Review: Mark of the Moon by Beth Dranoff (Mark of the Moon #1)

Mark of the Moon (Mark of the Moon #1)
Beth Dranoff
Published: Feb. 6, 2017 (Carina Press)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: Purchased 

Reviewed by: Jenn

Rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars

Dana Markovitz is a bartender in a paranormal bar run by a demon, and she also has an on-again-off-again vampire lover. When the book opens the two are seen together having a particularly rousing bout of sex, but a jealous ex-lover barges in and scratches Dana, infecting her with the were-cat virus. Once infected, Dana’s life seems to go from kind of normal to suddenly having the whole supernatural community take an interest in her, with most either wanting to capture her or sleep with her.

We’re brought into a world where demons run bars, and vampires and were-creatures exist, but we don’t ever really see how humans fit into their existence. We see the world through Dana’s eyes, but the only other humans are her mother, and her best friend, who don’t seem to have any issue with the supernatural. I never found out why or how the humans came to accept them into their world. The descriptions of the world are fascinating, and some of the creatures are the things of nightmares, so that helped me visualize who Dana was interacting with, but I never fully understood the world she lives in.

Dana is infected with the were-cat virus right at the start of the book, but I was confused through a good portion of the story about what kind of cat virus it was. Like house cat or tiger or leopard? Whenever she talked about her partial changes she spoke about them as if she had kitty cat paws, not some beefy paw with claws that could rip you to shreds. I thought we would discover more about this by the end of the book, but we never really get to see what she exactly turns into.

She spends a lot of the book getting knocked unconscious and waking up from those fade-to-black moments. Seriously, at one point you have to begin to wonder if she has some serious concussion issues, she’s getting hit over the head so much. The people hitting her over the head are the bad guys, who are trying to use her for their own nefarious purposes, but like the world and her unknown cat abilities, we never really get the idea of what they want her for until maybe the last 20 pages, and even then I was left with more questions than answers.

There is a love triangle between her, the vampire, and another were-cat, but like Dana, I was left very confused about who she really wanted to be with. Just another thing that we never really see developed in the story.

I gave Mark of the Moon 3.5 stars because I REALLY enjoyed the author’s writing style, but because of all the plot issues I had a hard time getting through it. I will, however, read book two, mostly because I want to see if we learn anymore about Dana and her mysterious world.

Sexual content: graphic sex