Marked by Moonlight [Mass Market Paperback]

In this fast paced tale of a newly infected lycan and a dedicated lycan hunter, Sharie Kohler has created an intriguing world that draws the reader in from the first page.

Claire Morgan is a teacher looking for a missing student when she's attached by a werewolf. Gideon March kills the beast but not before Claire's infected. He knows he should kill her too, but for the first time in his life he wants to save a lycan from the fate that awaits her at the next full moon. As Claire and Gideon race against time to find and kill the Alpha of the lycan pack and free Claire, they must learn to trust each other even as they fight the dangerous passion they both feel.

The book's world unfolds to the reader as Claire learns about the lycans and the secret society of lycan hunters who will kill her on sight. While Claire finds a new strength as a lycan to deal with childhood abuse, Gideon faces his own ghosts to heal the burning hatred that has driven him since he was a teenager. One of the secondary characters, an ancient lycan named Darius, is especially fascinating because he forces both Claire and Gideon to look beyond the stereotype and trust him

Although I had never read a werewolf paranormal before, Ms. Kohler's characters and their world were so skillfully developed, familiarity with the mythology was not necessary. My only disappointment was that the story ended. I sure hope Ms. Kohler writes Darius's story one day soon.

STORY BRIEF:
Claire is a mousy, timid school teacher. She lets people walk all over her because she doesn't like confrontation. One evening she is bitten by a lycan (werewolf). Her eyes turn silver. She won't turn into a wolf until the next full moon. Meanwhile, she begins feeling strength, hunger and anger. There are a couple of great scenes as she shows her anger and threatens her abusive father and a sneering, drug-dealing student. The hunger she feels is for both food and sex.

Gideon is a member of an underground society of lycan hunters. They hunt and kill all lycans using silver bullets. Gideon sees Claire being bitten and follows her home. He is reluctant to kill her and is strangely attracted to her. After he enlightens her about her circumstances, he agrees to help her. Claire was bitten by a newly created lycan. If they can kill the alpha leader of that lycan's pack before the next full moon, Claire will turn back into a normal human. If they don't kill the alpha, Claire will turn into a wolf at every full moon and need to feed off of humans while in wolf form. Future killing of the alpha won't solve the problem. It must be before the first full moon after being bitten.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
I loved the few parts where the former mouse becomes aggressive and strong. I also enjoyed the character Darius, what he did and what happened to him. As to the rest of the story, it was ok. It was primarily Gideon and Claire trying to solve the mystery and find the alpha. They fall for each other along the way. The story is good with a different take on lycans - she can turn back to being human if they solve their problem. I had no major problems with it. I just wanted to be a little more surprised or delighted in order to give it more stars. My favorite parts were minor parts of the story rather than the main plot.

CAUTION SPOILER:
The author used the typical romance formula which is: the couple falls in love, has a conflict causing them to be apart, and then gets together again. I'm ok with this formula, but I did not like the method used to separate them. Claire made the inaccurate assumption (one of my pet peeves) that Gideon didn't love her or want to be with her, so she left him. The fact is they had just spent the night together. He never said or did anything to imply he didn't want her. I say forget the formula if you can't come up with something interesting. The story would have been fine without this brief separation. If you need to separate Claire and Gideon, consider using Darius or his housekeeper to cause it. They were intriguing characters.

DATA:
Story length: 346 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 6. Total number of sex scene pages: 17. Setting: current day Texas. Copyright: 2008. Genre: paranormal romance.

Marked by Moonlight is the debut novel in an exciting new series by Sharie Kohler. It is super sexy, the tension is incredibly palpable and it kept me thoroughly entertained from beginning to end. One thing I love about Sharie's writing is that it is so descriptive. I always felt like I was right there with Claire and Gideon ... feeling what they were feeling, seeing what they were seeing, smelling what they were smelling. Claire is such a believable character as she went from meek to aggressive. The way that Sharie described and showed the changes that Claire went through, made me feel like I was a fly on the wall ... or that I was her. I loved Claire. And Gideon, well, he is just hot! He was persistent with Claire and didn't give up on her which was completely endearing. He is a strong, sexy hero that could of, given his past, taken the easy route, but didn't. Sharie made Gideon's decision to save Claire completely understandable ... and that made me love him even more. These two were made for each other. And the secondary characters added so much to the story. Overall, I loved this book and am eagerly anticipating the next book in the series!!

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