Review – Ice Moon by Lisa Kessler

I received an ARC of this book from the Publisher, via Netgalley, this does not affect my opinion of this book or the content of my review.

Jared Ayers works outdoors, embracing a solitary life, hiding from his inner demons. But after so many of his Pack brothers have found their mates, he starts wondering if there might be a mate in his future too. His world turns upside down after he’s hired by the “Ice Queen of Lake Tahoe”. One touch is all it takes. One touch to send the wolf howling within…

A gifted psychic with pyrokinesis, Taryn Goldstone wields fire beyond her control– sometimes with dire consequences. With Jared, she discovers that some flames are meant for passion–and healing. She has enemies who covet her powerful gift, but they are about to learn just how far a wolf will go to protect his mate.

Book 5 in the Moon series and up to this point it has seemed like the action was really ramping up. So Kessler changed the tune and really hit us in the feels. Dang but Taryn has had a hard row to hoe. And meeting Jared just doesn’t initially make it any easier. Fortunately for her he’s a hottie who knows what he is doing (when he isn’t being a bonehead with testosterone poisoning), and fortunately for us, this is romance so we know we’re going to get that happy ending.

It is a good installment. We’ve got wheels within wheels conspiracies and counter conspiracies. We have both an adorable plot-moppet AND a plot-pet. Both too cute for words. I shouldn’t really call them that, both characters are integral to the plot and not merely sops for cuteness. And we have a rugged, sensitive, rough-tough-cream puff for a hero. And then there’s Taryn, who for some reason reminds me of a Nalini Singh’s Ashaya from Hostage to Pleasure.

I’m still intermittently struggling with the alternating first person POV, it didn’t suck me in quite as well as it did with Gareth and Nadya (those two are still my favorite couple), but I do enjoy getting to be in both people heads throughout their courtship. How’s that for contrariness? But seriously, I think that you get a much richer sense of both characters this way, it is just that spending so much time in both characters heads has a tendency to slow the pace of the story down and, for me at least, the action. But that is a personal preference, as any long time readers here know, I tend toward more action-adventure Bruce Willis-esque stories.

As for the plot of this particular book, we took some strange and interesting turns, we’ve got some insight into multiple characters, and a pretty exciting conclusion to this books’ individual story arc. Though the overall series arc seems even more shrouded in mystery than ever. It is hard to say much more than that, since this is a series that definitely adds up, but suffice it to say I can absolutely see where the showdown is coming from.

But even with the small lags I mentioned, I find this series addictive. I like the characters, and I really love how the author is building up to a completed and cohesive story arc. This is the sort of thing you can easily binge on.

3.5 stars and I am eagerly anticipating the next one in March, bot because I am super curious who our hero is,and because it puts us that much closer to Book 8-the finale and the amoral hero that I love and love to hate.