Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Bright Moon
SERIES: The Macawba County Pack
AUTHOR: Alicia Graybill
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 174 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 13, 2019
BLURB:
Deputy Ryan Neely of the Macawba County Sheriff’s Department is alone in the world. His parents died in a car accident when he was a small child. He was raised by his paternal grandmother, his only remaining relative. When she dies just after Ryan’s high school graduation, he sells the family farm and uses the money to help him get through his B.A. degree then enrolled in the Highway Patrol Academy. When he graduated from the Academy, he returned to Macawba County to take a job in the Sheriff’s office. Ryan develops a reputation as a dog whisperer for the Sheriff’s office. As a result, Ryan is sent to investigate abandoned houses that may have been meth labs or other crime scenes where dogs have been discarded.
Instead of a dog, Ryan finds a gorgeous and naked youth chained to the wall of the basement. Black hair and green eyes, the young man behaves like a wild animal. He’s terrified and unkempt, trying to attack Ryan one minute, practically falling asleep on him the next. When Ryan frees him from the basement, his new friend refuses to leave his side. Ryan, unable to push his friend away, decides to name him Shane. Once Shane is clean and fed, Ryan realizes Shane is at least ten years older than the teen he thought he was. He decides that Shane can stay with him as long as he wants.
When Ryan comes home late one morning, he finds a large black wolf-dog on the threshold of his apartment building. He brings the dog up to the apartment only to find Shane not there. Shane reveals to Ryan his secret; he is a Wolf-shifter and was banned from his pack. When Ryan formulates a plan for Shane, as his Wolf, to become Ryan’s K9, Shane agrees readily. For a few months, Shane and Ryan are happy living and working together. Until one day Ryan gets a phone call.
The call is from Amleto di Lupo, Shane’s brother and alpha. Amleto exiled Shane but now wants him back. He threatens Ryan that he will kill Shane in front of him if he doesn’t give Shane back to him. Fearing for Shane’s safety, Ryan agrees.
Will Ryan ever see Shane again? Can Shane forgive Ryan for sending him back to di Lupo? When tragedy strikes, will Ryan’s life ever be happy again?
REVIEW:
Ryan is a sheriff’s deputy who likes his job. When he’s called out to an abandoned house, he finds a young man chained up. He tries to get him out and taken care of, but while he deals with the EMTs, the guy takes off. He’s also somehow missed the huge dog in the house that runs away from him as well 😉
When he find the naked guy again, he tries to get him help but the guy freaks so Ryan takes him home. He doesn’t appear to be able to talk and he seems quite confused about everything in Ryan’s apartment. Ryan decides to call him Shane since he needs a name. He goes about his business, but one day returns from work to find the same runaway black dog at his apartment building. He takes the dog up to his apartment and lo and behold, the dog is gone and Shane is there. So Shane shares his secret – that he’s really an omega wolf and can shift. Aside from a momentary freak-out, Ryan seems to take this pretty much in stride 🙂
He decides to make Shane his partner – in his wolf form named Mega 😉 They love spending their days and nights together. They make a fantastic team and help thwart crime in their small town. But when an attempt is made on Ryan and Mega, Ryan knows something nefarious is afoot. Sure enough, when he gets a call from Shane’s alpha, the jig is up and Ryan, devastated, realizes that he can’t keep Shane safe.
Shane’s return to his family is fraught with issues. His alpha has many conflicting feelings about Shane that he has a lot of trouble sorting out. He’s witnessed Shane’s extreme abuse and he’s not sure how he is doing any better. But his mate and sons try to help 🙂
To be honest, I was not enjoying this book at the beginning. It really stretched credulity and not about the shifter part. I found it hard to believe that an officer would not do something different than was Ryan does with the young man he rescues that doesn’t talk, doesn’t seem to behave at all normally, but is very sexual with him. It took me a bit to get past that. Once I let that go, I started to enjoy the story. Shane’s life has been horrible and complicated up until the point where Ryan found him. The hierarchy and his family dynamics were pretty messed up and he’s had no control over his life – ever. He’s suffered terrible abuse that has left him depressed, skittish and suffering from recurrent nightmares. The only peace he’s ever known is with Ryan, which is why he suffers horribly when they are apart. My heart just broke for him. Even though his family loves him – after a fashion – it wasn’t enough to make him whole. I felt equally sad for Ryan who really doesn’t have much of a life and is completely connected to Shane. Though it was hard, I actually liked the time that Shane spent with his family. However, there are a lot of loose ends and unexplained things in this universe that I hope are covered in the next book. I think it could have used another round of edits and a higher word count to explain the situations more. I’d also like to see Ryan’s friend Lee get a happy ending as well 🙂 All in all, I ended up liking the book well enough that I want to read the next book 😀
RATING: 
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