Rating: 3 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Bellamy has been hiding at Moon Flower for two years now. He ran to Lunar’s Reach after being betrayed by Ashwood, the boy that meant everything to him. Bellamy learned that werewolves really do exist and that he is one. He has never shifted and the potion he takes helps suppress his desires. But with violet fever taking over the territory, Bellamy has fallen devastatingly ill, and no one is able to save him. No one except Ashwood.
Bellamy doesn’t want to see Ashwood and the thought of Ashwood having to get close to Bellamy in order to save him has Bellamy fighting with everything he has. Bellamy doesn’t understand what he saw and he refuses to give Ashwood even one moment to explain. But Bellamy feels the mate bond between them, and he feels his wolf stirring, and Ashwood is hard to resist.
Moon Spell is the follow up to Moon Flower, a series set in a fictional world that the author states is supposed to be similar to the nineteenth century. The story does continue here from the first book and it would help to read them in order.
A fever has swept through the area and the apothecary is working hard to make an antidote. It has been working for most people, but Bellamy is built a bit differently. Bellamy is an orphan and was taken in by a man he thought would look after him. That wasn’t exactly how it played out, but Bellamy had Ashwood and while the two of them didn’t fully understand it at the time, they had found their mate.
The world building here is light, which worked fine for the first book. For this book, I needed some more built out to make this all work for me. Bellamy never knew werewolves existed and the transition to him fully understanding he is a wolf is off page and there were steps missing for me. We don’t see anything that happened after Bellamy thought he was betrayed and we catch up with him again two years later when he is working as a prostitute and there were too many gaps in his story. The shifter world is not developed at all and the flow of the narrative was lacking because there is no world built for them.
When Bellamy and Ashwood see each other again, Bellamy will not give Ashwood one moment to explain anything. Even when Bellamy learns that Ashwood is there is save his life, Bellamy won’t listen to a word and it went on for too long for me. The men have a pull to be together because they are mates, but with Bellamy fighting it at every step, the allure of the fated mates got lost in this story. The ending also moves many steps ahead, all off page, and this book didn’t capture the same allure of the first one in the series for me. There are more books planned in this series, so if you do like the world of Lunar’s Reach, there will more stories and more chances for a return visit.
