Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson Review

Book: Claire de Lune

Author: Christine Johnson

Age: YA

Release date: May 18th, 2010

Pages: 352

Source: YA Addict (for a tour)

Summary:

Torn between two destinies...

Claire is having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and gorgeous Matthew keeps chatting and flirting with her as if she's the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: She's a werewolf.

As Claire is initiated into the pack of female werewolves, she must deal not only with her changing identity, but also with a rogue werewolf who is putting everyone she knows in danger. Claire's new life threatens her blossoming romance with Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt. Now burdened with a dark secret and pushing boundaries of forbidden love, Claire is struggling to feel comfortable in either skin. With her lupine loyalty at odds with her human heart, she will make a choice that will changer her forever....

Review: Claire de Lune was nothing like what I expected, but in a great way.

At first, I was a bit perplexed that everyone seemed to know about the werewolves, but I kind of liked how Johnson really made it her own story that way. There's a bit of romance mixed into the story, which definitely complicates Claire's life even more. Despite the werewolf aspect, it seemed to be fairly realistic, which kind of caught me off guard.

The beginning starts out with Claire learning that she's a werewolf, and her struggle with this new part of herself (the physical change, keeping it a secret, et cetera). Claire definitely didn't ask for this, and it was easy to see that at first she was so upset about it all. Claire is a very likable protagonist, and I found it easy to relate to her.

The plot moves along nicely, keeping the suspense rolling as to who is attacking people in the town, while Claire struggles with all her different relationships (friends, love interest, et cetera). At times, a bit more action would have been nice, but overall, Claire de Lune was spectacular.

Highlights: There were plenty of mysterious moments, and the description was wonderful. I loved the moments that Claire was changing into a werewolf, they were always so intriguing. I couldn't help myself but to keep flipping the pages, curious as to what would happen next, so this is definitely a great aspect to the story and the writing. I really loved the relationships in this novel as well, especially the moments between Claire and her mother, when they really (and finally) started to understand one another as the barriers between them fell.

Lowlights: I felt like the rogue werewolf was presented very obviously (which bothers me, because I usually love the guessing game where I keep switching ideas of who it is), and I also really disliked how some of the pack members weren't fully delved into. I honestly kept forgetting about the other pack members entirely, which is such a shame since I really enjoyed reading about the pack. 

As a whole, I really, really enjoyed the story and hope that Johnson's next one it just as incredible!

Rating:       

Lea