Review - Blood Moon (Drake Chronicles #5) by Alyxandra Harvey

Title: Blood Moon

Author: Alyxandra Harvey

Series: 5th (Hearts at Stake, Blood Feud, Out for Blood, Bleeding Hearts)

Pages: 320

Published:  June 19th 2012 by Walker Childrens 

ISBN:  9780802728470

Source: Purchased

Description: When the vampire tribes convene for the rare Blood Moon ceremonies, Solange Drake’s struggle with her feral nature, a mysterious stranger, family secrets, and forbidden magic put her entire family in danger. And when Nicholas Drake is torn between saving his little sister, Solange, or his girlfriend Lucy, who will he choose? 

I Give This ...

 

With the first four books under my belt, there was never any doubt that I would read this book.   It was really just a matter of when because review book seem to take up so much of my time.  When the book six (and final book) was available for review, there was my last motivation for getting this one read sooner rather than later.

I've been patiently watching Solange struggle with her blood change.  She's definitely not adapting well.  I've known what she's experiencing is not the norm, but just wasn't very sure how far outside that range she was.  I sometime wonder if her family wasn't so busy with her mother taking over and the Blood Moon, if she would have gotten help sooner.  She's been left to her own thoughts and devices, and I don't think that has helped any.  I've been extremely intrigued by the little voice in her head.  

The rituals and rules behind the blood moon are very interesting.  The tribes are all represented.  They have their own guard with a no nonsense policy.  With so many vampires in town in bound to attract some attention.  The presence have not gone unnoticed by Helio-Ra.  Lucy gets a lot of flack at the prestigious vampire hunters school.  There's a lot of bad blood there and most are not willing to accept that not all vampires are bad.

Poor Nicholas seems to go through a lot in this book.  His loyalty to both Solange and Lucy are both tested to the extremes.  Odd that he seems to have see events coming enough to be able to plan for them.  I think its a testament to how loyal he is to his family and how much he cares for Lucy.  He know that not everything is going to be perfect, but love that he tries.

I did not like Constantine.  I was honestly wondering the entire time what it was that had Solange so wrapped up in him.  He was the exact opposite of everything that Solange had been taught.  He fed into her blood lust and was constantly making things difficult between her and her family.  But yet nothing anybody said could convince her that he was anything but understanding.  I sometimes I couldn't decide if I wanted to smack her for it or really dig down and figure out what was going on.

This one dragged a little in places, but really set the pace for the finale.   It ends in the typical cliff-hanger that we come to expect from The Drake Chronicles.  But, I'm more the willing to dive into the next book!