Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson

Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson
Buy Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Loralei Haylock
Summary: Light and romantic, with just enough action and suspense to keep the pace up. A perfect, if familiar, bit of escapist reading.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 352	Date: August 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books
ISBN: 978-1847389282
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Claire was having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Okay, so most of the people probably only turned up for her swimming pool, her hands and ears were itching like crazy and everyone had to leave early because of the werewolf sighting in the forest nearby. But all Claire cared about was Matthew Engle, talking to her and flirting with her and promising to call her later. Then her mother takes her into the woods and reveals a dark and dangerous secret – she and Claire are werewolves. Everything Claire thought she knew about werewolves is wrong, but how can she continue to see Matthew, whose father is leading the hunt for them?

Then a rogue werewolf starts committing grisly murders, threatening the peaceful way of pack life and risking exposure for all the werewolves. When Claire finds herself at the centre of the plot she's forced to make the choice between her pack and her heart.

Ah, here we go again. Teen discovers supernatural side. Said teen loves human boy. Trouble ensues.

We've been here before, many a time, and we'll likely be here again. Claire De Lune falls into all the tropes of Teen Urban Fantasy so neatly, reading it is like picking up an old favourite. And that doesn't have to be a bad thing.

There's enough going on here that's original to keep the interest up. Claire is an engaging and believable character, whose struggles to balance her new life and her old will strike a chord with any who have moved house or changed schools. The take on werewolf mythology is different enough – the idea of it being a matriarchal society is a nice twist – and there's a lovely balance of antagonism from both the supernatural and the normal. Claire struggles to relate to her best friend, has issues with her mother, loves a boy whose father wants to kill her and the only person she can turn to she is repeatedly warned is a dangerous influence.

All this amounts to a book that is similar to many others out there, but enjoyable all the same. It annoys me slightly that a lot of authors writing these books don't take risks to be completely original. There were hints of something darker going on in this book that at the end amounted to nothing at all – something fairly ordinary dismissed in a couple of lines. The average reader looking for a light beach read probably won't even notice, but I'm always looking for that spark that will make this sort of book worthy of the full five stars, not just four.

Overall, an entertaining read perfect for getting away from it all for a few hours. Light and romantic, with just enough action and suspense to keep the pace up.

My thanks to the publisher for sending a copy.

Fans of urban fantasy should check out Strange Angels by Lili St Crow and The Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine. You might enjoy Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon although we found it a little light.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson at Amazon.com.

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