Gina Farago

Rating: 4.0
Genre: Dark Fantasy, with slight Romance involved.

Ivy Cole and the Moon by Gina Farago is a much different story than I was expecting. The story starts out at a slow pace, but that is not always a bad thing. If you allow yourself time to actually take in the world building, and the characters that are introduced to you, you will find that this is a pretty decent story that straddles the line of between dark fantasy and PNR. THe last half of this story is filled with tension and suspense as the characters find themselves being driven together by the villian of the story.

You will definitely need to understand the background story behind why Ivy has become judge, jury and executioner and why she is back home living in Doe Springs, North Carolina where her family was originally from after all the years of being away so that you can understand what drives her. Farago does a wonderful job of interweaving Ivy’s background into the story along with her present circumstances.

The people she goes after are not nice people at all. Do they deserve to die? We can sit here and debate that until the cows come home but the answer is yes they do. Ivy ends up being called the Devil of Doe Springs much to her chagrin and that is only the start of her problems as she becomes the focus of the investigation by the Sheriff’s department under Gloria Hubbard.

Ivy was not born a werewolf. She had the unfortunate circumstance as a child of being bitten by her nanny who was having an affair with her father at the time. The nanny hoped that Ivy would wake up one day and they would become the family that the nanny was never able to have. The reality is, in fact, so much different. Ivy realizes from the very beginning that the nanny was responsible for her mother’s death and makes it her mission in life to pay her back and anyone else who may have benefited from it. Thankfully Ivy has the support of her German Uncle Stefan and Aunt Pritchard who lives in Doe Springs.

Ivy does have a romantic entanglement in this story with Deputy Melvin Sanders so it doesn’t end up being a true dark fantasy novel. Of course, Ivy has too many secrets that become exposed over the course of the sheriff’s investigation of the four deaths on full moon nights to actually expect that her relationship will last. Even her Aunt tells her she should be looking toward her own kind instead of messing around with a human.

This is the first book by Ms. Farago that I’ve read, and I do plan on reading Luna which was released in 2008, and is the sequel to Ivy Cole and the Moon as soon as I can find it. Yes, this book does leave open for a sequel as well as a few other questions especially regarding the fate of Melvin.

Only real complaint: I don't like the back and forth between the characters. I would have preferred if the story had focused on Ivy and her trials and tribulations, and maybe threw in the villains POV to show how they are on a collison course which he had set up.… (meer)