Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Book Review: Moonshade by S.J. West

 

Book Description

How would your life change if you inherited a vampire?

“Find me, Sarah…”

When a handsome stranger whispers these three little words to Sarah Marcel, she knows her life is forever changed.

For two weeks straight, Sarah’s been unable to eat, sleep, or even form a coherent thought properly. She fears she’s losing her mind until a chance encounter brings a man into her life who seems to hold the key to solving her problems. With a single touch, he’s able to ease her troubled soul and bring her some much-needed peace. Yet, just as Sarah believes she’s found the solution to her dilemma, he disappears.

As Sarah begins to unravel a mystery surrounding her family’s past, she quickly discovers her role in a world that’s hidden from most humans. Being a Marcel comes with certain responsibilities, and there are some things that you can’t hide from forever.


My Review

Sarah lost her parents when she was very young. Her friend's parents took her in and cared for her and she is really close with all of them still. When Sarah goes out to a night club with her friend, a mysterious man greets her and tells her to find him. But she doesn't even know his name so why is it as if she can feel him and knows exactly where to find him?

His name is Julian and he's a vampire. When Sarah's grandfather that she knew nothing about passes away, Julian has to find the next relative in the man's family to be his companion. Without a companion to feed him their blood, Julian will die. So when he tells Sarah that he's a vampire and she is to be his companion if she's willing, she doesn't know what to think at first. 

These vampires are different. They are all descendant from Madam Bathory because of a black magic spell she did or had done, the vampires aren't too sure what really happened to make them. But because of that he and the other vampires who were created at that time can only feed from a descendant of the first person they fed from when they were turned into a vampire. Which is why he sought out Sarah when her grandfather died. 

Julian tells her that she needs to date in order to find a suitable husband to have kids with. Because when she dies her children will become his companion. At first it seems that's really all he cares about until he feeds from her the first time. Then it becomes apparent that he has feelings for her, something that he tries to fight since he cannot father any children and doesn't usually have romantic feelings for his companions but she wasn't raised around him so things are different. Her parents took her away from everyone because they wanted her to be raised as a normal human. 

It takes a little while for this book to really get going but I was intrigued by the vampire/companion storyline so I kept reading and I'm glad I did because this got so much better. Family secrets are revealed and that was quite the twist. I'm really looking forward to reading more of this series now and finding out how things turn out for some of these other characters. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.