Under the Light of a Full Moon has been on my kindle a while, but I don’t know where it came from. If I got it as a freebie, thank you. If I got it as a Read4Review, thank you also, and apologies, but then again, this is an honest and hopefully fair review. But it contains spoilers, because … well you’ll see why.
Under the Light of a Full Moon
by D A McGrath
Meet Clara. An ordinary girl with an extraordinary secret…
Clara doesn’t think she’s special, until she starts having terrifying nightmares and hearing voices in the night. Then her great aunt, Selina, tells Clara something incredible. Clara’s a shape-shifter. But with this extraordinary, inherited gift comes a dangerous curse.
Clara thinks Selina’s crazy and dismisses her great aunt’s warnings but, no matter how hard she tries, the curse cannot be escaped.
Will Clara accept her fate and learn to control her new powers? Will she conquer the threats triggered by the curse – to her friendships, her sanity and, ultimately, her life?
‘Under the Light of a Full Moon’ is D.A. McGrath’s first book in the ‘Full Moon’ series. Introducing a captivating new hero in a thrilling fantasy adventure. [goodreads]
My Review
Taking a look at the Goodreads page when I was updating my reading progress I spotted the ‘Amazon best-selling author’ and thought: what on earth was a publisher thinking of, letting this one through when there are so many better ones in his or her slush pile. Taking another look just now, and I realise it is self-published. And as a first book, I should be kind, since my first ones needed a lot of improvement too.
The premise is a good one: Clara turns 13 and discovers she’s shape-shifter, and not only that, but the most powerful one in the family for generations. The author does an excellent job on the shape-shifting elements: both the ‘how to do it’ and the experience once one is in animal form. Making ‘getting back’ difficult is an excellent tweak. This part of the story is gripping, enticing, and makes you really empathise with Clara, especially as a swan or horse.
Two things spoil it for me: the writing of everything else, and particularly the home life, is stilted and clunky. Too much detail; too much irrelevant (or repetitive) minutiae about the family and friend.
The second thing is: well, imagine reading Harry Potter and book 1 ends after he’s been sorted into Gryffindor. Or perhaps learned to ride a broomstick? I don’t think it quite gets as far as the first Quidditch match.
Basically, very little happens, and if it was more exciting, it would be a cliffhanger. As it is, it ends. More to come. Thanks, but no thanks. Sorry. You could try using a professional editor and cutting the dross to combine the first three books, if there’s a story arc in them. But not a cliff-hanger.
This series, Full Moon, has such promise. It’s a shame I won’t be reading any more.
Book Review | Under the Light of a Full Moon #AtoZChallenge2021; Very promising start to a series… but stops just as it really gets going. Imagine Harry Potter book 1 ending before the Quidditch match. #shapeshifting #mglit Share on X