I'm going to make this easy for you. This was probably the best book I've read so far in 2015. There- I said it. This book completely ate my brain! I've been a Kele Moon fan for what seems like forever and I LOVE the Battered Hearts series so much- it's not even funny.
I remember reading the first book (Defying the Odds) in that series and someone on GR said (in a nutshell) "Oh you just wait, it gets better with the next book". AND IT DID! To this day, Starcrossed is one of my all-time favorite books. I have a signed copy of it on my bookshelf that I stare at lovingly. ;)
So- about The Slayer. The main thing I loved about this book was that Ms. Moon completely took her time to tell Chuito and Alaine's story. No corners were cut in telling their story and I was totally enveloped into their world and their story. I've always used Starcrossed as the bar for which all I measured all of Ms. Moon's books. At some point in this one, I freaked out because it was THAT GOOD. You know that feeling you get when you realize that you're reading a book that just blows you away and that you just cannot put it down? Yeah, that was me and this book.
Ms. Moon goes all the way back to the beginning of Chuito's Alaine's relationship/friendship and I really appreciated the dense history she provides for them. Chu and Alaine's relationship is somewhat complicated by Chu- more than anything. Chu is punishing himself by being in Garnet and Alaine represents everything he feels he does not deserve. It's obvious that Chu and Alaine love each other very much but Chu holds himself at arms length from Alaine. Until they cannot deny it anymore and then you have to wonder how in the world they will make it all work. How will they combine their two worlds? Chu, a former gangbanger/MMA fighter and Alaine a preacher's daughter...
Alaine is a GREAT female MC. She broke away from her family and is living her life by her own rules. I loved her fortitude and her unrelenting belief in the goodness of Chuito. She is drawn to him immediately, she sees him as a man who needs care and and is worthy of love. They create a world of their own in their apartments and they grow from friends to so much more. As they bonded over eating together and hanging out. Not to mention THE DANCING. OMG, the dancing is as sexy as the sexytimes and let's face it, Ms. Moon can set the page on fire.
Can we just talk about TINO and NOVA?!!! ( We meet Tino and Nova in Starcrossed)
Holy shit. I love these guys. LOVE. We get a massively huge bromance with Chu and Tino and I loved their relationship. We are also treated to learning a lot about Tino, his motivation, his role in the Moretti family etc.
Due the book going back a few years, we get appearances from the whole Garnet crew and we get some behind the scenes stuff from previous books that I enjoyed.
NOVA. While I'm on pins and needles about Tino's book (coming next) I don't think I can adequately express how bad I want Nova's book. I can't even quantify it. In fact, I don't want to think about how long I have to wait for it.
So yeah. I loved it.
Excerpt and giveaway on the blog.