Spring Moon

by Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Spring Moon is pretty darn awesome! It's definitely not just another YA paranormal book. It follows Indiana Teller (yep, he's named after Indiana Jones) as he struggles to find his place in werewolf society and the human world, and as he develops a very rare power that he has. Despite being born into the most powerful family of werewolves, Indiana is just human. However, there was the possibility that he'd become a time-tracker like his mother. But at the age of eighteen, his grandparents have essentially given up on him since he hasn't displayed any paranormal abilities, and they let him go off to college. Unfortunately for Indiana, college doesn't let him escape from werewolf politics. There's a war brewing as another werewolf challenges his grandfather to be the Lord of Wolves, and Indiana happens to go to school with his son.

I wasn't sure about Spring Moon in the beginning. I was excited about the idea of werewolves and time travel, but that doesn't really pick up until later. The first several chapters are a huge info-dump as Indiana gives us a run through of his entire life story. While it was nice to get so much information about the world and our narrator, it was a bit too much all at once, and I kept wondering about who Indiana is now. There's also way too many details that weren't necessary. We get the ages, heights, weights, hair color, and eye color for just about everyone in Indiana's family. I don't know why we needed to know all this. I also noticed a few inconsistencies, such as Indiana mentioning that his hair is blonde with black tips, then later it's red like his mother, then back to being blonde. He also says he knows nothing about fashion, and yet he knows about lamé dresses and snoods. Kind of strange. This all may be due to me reading an ARC, but it didn't effect my enjoyment of the book anyway.

One thing that stood out to me about Spring Moon was that it combines a lot of really interesting elements and puts a spin on a few typical YA tropes. I'll start with the romance. Indiana immediately falls in love with a human girl, Katerina, when he gets to the university. Yeah, yeah, I know, insta-love is lame. But he doesn't act on it. He's forbidden from being with a human, because it's still possible that his dormant wolf genes can pass on if he mates with a she-wolf. Indiana and Katerina become great friends though. There's also the issue of Tyler, who is the son of the wolf trying to take over. I expected him to be a super jerk, since his father is evil and all, but nope. He's pretty normal, but he's also in love with Katerina, so there is some rivalry there. A love triangle where our narrator isn't the center? Amazing! Also, Katerina has no idea about anything paranormal, and she doesn't randomly become the most awesome paranormal being ever. She's just a human girl, trying to get her degree.

The werewolf war plot is the focus of Spring Moon, which was a little disappointing since I wanted to know more about Indiana's time-tracker abilities. His ability does come out as a result of stress from the war though. I didn't really get a sense of how it works, but we do learn a bit about it when it comes to Indiana's mother. But the plot was still engaging. The last quarter of the book is really intense and action packed as all of the evil plans and betrayals come out. Werewolves have extremely strict laws in place and a quite extensive history, so there's a lot going on as laws are broken and history seems to be repeating itself. There is a major twist at the end, and a cliffhanger, so I can't wait to see what happens next!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.