ORDER A COPY: Moonglow (Darkest London)
Publisher: Forever
Publishing Date: July 31, 2012
Paperback: 327 pages
Rating: 5 stars
Finally free of her suffocating marriage, widow Daisy Ellis Craigmore is ready to embrace the pleasures of life that have long been denied her. Yet her new-found freedom is short lived. A string of unexplained murders has brought danger to Daisy’s door, forcing her to turn to the most unlikely of saviors . . .
Ian Ranulf, the Marquis of Northrup, has spent lifetimes hiding his primal nature from London society. But now a vicious killer threatens to expose his secrets. Ian must step out of the shadows and protect the beautiful, fearless Daisy, who awakens in him desires he thought long dead. As their quest to unmask the villain draws them closer together, Daisy has no choice but to reveal her own startling secret, and Ian must face the undeniable truth: Losing his heart to Daisy may be the only way to save his soul.
This second book in the Darkest London series focuses on Miranda’s sister Daisy, who has recently been widowed after years of a loveless marriage to an abusive husband. Finally free to live her own life, she plans to take a lover and live outside of the Ton’s strangling rules. But those plans are thwarted when she attacked in an alley by what looks like a werewolf.
When Ian Northrup, the Marquis of Northrup, comes upon the commotion outside the London alley, he can smell the werewolf, worse he can smell the disease which is leading the lycan to give in to his baser werewolf form. Since Ian is a lycan, he knows the danger this werewolf presents not only to the helpless citizens of London, but to the rest of the lycans living quietly among the unsuspecting human population. He will do anything to catch this mad wolf. He will also do anything to protect the beautiful and spirited Daisy, who is now the focus of the werewolf, whether she likes it or not.
But the biggest problem could just be the fact that the immortal Ian is in more danger…of falling for the lovely Daisy. Ian gave his heart to a human woman decades earlier and had to watch that love wither and die as his wife aged and grew to resent Ian’s eternal youth. Can he risk his heart and soul to another mortal woman no matter how perfect she is for him?
This was an intriguing, well written continuation of the Darkest London series which leaves us wanting more. We were introduced to various new and interesting characters and learned some deep dark secrets hidden by both Ian and by Daisy’s family. Ian is sexy and charismatic and Daisy is spirited and brave like a good hero and heroine out to be.
What I think says most about the author is that I had no real interest is sister Poppy and his husband, Winston, after I read Firelight (Poppy=meh), but after Moonglow, I have to know where they will be going in the next story, Winterblaze.
Kristen Callihan is proving herself to be a very talented author and I am looking forward to more from her in the future.
See our past interview with Kristen Callihan.
See more on the Darkest London Series: Firelight
and more on Moonglow.
Favorite Scene:
Lucien became utterly still, and his gleaming eyes immediately dimmed. A caress of ice-cold air touched Daisy’s cheek and then surrounded her breasts. Icy prickles rippled over her sensitive flesh, beading her nipples. She sucked in a gasp as a cold draft blew between her legs. “Oh!”
A viscous snarl burst from Northrup, and he was out of his seat, his hands fisting Lucien’s collar. The man’s head flopped to the side as if he were stunned. Northrup gave him a violent shake. Fangs sprang long in Northrup’s mouth, his eyes going round and filling with blue. “I’ll tear yer fuckin’ head from yer neck, if ye don’t leave off!”
The air around her whooshed past her. Lucien’s prone body jerked and he blinked, his eyes returning to normal. Still caught in Northrup’s grip, he offered an innocent little smile to the snarling lycan bearing down on him.
“Temper, Ian. It was only a bit of fun.”
Northrup was past hearing. His jaw cracked as it lengthened, the fangs in his upper and lower jaw growing longer. “Not with her.” A snarl tore out as his claws sank into Lucien’s neck.
The man gurgled as Daisy leaped up. “Northrup! Stop.” He bared his teeth at Lucien, and the muscles along his forearms bulged. Crimson blood ran in rivulets down Lucien’s neck and into his snow-white cravat.
“Ian.” With a shaking hand, she touched his arm. He jerked as though shocked, his eyes, gleaming ice blue, turned to her, unseeing and wild. “Let him go, Ian. You don’t want to kill him. Not truly.”
Northrup cocked his head, his nostrils pinching as though he were inclined to disagree. His tense frame vibrated as a series of low growls rumbled in his throat. Daisy blanched but did not let him go. She had to trust in his promise not to hurt her. “Ian. Stand down.”
On a shudder, his body began to ease back to normal and the confusion and rage in his eyes cleared, to be replaced by a possessive heat that made her blush. A grunt of acknowledgment left him before he turned away from her.
Northrup hauled his prey close, his nose butting up against Lucien’s. “Play with your own lass, aye?”
With a final snarl, he shoved Lucien back into his seat. The chair slid a foot before Lucien’s boot heels stopped it. “A thousand pardons,” Lucien said, panting. “I forgot myself.”
Daisy, on the other hand, having just realized that the cold touch was Lucien, suddenly felt far from appeased. “That was you?” she said through her teeth.
The man held up his hands in apology, and she turned to Northrup. “I was wrong. Tear his hands off.”
Northrup’s eyes glinted with wicked humor as he winked at her, his smile feral and still showing a bit of fang. He turned back to Lucien and let his claws free. Lucien backed into his chair, his handsome mouth opening in alarm. “Here now!”
Daisy gave him an evil smile. Now that Northrup had calmed, he wouldn’t follow through, but he put on a very convincing show. “I wouldn’t be too alarmed, Mr. Stone,” she said. “After all, I appears you do not need your hands to get into mischief.”
