Cursed Moon

★ ★ 1/2
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
—

I...just don't know. In theory, this series is right in my sweet spot – Urban Fantasy, Police Procedural (ish) – but it's just not working for me. It feels like Wells is trying to get gritty and dark, but the results aren't there. The same goes with the addiction storyline. It didn't ring true for me, she seemed to be trying, her characters seem more like characters from a bad made-for-TV movie, not actual addicts.

While I'm complaining, I should mention that the Rape magic in the beginning – and the resulting bacchanal – was far too graphic, went on far too long. Then to follow it up with the trip to the sex coven with all the details given there? Overkill – especially because almost none of these details are important to the story. Take out those scenes, or tone them down, and you lose nothing.

The whole Pen story just annoyed me – Pen's character seemed inconsistent throughout – her mood/actions/attitude fluctuating to serve the needs of the moment, but not arising organically from the situation or character.

And Danny? I don't know where to start.

So what did work? The MEA stuff, the investigation, the world. Basically the major story, the core of the book was good enough to keep me going – it's all the surrounding material that drove me nuts.

This has been brief and vague because it's been 8 months since I read it, and because I just didn't care one way or the other. Vaguely dissatisfied with a few significant beefs, would be a good way to summarize my take on this book. I might give this series one more shot, but I doubt I'll go out of my way for it.