When the vampire tribes convene for the rare Blood Moon ceremonies, Solange’s fight with her feral nature, a mysterious stranger, family secrets and forbidden magic put all of the Drakes in danger.

In Blood Moon, we return to Lucy’s, Solange’s, and Nicholas’s points of view. While I love all the Drakes and their various love interests, it’s definitely fun to return to the original characters we fell in love with. However, the events of this book are anything but fun. In a surprising but necessary turn of events, Blood Moon is dark, dark, dark; Harvey proves that her characters are more than just love-sick teenagers and Buffy-esque heroines. Lest we forget, they are vampires. And royalty. And there’s a lot of baggage that comes with that.

Though I’m a huge fan of the romance in this series, Blood Moon provides a nice reprieve from the steady stream of happily-ever-afters. Because the relationships have already been established in earlier books, we don’t focus on them as much. I mean, yes, Lucy and Nicholas still think about each other constantly, but the constant near-death experiences kind of take precedence. And if you thought the Drakes & Co. were in trouble before, that’s nothing compared to what goes down in Blood Moon.

At times, this book can be very frustrating. Well, not the book so much as Solange. She’s always been different, a vampire in a class all her own, and she’s beginning to embrace that, which doesn’t bode well for her family, friends, and possibly the world. I simultaneously sympathize with and hate her. Either way, I appreciate Harvey’s ability to keep us guessing. This book is more of a mystery than any of the others in the series (which is really saying something) and if your love for the characters doesn’t have you devouring the book, the suspense and the mystery surely will.

I would have liked to see more of Lucy at Helios-Ra. She’s only been there a little while, but she already spends more time sneaking off campus than not. A lot of my favorite scenes, though, involve her interacting with her new classmates and going on hunts. I love that she’s getting to know Kieran outside his relationship with Solange and of course I get a thrill out of any mention of Hunter and Quinn (still my favorite couple — I’d love to return to their POVs!). Speaking of Kieran, Harvey further develops a ton of interesting characters-though Kieran sticks out the most-like Jenna, Constantine, and Isabeau. At this point, all these characters really feel like they’re my family and friends.

My only problem with this book is the ending, only because I’m not really sure what’s happening. This might be due to a lack of close reading on my part, but there seems to be something more going on that I’m not quite grasping. Or perhaps it is supposed to end on one giant mystery, leaving a host of unanswered questions, in which case not cool. Of course, it does leave me hysterically begging for the next book nownownow. Every time I get a new Drake book, it sates my hunger for a day before I need the next one even more desperately. If you’re not invested in this series yet, go out and buy it immediately. And then beat yourself up for not having read it sooner.

Review of Out for Blood (Drake Chronicles #3)
Review of Bleeding Hearts (Drake Chronicles #4)

Pages: 298
Publication Date: June 2012
Publisher: Walker & Company
Source: Provided by Publisher
Rating : ★★★★☆

Teaser Quote: “The vampires gathered around us were kneeling, one by one. They stayed on one knee in the snow, waiting for me to do something queenly. I was utterly at a loss.“