Moon (2007)
Thunder Moon (2008)