Title: Blue Moon
Series: Scare This!, #2
Author: Megan Slayer
Genre: Paranormal / Halloween
Length: Short Story (44 pages)
Publisher: MLR Press (November 1st, 2014)
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥2.5-3 Hearts
Blurb: The ghost at my door claims to be my ex-boyfriend, back from the dead. Yeah, right.
Two years ago on October 31st, my world fell apart and I know it’ll never be fixed. No ghost can ease my broken heart and bring my boyfriend back to me. None. Now there’s a ghost at my door claiming to be Tristan. I don’t believe it. Ghosts don’t exist—or do they?
Have I mentioned it’s Halloween? I hate Halloween.
ISBN: MLR-1-02014-0316
Product Link: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=MSBLUEMN
Reviewer: Thommie
Review: Once upon a time, he was madly in love. He had dreams and a life filled to the brim with joy. He shared his favorite Halloween with his lover in their own special way, as it was their own special holyday. Once upon a time, he was a whole man.
Now Paul is merely going by each day trying to go by each day without his beloved. Now he simply exists without any plans for a future that was taken away from him rather brutally. Now his special holiday is his bane… Tristan is dead and never coming back no matter how much he wishes it. No one can change reality after all…
First thing I noticed about this book is the storytelling. How smooth the language flows and how easily I got the feeling that I just inserted Paul’s mind (our MC). However, though the writing style was smooth, I didn’t feel the pain or the grand emotions I thought I ought to feel. How weird is that? I ought to feel the shock and pain and distrust emanating from Paul, right? Wrong! I completely missed them and that was a bit disappointed, but trust me when I say that the final line in the first chapter had me popping up goose-bumps all over and have my jaw hanging open for a couple of minutes, because that was the moment when shock hit me big time. Sadly, it didn’t last long.
Tristan’s PoV – the other MC aka the ghost – the very next chapter came and with it brought so much more on the plate. Enter the paranormal world where not only ghosts but also demons and angels, Heaven and Hell exist too. Basically, this is a deal-with-the-devil-gone-wrong story set in the Halloween period. I’m still confused about the deal with Halloween here but I won’t delve much on that.
There is one big problem with this story for me; you have this guy whose lover died and suddenly said lover is standing right in front of him telling him that he’s real and that they should start celebrating Halloween… And here I am thinking, “F#@$ Halloween mate, the dead lover is freaking back. HELLO!!!! Either go on a mental crisis already or screw his brains out, what celebration and what Holiday?”
And while I’m not much of a drama reader (I detest it truth be told) I kept thinking that Paul ought to have had a complete meltdown crying and screaming and grabbing at his dead lover with such fierceness that he might have endangered his well being, if of course you could do that to a ghost. Is my way of thinking wrong..? Don’t answer that!
Anyhow, there is some little drama but it’s always meshed up with the “you have to believe and like Halloween again” thingy, confusing the hell out of me for the biggest part of the read.
But beside the plot that was somewhat disappointing, because I totally expected the demon to show up and make a Hellish scene and that didn’t happen, this is not your ordinary Halloween story. Yes, it’s set on the holiday, but it felt as if the setting was just a prop, as if it was there just for the sake of making this plot a bit more credible. And as love-stories go by, I’ve certainly read better ones. Not that this wasn’t sweet and hot, or passionate even, but I just felt the lack of that once in a lifetime/forever ever after love that this was meant to be.
Bottom end if you expect a high-tension Halloween dramatic love-story my personal opinion is that this will disappoint you. But if you don’t mind a bit of a slower in intensity, and sweeter in general terms love-story with the “even Death shan’t take us apart” theme, then go ahead, and knock yourself out, this is definitely the story for you.