Book 81, 2022

[chez_jae]

Waiting for the Wolf Moon by Evelyn Vaughn

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Finished my work book during my lunch hour today. It was Waiting for the Wolf Moon by Evelyn Vaughn. The book is part of the Silhouette "Dreamscapes" line of paranormal romances. The main character is witch Sylvie Peabody.

When grisly murders begin happening during the full moon in the small town of Stagwater, LA, Sylvie and her friends are left wondering if the attacks are from a werewolf. The police have been chalking them up to wild dog attacks, but the witches know better. Sylvie can't help but notice that the attacks began after mysterious Rand Garner arrived in town. He purchased a crumbling old estate and is intent on turning it into a haunted house. Sylvie can't help but be drawn to Rand, and the attraction seems to be mutual. Although her friends caution her to stay away, Sylvie finds herself falling for the enigmatic Rand, even as she fears he may be the werewolf.

Ugh. Sylvie is dumber than a box of rocks, and as for Rand, he came across as a cocky, immature frat boy. Although the story was in third-person pov, from Sylvie's perspective, a few times, toward the end of the book, the narrative was in Rand's pov with no discernible break to warn the reader. It was jarring and distracting. Sylvie takes the cake in idiocy for letting her vagina control her actions. She literally fled from Rand in sheer terror at one point, but when he caught up to her (because the best way to convince someone not to be afraid of you is to chase after them), he kissed her, then took her to bed, after which Sylvie is convinced that he's not the werewolf at all. Because sex solves everything. I need some brain bleach. The story was exciting, if not for the right reasons, and there was some humor laced throughout, but I spent most of my time reading it wanting to smack Sylvie upside the head. And kick Rand in the balls just to wipe the smug smirk off his face. The ending was confusing. Was Don an actual werewolf or not? If he was suffering the mental disorder, in which he believed he was a werewolf, to the point he was wearing a wolfskin, then how was he clawing/biting his victims? Why did Don think Rand was the werewolf who had turned/afflicted him with lycanthropy?

Favorite lines:
♦ One minute she didn't even have a relationship, the next minute it was doomed.
♦ "Or, as my mother used to say, um...Damn, I knew I should have listened to her."
♦ "Do you know what lousy gas mileage hearses get? It's no wonder that so few corpses take road trips."
♦ She couldn't run from what frightened her without leaving what fascinated her. Stupid slut
♦ "I sense tar and feathers in the future, and that's just not my look."
♦ "It slices, it dices, it makes honest-to-gosh Julienne fries. When you're lucky enough to have a hunk of Julienne."
♦ "For heaven's sake, you got laid, not coronated!"

And, here's one for my new hobby of cataloging the overdone line about releasing a breath that the person didn't know s/he was holding:

She released a breath, only then realizing that she'd been holding it.

So...yeah. The plot was interesting, but the characters were aggravating, and things were left unexplained at the end. I'm giving this a generous two stars.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

Ooo, that sounds awful. I will happily avoid it!

[chez_jae]

The story was interesting, but the female lead was just dumb. Guh.