Six Moon Summer by S.M. Reine

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Personal Kindle Library

Read: August 31, 2012

Cover Blurb: Rylie's been bitten. She's changing. And now she has three months to find a cure before becoming a werewolf... forever. Rylie Gresham hates everything about summer camp: the food, the fresh air, the dumb activities, and the other girls in her cabin. But the worst part is probably being bitten by a werewolf. Being a teenager is hard enough, but now she's craving raw flesh and struggles with uncontrollable anger. If she doesn't figure out a way to stop the transformation, then at the end of summer, her life is worse than over. She'll be a monster.

Werewolf Woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Six Moon Summer is certainly better than the average freebie. In terms of formatting, there are relatively few errors and the text has obviously gone undergone a round or two of proofreading. I hope this next bit doesn't shock anyone, but not all indie authors take such care when prepping their babies for print. As a reader and supporter of self publishers I want to spotlight Reine. She takes obvious pride in her craft. Such effort and regard for quality is not lost on her readers,

Now, Patricia Briggs has pretty much ruined me for every other urban fantasy writer on the market, especially those who write about werewolves. So is it the author's fault that I wasn't totally in love with the paranormal aspects of her plot? Not in the least. Reine constructed a solid premise, satisfying, if nothing else. I'm just a tough customer and I urge anyone reading this to take my remarks with a grain of salt. 

I would have liked to see a bit more detail all around. I think the characters could have been developed further, particularly Cassidy, Louise and Amber. The book Rylie reads at camp could have been expanded on - was I the only one who wanted to know more than just the bare bones of what she was reading? I also felt there was a significant gap in the descriptions the wolves and the transformation they experience. Basic things like what color they were or Rylie's having to adapt to a body with a muscles structure and form so different from our own, I think, would have been a positive addition to the story. Guess I just wanted more to sink my teeth into. 

Overall, not bad for a debut piece. The text felt a little bare and the story construction pretty linear; probably why I feel the book is better suited to the younger end of the young adult bracket, but again not bad. Reine has room to grow but she has definitely gotten off to a great start. 

"Dying is as natural as being born and all of us have to face it someday. Some sooner than others. It's difficult to understand the meaning of it all. The question isn't, 'Why do we die?' The correct question in, 'Why do we live?"