The Mayfair Moon: The Darkwoods Trilogy (The Darkwoods Trilogy, #1)

by J. A. Redmerski

• ISBN10: 1468185527
• ISBN13: 9781468185522
• Publish Date: 6 January 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 314
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

The Mayfair Moon is a pretty typical, YA Paranormal Romance. There are no real surprises here, which makes me sad, since I generally really enjoy this author's books and often can't tell the directions things will take. It did start off strong. Adria's sister wants them to leave home. Alex is 18 now, but sticks around for Adria, because their stepfather is unpredictable. Then one night, the girls are attacked in the woods. A neighbor was convinced it was their stepfather, so CPS stepped in, and Adria was sent to live with their uncle. Alex came with her, but she's not the same girl as she was before that night.

I really liked how the beginning of The Mayfair Moon was focused on the sisters' relationship. It was obvious that they were super close and watched out for each other. Then Adria has to deal with these changes in Alex that she just doesn't understand. They were both attacked by something, but Adria didn't withdraw from the world. She's not needlessly cruel to their aunt and uncle. But Alex is and she refuses to talk about it. Adria tries really hard to get Alex to open up and to help, but nothing helps. I thought all of this was really well done. But then Alex runs off with her creepy boyfriend and Adria gets caught up in a romance as well.

The romance in The Mayfair Moon is basically insta-love. Adria has a crush on Isaac Mayfair, even though she's never talked to him. She thinks he's hot, but she can tell something is off about him. Not to mention that girls literally hang all over him and he acts aloof about it. This seemed fairly realistic. I'm sure we've all developed some kind of feelings for someone based on their looks. But then suddenly, Adria and Isaac are together and in love. When did that happen?! I have no clue. I must have blinked and skipped a paragraph somewhere. Then it turns into the whole "I don't want to live without you, but my humanity is a hindrance, but I don't really want to change, but I'll change for you even though you don't want to change me!" Sound familiar?

The Mayfair Moon was just okay. It started off really well with the sisterly bond, but I wasn't as into the romance which dominated the second half. The werewolves are kind of interesting, but there's really nothing new here except that the females are the stronger of the sexes, even though they're rare (like always). I don't think I'm invested enough in these characters or the plot to care what comes next, although I am hoping Adria goes back to trying to help Alex now that's she settled into her relationship and Isaac may be of some use.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[nitzan_schwarz]

To read this review and more pop by my blog, Drugs Called Books

It's more like 2.75.

This book was a major disappointment to me. I heard so much good things about it, from people whose opinion I hold in high regards, and it disappointed in almost every aspect.

THE WRITING
I will start with Redmerski's writing style, because there lay the main problem I had with the book; I hated it. It made me cringe at parts, and for me it didn't flow, caught in my ear and was simply awful. I sometimes wondered if I were reading the same book my friends did, because they flattered Redmerski's writing, whereas I hated every bit of it.
The writing got easier to ignore the more I got into the plot, and I do feel like it got better when things began to happen, but it was a major turnoff and the main reason it took me three days to read the first 20% of the book.
Also, the writing took the edge of parts. Like in the beginning the werewolf attack. As a reader, that was not scary at all, which is a shame. It's something that obviously had great impact on the characters, so I would've liked to be able to understand it. Instead, all I could think about was that they were acting over dramatic...
I will say there were parts I liked, mostly the description of the change to a werewolf and some of the fight descriptions in the end. There, I said it, I didn't not hate it 100%.

THE PLOT
Was nothing unique. It was Twilight without the vampires, only the werewolves, in a way.
You've got the whole moving to a new city, not being used to the climate there, dreading being the new girl, wishing no one will force her to introduce herself, falling in love with one of the guys who are "different" than the rest of us, being introduced into his life and family--and not being liked by all of them. Finding out he's not human and that his family is kind of amazing, and that the bad guy is interested in her because there is something about her (she might not smell like a delicacy, but she smells of controlled power instead, apparently...)
Yep, Twilight-ish. Of course it's not Twilight because they're werewolves instead, duh!
But... yeah, you get my point - don't you?

THE CHARACTERS
Adria - I didn't like nor hate this character, she was just... meh. I really disliked her "voice" at first because it felt so nonchalant and indifferent when she was talking about the fact she basically lived in an abusive home!
I also kind of disliked the whole; "I never do anything to make myself look pretty but I guess I'm doing something right because no one ever accused me of being ugly... can't imagine what, though!" I can't really explain it, but I almost felt... insulted by this attitude.
Her logic made no sense at times. Like that one time she concluded Ashes and his brother knew Alex because they called her Alexandra... Um, sweety? If someone looks you up - they'll find your given name - not the one you tell your buddies to call you. I would've been much more surprised if they knew to call her Alex...
Then there was the whole thing of deciding Issac was a jerk because... he was surprised she was at his home? Said she shouldn't be there? Just based on that? I could understand her man-slut comment--it didn't look pretty bad for him--but the jerk thing?
And I hated what she did with Issac, the whole telling him she'd never ask him to Turn her, than two chapters later telling his she'd ask his brother to! WTH girl? At least Bella was upfront with Edward from the beginning!
But for the most of the book, I felt nothing toward her. Just... indifference on my end.
Issac - after this Adria rant, it's time to move to our leading man - Issac. His was a character that felt completely flat for me. To me, it was like he had no personality. Just a cupboard character, which is such a big shame.
Because he felt this way to me, I can't really tell you much more on him.

It's funny, but the characters I liked most in this story are Harry and Zia, the best friends of Adria.

THE ROMANCE
To sum it up quickly; their romance held little appeal to me. It wasn't good, it wasn't bad.
There was't much reason for them to fall in love. And on the one hand that bothered me, and on the other... it didn't.
Bet you're wondering how that works. Easy; in a corner of my mind a voice nagged at me, saying 'he loves her? really? why? what did I miss?' but that voice was so far away because I simply couldn't bring myself to care. I was completely indifferent about it all. Even my usual hatred for romances with lack of development couldn't bring me to care enough about this book to be outraged.
I couldn't even summon my usual disbelief about the way Adria behaved like she was his girlfriend when she met him twice. It was just liked; yeah, whatever.

THE ENDING
I did like the fact the author chose to end it on such a note; a sentence that makes you think so much about what's to come, a sort of cliffhanger. It reminded me of the ending of Existence, which coincidentally is the only thing I like about that book, in which Dank (I didn't make up that name! blame the author of Existence!) suddenly tells us Leif (another name I didn't make up) is not human.

THE COVER
One thing I can say for this book, is that it has a gorgeous cover. I love how you find more details about it the more you look; like how at first they're just a couple, but when you look closer you suddenly realize something about his hand is... strange. And then you see the claws.

THE RATING
Clearly, I'm not enthusiastic about this book. I still decided to do something I usually don't do and put this book at three stars on Goodreads instead of two, as I usually round down. This book was not good. It was not bad, either - a sentence you might notice repeats a lot in this review.
Some parts of this book I liked, like the battle in the end, and the ending, and some dialogues in between. Most of the book I was indifferent about, but I could see that had more to do with the fact I disliked the writing style than anything else. Truthfully, I think I might've liked this book if someone else wrote it, as weird as it may sound. The writing put me off so much, and I could understand how someone not bothered by the writing will like it, and so--despite not liking this book--I felt bad for it, and felt like it didn't belong with the rest two-stars, so I decided to round up.

IN CONCLUSION
This book was not good, and not bad. It was just kind of... meh. I disliked the writing style, and it took me three days to read the first 20% of the book. In general, the writing made it difficult for me to hold the book for long.
But I could see the appeal of this book and could say that had it been written differently, I might've liked it, and so - I gave it 2.75 stars.