Full Moon Rising of the Riley Jensen Guardian Series
© Bantam Books
"Full Moon Rising"
By: Pat FerraraDate: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Author of Circle of Desire (2003) and Beneath A Darkening Moon (2004), Aussie romance novelist Keri Arthur kicks off her new Riley Jensen Guardian series with Full Moon Rising. The first part of an ambitious four-novel (so far) set that will be released monthly through March 2007, FMR introduces us to female heroine Riley Jensen and a near-future world set in Melbourne Australia.
A secretary at Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races, Riley Jensen is a smart, sexy dhampire living in a world where humans coexist with werewolves, vampires, and more. A very rare breed of both werewolf and vampire, Riley and her twin brother Rhoan are outcasts due to their mixed heritage (most hybrids don’t survive but Riley and Rhoan’s mother had dirty werewolf sex with a newly-risen vampire hours after he was bitten and this translates to twins with the abilities of both races).
The novel starts off when Riley discovers her brother missing after his most recent mission. Being a Guardian at the Directorate, Rhoan is an agent with a license to kill and privileged to top secret information and dangerous national assignments. Oddly enough the day her brother doesn’t show up at their apartment a mysterious and quite naked vampire named Quinn does. Claiming to be a friend of Rhoan’s who has temporarily lost his memory, the ancient vampire quickly becomes entangled in Riley’s life.
While searching for her brother and trying to solve a mystery behind vampire clones that keep popping up to kill her and other Guardians of the Directorate, Riley must contend with the monthly moon-fever that sends her body into a sexy, seething hormonal rage. Luckily her bed buddies, two successful werewolves named Talon and Misha, are readily available to sate her rising need.
As more and more evidence of non-human cloning begins to surface and Quinn’s quest to find an old friend (the unwilling source of the clones) begins to mingle with Riley’s own search, things start to heat up with the approaching full moon.
Keri Arthur is no stranger to writing werewolf literature and her passion for the sub genre shows in her prior works of similar theme. The werewolves and vampires have clearly defined traits, extra-sensory powers, and individual supernatural abilities. This is necessary for weaving convincing differences between hybrids, genetically engineered clones, and other crossbreeds that really anchor the backbone of the book’s central plot. The end of the novel leaves a lot of questions un-answered and seeds several over-arching threads that promise to ripen in the next installments.
Why the C+ grade then you ask? The book is definitely not without its flaws. I must confess that this is the first romance novel I’ve ever read and, me being a guy, I may be biased toward this type of sci-fi / fantasy. However I think I can grasp the kind of things that make a good paranormal romance novel. Although the author makes it clear that the book is supposed to follow a rising crescendo of lustful action, for all its bark the later part of the novel has no climax. Re-using the same metaphors, diction, and similes that were found in the first few chapters didn’t send all the blood in my body rushing towards my libido.
In terms of characterization a lot of the main players are quite static, including Riley’s brother Rhoan who was barely touched upon at all. Plot-wise there are many inconsistencies and brazenly contrived devices (like the whole moon-fever thing). Having Riley need sexual relief seemed only to function as motivation for her to bounce back and forth between Talon and Misha for clues, which was more annoying than finding out my new pair of jeans has a button fly.
