Book Review: Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff

'Lo People,




I am so overdue for this review. You ever read a book or watch a movie where you were yelling at the main character? Grrl what are you doing? Yup. Becca Thornton did that me. I remember hearing about the book from the author. I'm definitely in the target audience being perimenopausal, a female, and a fang-carrying, lifelong member of the shifter tribe. I am down with the Werefolk. And I'm heteroflexible enough that I can enjoy lesbian characters discovering themselves. Her Tangh-i-ness's motto is be who you be. Love is Love. Anyhoo….


I appreciate Silver Moon too for offering a different vision of femaleness. Too often, the woman as a warrior, or even viewed as an elder, as a social force driven to protect and nuture takes a second stage to Romantic entanglement. There is light Romance in Silver Moon. There's also an interesting depiction of the poison of self-hate.


8/20 Update: (The character has been renamed. The writer is a true ally. She understood why the adjustment was needed and took action)

My one quibble with the earlier version of Silver Moon had been in the use of a goddess's name for a difficult character. The antagonist took it as their "warrior" name. The character says, "Remember me: I am the wind that brings change."

As someone who is a shrine keeper in a West African tradition, seeing that name in this context just tossed me out of the story just as Voudun practitioners cringe at non-devotees' depiction of their faith I had a reaction. Uhhhh...Ile Ife, we have a problem. Make of my reaction what you will. Please remember the I found the remainder of this story satisfying and absolutely worthy of a re-read.


*Spoiler Alert*


Her Tangh-i-ness greatly appreciates pithy plot summaries. However, for those who must have a virgin reading experience, read no further, and eyeball elsewhere.



*Spoiler Alert End*



Becca works in a hardware store in a town called Wolf's Point, is a member of a local women's club, and is going through the change. She's also feeling feelings for her female neighbor after her divorce from a man. It's Becca's first time considering that she is attracted to her own sex.

Becca learns the women's club she's part of isn't just a case of running with the wolves. The women become wolves. Becca finds this handy when she has to defend a kidnapped boy from a child predator. My girl Becca dispatches the predator human and brings the boy to safety. Yay!

I loved that Shelly Peterson, the Alpha of Wolf's point, was a Native American woman. I loved that Lizzie Blackhawk, Shelly's cousin was the town Deputy. Even the female antagonist with the goddess's name is a Native woman. So can we talk about Erin? "She grinned her slow lazy smile that always made Becca think about cowboys. Cowgirls. Whatever. Maybe it was her neighbor's long lean body or her short-cropped graying hair." So I'm looking at Erin too and I'm liking what I see. Nice to know Becca has good taste. Erin is the love interest by the way.

Becca and her pack have to stand firm against the machinations of the female antagonist and her crew. The crew calls themselves Nesters. Becca even runs away from what she's become and the pack. That lasts two minutes. Becca's running away earns the first of Her Tangh-iness's severe talking tos. Grrrrl, have you lost your mind? Becca returns to Wolf's Point after a think.

Becca meets the female antagonist with the goddess-name and learns the woman believes the women wolves killed her parents. Erin, Shelly, and the rest of the female elders of Wolf's Point and members of the pack show up to welcome Becca back. Lizzie brings Becca to the secret painted cave where the ancient spirits first put the magic into Wolf's Point that transforms its women into wolves. Becca learns she might lose her home to an ex-husband interested in selling it off so he could support himself and a new pregnant wife. The women of Wolf's Point decide to assist her in keeping it and to train her in using her new-found transformative powers.

The Nesters burn the women's club building down. The antagonist with the goddess-name turns out to be another of Shelly and Lizzie's cousins. She also has a drug that can overpower the urge to change into wolves. Complicated. Complicated. Becca commits herself to the fight when she tells Erin, "You're going to make me the best damn werewolf this town has ever seen."

Meeting with the Pack at the secret painted cave sends Becca into a panic attack but Shelly and the others guide Becca through it. Becca can do cool partial transformations: not quite wolf and not quite human and not always on the full moon. Becca makes some poor decisions (which does not include her first kiss with Erin) and earns being put under watch by her Alpha Shelly. The Nesters escalate their efforts to recruit new members by forcibly "changing" them.

Shelly the Alpha disappears. The Nesters have an injectable "cure." Becca finds herself on the receiving end of a needle. The antagonist with the goddess name says, "I see that you were wavering, but I knew we could save you. And we did. We will. You'll see: it'll be better now. We'll keep helping you." Becca gets herself taken prisoner by the Nesters in a bid to find out where they might have stowed Shelly.

She escapes and reunites with the Pack. Becca finds Shelly and Erin. The Pack elders have given Shelly and Erin the means to counter the Nesters effort to halt the change. Becca, Shelly, and Erin return to the cave with the painted walls. Together, they wield the magic to overcome the antagonist with the goddess-name and her male companion. Erin is wounded yet again. Becca finds that although the magic can defined against Nesters, it can't halt the sale of her home. But she could always move in with her next door neighbor Erin couldn't she?

C'mon, this can't be the last we've seen of Becca and the wolf-women of Wolf's Point…. I swear I can hear howling in the distance.


Note: This copy of Silver Moon was a hard copy purchased by the reviewer. Her Tangh-i-ness usually reviews on a for-the-love basis. No lucre has been involved.

Book Review: Night Terrors by John A. Pitts

'Lo People,

Wanna follow around a lesbian female badass with slightly more social skills than Lisbeth Salander of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fame? Hey! I know it's a different genre and there is no hacking in this urban fantasy but, wanna read about what Arha/Tenar/Goha from the Earthsea series might have been like if she did without the skirts, spent more time smithing, and scooted around on 100+ horsepower on a regular basis? Gimme. Gimme.

Also are you the kind of reader who places value on the too-often maligned feminine traits of conferring with others, rather than always going it alone, being indirect, or being concerned with childcare? Can we agree to give a shout out to an Omega wolf who has found a place and pack of her own? Does the majority of a First Person POV mixed with occasional third person sections agree with you? Meet Sarah Beauhall. Or meet her again if you've already been reading.


*Spoiler Alert*

Her Tangh-i-ness greatly appreciates pithy plot summaries. However, for those who must have a virgin reading experience, read no further, and eyeball elsewhere.


*Spoiler Alert End*


What kept me going throughout the book was what was going to happen to Katie. Katie already seemed vulnerable and by the time she collapsed into coma and other people started dying because of the magic unleashed tossed Sarah into the spotlight. Sarah's efforts to save her beloved, to Her Tangh-i-ness, mattered more than the array of helper characters who surrounded Sarah. That's not a snipe, that's an observation. For Her Tangh-i-ness to really sink her teeth into a reading experience, she has to care. Her Tangh-i-ness worried that Sarah might lose Katie. She worried that Sarah would start wanting someone else because it was easier to manage than the grief of not being able to make a difference to Katie's condition.

Okay then. This ain't Her Tangh-i-ness's first foray into the middle of a series because she did not happen to read book 1. However, with this book, this reader read feeling kind of clueless because she did not already know who all these other people were or why Her Tang-i-ness should take notice of them. There were some characters who naturally stood out like Jai Li, Bub, Nidhogg, and Qindra. Jimmy, Katie's brother, took a little longer to get close to or figure out but that was because he had been set up as an antagonist. What would have really knocked this adventure out of the park for me was more time spent with Bowler Hat man. Her Tangh-i-ness truly does appreciate a distinctively dressed villain. By the time Sarah dispatches him, Bowler Hat man had shown promise of joining iconic baddies like Freddie Kruger or Pyramidhead and he was related to Jimmy and Katie. Now I'm getting suspicious. That couldn't have been all there was to Sarah encountering this dude.

Note: This copy of Night Terrors was an electronic edition provided by the author. Her Tangh-i-ness usually reviews on a for-the-love basis. No lucre has been involved.

Book Review: Bone Walker Book 2 Free Court of Seattle Series by Angela Korra'ti

Yeah, Peoples, Her Tangh-i-ness has something to say again. Listen up.

*Spoiler Alert*

Her Tangh-i-ness greatly appreciates pithy plot summaries. However, for those who must have a virgin reading experience, read no further, and eyeball elsewhere.

*Spoiler Alert End*

So African American females can play violins, have Faerie blood, enjoy interracial relationships, have a human mage and a Faery Rockstar equivalent's attentions, and save the day? An established Male-Male and a new Female-Female couple figure as the other ongoing romances? Best of all, Japanese Dragons and Kitsune abound? And all of this happens in Seattle? (which happens to be the only city in the US that I happily consider dwelling in as an alternative to my native Boston?)

Efffff-Ya! I wanna read me some o' dat! (Ebonics totally intentional)

Bone Walker is a book that celebrates the power of music and music-makers and subtly reminds us of just why despots have always feared the creatives of this world. Bone Walker is the kind of novel where girl has to play her violin into a fury before she goes out and kicks the baddie's butt. Can I get a witness?

I can say the good news about the novel Bone Walker is that I am this book's target audience. There are readers like me who are People of Color, a Geek/Geekette, LGBTQI/Allied, Creative, and who defy what Mainstream Marketing would have readers like us absorb. I am on Team Anti-Twilight. Keep the 1950's throwback Bella. Kendis Thompson makes up for me the Serious Suck value of watching Rue and Thresh die in The Hunger Games. Bone Walker is for readers like me who squirmed through Lord of the Rings every time the beautiful, blond elves clashed with the dark, ugly orcs, goblins, and trolls. Guess who this reader identified with every time? Just sayin'.

That said, I am also a reader who started with a second book in the series. Let me tell you Bone Walker worked as a standalone. So much so that I wanted to begin reading the first book, Faerie Blood, immediately to see what I'd missed and I will happily follow Kendis to a third book.

Note: This copy of Bone Walker: Book 2 Free Court of Seattle was an electronic edition acquired from an author upon the reviewer's request. Her Tangh-i-ness usually reviews on a for-the-love basis. No lucre has been involved.