Moonshadow (Moonshadow, #1)

by Thea Harrison

[EBookObsessed]

Thea Harrison never disappoints. This spinoff from her Elder Races series brings the same talent and magic as all her previous book and introduces us to a wonderful new cast of characters.

If you love Thea Harrison's Elder Races series, you will squee with joy over these new characters. If you haven't given Thea Harrison a try, there is no time like now to grab a copy. These are new characters with no cross-over to the Elder Races series but the same world-building. After you finish, you will kick yourself for waiting so long.

Thea takes us to Europe for this new series and the centuries old battle between the Light and Dark Courts. It appears that the Queen of the Light Court has a screw loose but the leader of her army is a powerful wizard by the name of Morgan and he enforces all her crazy orders to destroy the Dark Court passageways and leave their knights stranded here so he can hunt them down one by one. (We met Morgan very briefly in Pia Goes to Hollywood.)

Almost a century ago as the Light and Dark Court Knights battled, Morgan managed to collapse every crossover passage to the Dark Court kingdom in the otherland, trapping Nikolas Sevigny and his knights here with no way to get home. As the years passed, with no way to get reinforcements, Nikolas's troops have dwindled down to only nine remaining, and they are currently all in hiding since their magic signature grows the longer they remain together making them an easy target for Morgan and his werewolves. But after all this time, Nikolas might have just found them a safe haven with Sophie Ross.

Sophie has been offered an opportunity of a lifetime to go to the U.K. and claim an English Estate. On the Boarder of England and Wales, there is an estate which was built on a collapsed crossover passage, and if she can get into the Old Weston Manor house, she will inherit the estate, the land, and a trust to take care of the Estate and still give her a livable income. The only catch is she has to get into the house. A feat which no one has been able to accomplish in almost a century.

The house fluctuates between this dimension and the otherland and although you can touch it, it is never entirely in one dimension. Sophie believes that her mixed blood, part human and part other(?), will allow her to get in. When she literally runs into Nik and he learns about Sophie's interesting property, he plans to use her to give his men the first feeling of safety they have had in decades. Sophie is well aware of Nik's plan, but the kindhearted person she is, she can't turn away these men.

Sophie and Nik butt heads constantly in this story. Nik has become so used to not trusting anyone and fighting every day against the Light Court, he doesn't know diplomacy any more. He makes decisions and gives orders and that doesn't fly well with a woman like Sophie. She constantly stands up to his pushy ways. That's what I loved most about her. Where most romances the heroine eventually gives the hero a pass on his domineering way considering it "just his way" or deciding he simply knows better, Sophie never relents in letting Nik know when he is being a pushy asshole. I am currently reading a story from another favorite author of mine and after meeting Sophie, I am getting pissed off that my new heroine keeps jumping every time the hero snaps his fingers. Ugh!

Anyone who reads my reviews knows that I love my wounded heroes and while in this story, it is not Nikolas, there is a small creature from the Dark Court named Robin who is called "the puck" (a type of shape-shifting lesser fae) who can control nature, and he was captured by the Light Court Queen and tortured for a long, long time. And it is Sophie's kindness that rescued him and nursed him back to health. It is the first kindness he has experienced in such a long time and her fierce protection meant so much to him. His loyalty and love for her shows deeply in this story (3 love him!). I am certain he will be back for more of this series.

Fans of Thea Harrison will delight in the new characters introduced in Moonshadow and I can't wait to see what comes next.