CT Adams & Cathy Clamp - Hunter's Moon

Sue Quentin has reached the end of her rope-she's desperate, and there's only one way out. Her plan doesn't include falling for Tony, the mysterious hit man she hires. He listens when she speaks and somehow convinces her that maybe her problems aren't entirely insurmountable. He even thinks her little potbelly is sexy. So he's a werewolf--everyone has flaws!
Sue enjoys being coddled by Tony, and, for his part, Tony likes the way Sue moans when he touches her. She begins to think she and Tony might have a shot at a future together, despite his unorthodox profession . . . and even though she doesn't know his real name.
But when Tony's enemies-not all of whom are fully human-decide Sue makes a perfect target, will Tony risk letting his darker side out during the day to save her?

Comment: As I've said before in other posts, I'm trying to go through some of the books which have been the longest in the pile, and this is another one of those. Therefore, this is another story I got around the time the hype was on PNR and I found most stories in the genre appealing.

When this paranormal romance begins, werewolf Tony is about to meet a potential client and when he sees her he is eager to find out why such a woman, who clearly is not used to blend in, might require the service of an assassin. Then he realizes he knows her, she is the woman who had won the lottery a while back, and he imagines she might need to make someone disappear, perhaps someone trying to steal her or something, but is dumbfounded when she claims she wants him to kill her.

Suzi "Sue" Quentin has a miserable life, and it was already this way before she won the money. Her family members don't respect her, and even worse, abuse her good will and her time, but she doesn't have the courage to stand up or to tell them to stay out of her business, so she comes up with this idea of organizing her death, to be rid of them. However, this assassin is certainly a fascinating man and the longer they talk and spend some time together, the more at ease she feels with him... then, it seems time flies and it's almost full moon, which changes everything for the two of them...

At first, I was actually quite engaged, the premise is interesting and kind of new to me, someone planning to be killed and hiring an assassin is not that common, and I was also interested in the fact that this was told in first person, but from the hero's POV. I've said before first person romance isn't usually something I like that much, but in this situation, the guy being the one telling us things would give everything a different perspective.

As the first chapters went on, things seemed interesting and when the paranormal element came up I was curious about what was happening because Tony is the narrator and he is a werewolf and at some point he was about to change without enough time to warn Sue and what would happen after? From then on, things took a much more predictable path, romance wise, for it was obvious the weird but quick emotional connection they establish when they meet can only mean one thing, and any PNR reader would recognize the fact they are supposed to be mates.

Well, as things developed, I was less intrigued with what came after that beginning because of two main reasons. First, it seemed there was too much going on, bot related to Sue's family life, and with Tony's assassin status, and there were moments where I felt confused by the sequence of events and by secondary characters who seemed to come out of nowhere. Then, the main reason why this stopped being interesting to me, and why I only finished for curiosity's sake, was the fact Tony is involved or was raised by or whatever with Mafia type people. I really dislike this theme/content in books. Organized mafias or groups which deal in shady/illegal business don't appeal at all.

The story then become a mix of miscommunication and failed plans, both from the protagonists and the ones around them, and I confess I sometimes lost my concentration. It was also a little annoying that Sue was not evolving as I imagined. I thought meeting Tony, entering his sphere of life would help her improve her self esteem and her need to get the backbone she claims she doesn't have, but it wasn't that simple and we kept on having her interactions with her family remaining the same. Sue's mother wants to control her and pretends she is sick. Sue knows it, others around them know it, and instead of doing something, Sue lets the situation stay the same.

We also earn Sue's sister abuses Sue's goodwill to babysit, to do things she never agreed with but that her sister planned, and so on. I can understand that some people have different personalities and some are more gullible or less confident and let themselves be manipulated or sometimes can't see it. But Sue was aware of all these things, she had money, she had enough independence to look for Tony, but she couldn't make any decision to not be at the beck and call of her abusive family members? I think this element of the story could have be done differently because, psychologically, some combination of action and reaction didn't ,make sense for this scenario.

The romance started to become a little annoying because dealing with their personal stuff made it look as if they weren't in sync anymore and I felt annoyed myself at Sue's constant need for Tony to help. I can accept the mating thing in these novels, but in this situation I started to think how really balanced would their relationship be even when the problems would be gone. Since the plot seemed to go towards situations I wasn't interested in, I didn't finish with the same eagerness I had when I started, no.

I also felt the existence of werewolves wasn't explained properly. It seemed as if the information came from somewhere but while at first this was necessary to set up the development, as things progressed, I got the idea that wasn't that important,perhaps. Apparently, there are several types of shape shifters, they call themselves Sazi, but when a characters was trying to talk about this to Tony, it was during the Mafia related situations and i wasn't paying enough attention. I thought to myself, if the story had been about the main couple and they discovering about the Sazi, perhaps this would be more appealing to me (Tony didn't know there were other types of shifters).

Well, all things considered, this "world" had enough interesting elements which weren't developed as I imagined, but I did like a few things. However, the plot choices and the slowness in which Sue started to want to make decisions for herself brought the grade down for me. I don't think I will continue the series.

Grade: 5/10