Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Harvest Moon
SERIES: Wolf Moon Rising Book 2
AUTHOR: Sam Burns and W.M. Fawkes
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 318 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2021
BLURB:
Lost best friends grow back together.
Alexis Mena has waited five whole years for his childhood sweetheart to come back from college. He’s ready to get marked, mated, and finally settle down, but when the stoic farmer returns, there’s a wall between them that Alexis can’t scale. Looking at Ridge every day is too much for Alexis, so when his cousin offers him the chance to stay with her and her husband, he jumps to get away. If he can’t have the life he’s always dreamed, with the Grove pack, at least he can stop waiting.
Ridge Paterson returned from college with nothing to his name but an old truck, a one-eyed barn cat, and a heap of debt. Fortunately, he’s also got hope—hope all that schooling’s prepared him to turn the family farm around. But no sooner has he set foot back on Paterson land than his parents decide to sell it out from under him. Listless and lost, he lets Alexis slip through his fingers. Left with cut roots and a heap of desperation, the man he left behind tempts him to find a new place to call home.
There’s more on the line than student debts and insecurities for the young werewolves. The mysterious Condition is affecting Alexis’s cousin, threatening her pregnancy and everything Alexis holds dear, and the man with the skills to solve it all might just be an alpha willing to follow his one-true love halfway across Virginia for a chance to put down roots of his own.
Harvest Moon is a 90k word novel about one sad man of the land, his podcasting childhood sweetheart, and an illness that threatens all werewolfkind, in a non-mpreg ABO universe.
REVIEW:
Harvest Moon tells the story of two men, omega Alexis and Alpha Ridge, childhood sweethearts separated by time and distance, now reunited upon Ridge’s return from school. But five years have elapsed and things have changed. They have changed. These two men are not the same people they were when Ridge left. Alexis has been dutifully waiting, saving himself for Ridge’s return. But Ridge comes back with a whole lot of burden and not much to offer Alexis. Feeling that he’s failed as an Alpha, he believes he cannot provide for his omega mate the way he’d be expected to. So Ridge pushes Alexis away. Alexis feels cast aside and confused and wonders what his place is if it’s not at Ridge’s side.
The story shows Alexis and Ridge trying to chart their course forward. They are trying to find their place and, hopefully, find a road back to each other. They struggle with their own identities and self-worth. Where do they fit? Do they belong together? Do they have enough to offer to a mate, to a pack, to a community? Is it enough to justify their being part of it? Ironically, Alexis and Ridge’s own assumptions, presumptions and lack of communication serve as their primary obstacle.
The authors have created multi-dimensional characters, well-developed and endearing, particularly Ridge. The story is emotionally impactful and not just between Alexis and Ridge, but also in relation to the Grove pack, who we were first introduced to in Book 1, Black Moon. The Grove pack exhibits found family and how a sense of support and belonging can be transformative. It also reflects the rewards of service to your community and contributions to the well-being of neighbors, friends, and loved ones.
Harvest Moon has a different tone from Black Moon. The authors don’t bring the Grove pack into the story line right away. At first, that disconcerted me. The two main characters were men I had never met before and I didn’t know how they were connected to the Grove pack. The Groves are the backbone of this series, so I wasn’t sure where this story fit without them. My equilibrium was restored, though, once the familiar Grove pack faces began to appear about 1/4 of the way in. Additionally, the difficulties presented in Black Moon, namely The Condition, came into focus. The delay in tying the books together, though, admittedly distracted me from the storyline.
Notwithstanding, in Harvest Moon, the authors have crafted an enjoyable, well-written story. The plot does move slowly, though, with a storyline that, while interesting, didn’t fully engage me. It’s a long book. We watch Alexis and Ridge individually struggle to find their places in the world for the bulk of it. Nothing really happens, though. The book presented a relatively uniform, melancholy tone throughout. The snappy dialogue, humor and other variations in the narrative seen in Book 1 were lacking here. The story picks up a bit at the end so it finishes strong. But the book did not immerse me into the storyline as I hoped.
Overall, I do recommend the book. Indisputably, these authors write excellent stories and no doubt, Harvest Moon is one of them. But I do feel like this book serves as a bridge between the terrific Black Moon and the upcoming Book 3, Hunter Moon, rather than standing on its own. Even so, both the world building and the underlying storyline across the series are creative and detailed. Harvest Moon is therefore an important piece to this series. If you enjoyed Book 1 and plan to see the series to the end, you will definitely want to read Harvest Moon.
RATING: 
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