Review: Vicious Moon by Lee Roland

Vicious Moon
Author: Lee Roland 
Release Date: July 2, 2013
Publisher: Signet
Earth Witches #3
ISBN: #978-0451238269
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Format(s): Paperback (320 pgs), e-book
Book Source: Publisher/ NetGalley

About the book:

“A powerful witch might live a long time, but a single well-placed bullet could change that. While my preferred weapon was magic, I was not averse to shooting anyone or anything offering my sister or me harm.”

Ex-soldier and earth witch Nyx Ianira is working as a PI in San Francisco when she sees the last thing she ever wants to see: the Sisters of Justice—the mysterious earth witch police force. A Triad of Sisters usually means an execution mission, but the Sisters’ only goal is to capture and escort Nyx across the country.

Nyx is badly needed back in Twitch Crossing, Georgia, the place she ran away from ten years ago to escape the stiff rules and duties of being a true witch. She wanted a life of her own. Now she’s being dragged back to her swampy hometown because another life is in danger: Her little sister is missing, and Nyx is the only one who can track her down in Duivel, Missouri.

But the key to finding her may lie with dark and tempting Etienne—a sinister criminal with a fearsome reputation, a ruthless attitude, and a total immunity to magic…

 

What G & U are talking about:

Vicious Moon is the third installment in the Earth Witches series.  There were some surprises in the developing mythology and although it was a bit of a transitional novel, we liked Nyx and Etienne’s story.

We feel that this story stood out a bit from the series but not truly in a positive way.  The first novel, Viper Moon, was fresh and powerful – the story of a woman whose calling is to save children.  The second, Vengeance Moon, gave us a feel for the flip side of the Earth Mother’s witches as we were introduced to the Sisters of Justice.  Now we encounter a new witch, one who turned her back on magic only to be summoned back against her will.

Nyx is not like the previous two heroines.  She was a warrior and is now a private investigator whose magic has always been unreliable and is centered around fire.  The small hometown that Nyx grew up in was run by witches who also wanted to run her life, and Nyx was not one to have her life dictated to her by anyone.  However, when she is dragged back by the Sisters of Justice, Nyx takes the hint and goes home for the first time in a long time.  She finds her grandmother waiting for her in order to task her with job of finding her missing sister.

In order to find her sister, Nyx travels to Duivel, Missouri – where evil has continued to be contained by the Earth Mother’s work.  While trying to find her sister, Nyx discovers that nothing in Duivel is what it seems and no one can be trusted.  Despite her misgivings, she finds herself drawn to the man every mother warns her daughter about, Etienne.

Etienne is a complicated man.  He is the right hand of the evil in Duivel by his choice.  Although good may still lurk in Etienne, he is resigned to being the bad guy – it is where his choices led him.  But Nyx’s arrival throws him off and he battles his emotions while he is with her. Once under the control of a power-hungry witch, Etienne trusts no witch.  He refuses to ever be under the control of another.  However the pull he feels towards Nyx confuses him so he decides to help find her sister.

Although we get to reconnect briefly in Vicious Moon with previous characters, our connection to Nyx was not as strong as the previous two heroines.  In spite of that, we enjoyed the connection and journey that Nyx and Etienne embark on.  The ending is satisfying but we thought that it took Nyx a really long time to get off of her rear end and attend to her primary task of finding her sister.  Nyx did a lot of bumbling around and for a private investigator that seemed out of character.  In some ways the story felt a bit weaker than the previous novels.  That being said, the story of Etienne and Nyx was enthralling.  Their discovery of each other is what kept Gikany and Una glued to the page.  They seemed like a poor fit at first, but through the journey we see why the Earth Mother had destined them.

In Vicious Moon we found the story of the wayward witch who is thrust into a strange land to find her sister weak as compared to the previous novels (a witch who is compelled to save children and a woman whose mother’s last moment to curse her daughter to avenge her are pretty compelling characterizations).  However as weak as the reasoning to getting Nyx to Duivel is, once there the story was a bit stronger.  Because of the nature of the ending, we eagerly look forward to reading the next installment in the Earth Witches series.

 

Liked it – recommend (B+)

 

Purchase Info:
Vicious Moon (Book 3)

Reviews in the Series:
Viper Moon (Book 1)
Vengeance Moon (Book 2)