Loved this. Lots of twists and turns, and I’m looking forward to reading the next books to figure out the mystery. I feel like there might have been even more backstory in other books not read, but it didn’t deter me from loving seeing Julia and Lucian fall in love. ( )

Oh boy. I can honestly say that Moonlight Sins was not at all what I was expecting. Going into it, I was intrigued by the premise and wooed by the promise of another stunning Jennifer L. Armentrout novel. I have read several of Armentrout's YA novels and truly enjoyed them, so when I saw the de Vincent trilogy at my library I figured I'd give it a shot. Again, it wasn't really what I expected. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the book - I did - just not as much as I hoped to.

The first book in the de Vincent series centers around the family's youngest brother, Lucian, whom the tabloids have not-so-affectionately nicknamed Lucifer. He's an all-around major player and a jerk to boot. Enter Julia, a nurse who is uncharacteristically looking for a new adventure and finds it in the form of in-patient care for the de Vincent's sister who has mysteriously reappeared after vanishing into thin air ten years ago.

This honestly read to me like a murder-mystery with a dash of romance and a sprinkling of paranormal. Although Julia and Lucian's relationship continues to develop throughout the course of the book, the book itself seemed to focus pretty heavily on the strange and often unsettling goings-on in the de Vincent mansion. I can say that the presence of such an interesting mystery did keep me invested in the book and eager to see where the remaining two books of the series would go. Julia and Lucian's relationship could definitely be classified as a "slow burn" and that made it a little hard for me to push through. I appreciated the plot twist but was also anticipating it, so it didn't feel as much like a big reveal as it did a natural conclusion.

In the end, although the HEA felt a little rushed and the plot twist slightly anticlimactic, I really did enjoy the book and the look into the de Vincent's messy family dynamic. I'm definitely hooked enough that I want to see how the series concludes. ( )

Not sure what I wanted in this story. It was a solid read, but I wanted more- again, not sure if it was more in the mystery part or the connection between the leads or more gothic scariness, but I wanted more... and yes, Veruca Salt is my inner diva. ;] ( )

mystery ( )

I have to say that this book really grew on me, though I'm not all that sure that that's saying much. About forty pages in, I was actually thinking about not finishing it--really, I was that annoyed with it. A bit part of that was the narrator feeling more like a sorority girl than an adult--I just about threw the book across the room when 'rando' and 'convo' were used not in dialogue, but in the narrative, and that still drives me nuts when I think about it. But, slowly, my annoyance faded and it got better.

I do think the marketing was off--I expected this to be a much darker read, and more gothic or spooky, than it actually was--but as a contemporary romance, it grew on me and I really ended up enjoying it. The characters also grew on me. I still feel as if the heroine was written really young (too young) in most scenes, really wherever she wasn't working, but the chemistry and the romance itself was written well enough that I could mostly ignore that. That said, there also seemed to be some odd aging issues with Lucian--he came across as older and far more interesting when he wasn't with Julia, and seemed almost to regress in age when he was with her. In some ways, maybe that makes sense, but a lot of the scenes between the two of them felt like they were written as if the two of them were closer to 18 than adults, so... I don't know.

In the end, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't what I expected (from the description Or the cover, both of which seem quite a bit darker than the book), and I'm not sure that the strengths are actually strong enough to bring me back for the next book in the series.

I might recommend this to contemporary romance or billionaire romance readers, but I'd warn any readers that the spookiness/darkness suggested by the cover and blurb really aren't to be found in the story itself. ( )