MASKED BY MOONLIGHT

Author: Nancy Gideon ISBN: 9781439149638 6/2010 PARANROMAL/CONTEMPORARY Publisher: POCKET BOOKS

ALL SHE WANTS IS REVENGE. New Orleans homicide detective Charlotte Caissie is dedicated to bringing down the crime boss responsible for her father’s murder. Using Jimmy Legere’s mysterious and irresistible right-hand man is a dangerous gamble, and not only due to his reputation as more monster than man. Because her feelings for Max Savoie are . . . complicated. THEN HE RISKS HIS LIFE TO SAVE HERS. Rescued from the swamps as a child, Max exists silently in Legere’s shadow, heeding only his voice—until Charlotte Caissie awakens his emotions and tests his loyalties. Stepping outside his cautious rules threatens more than just his heart. He could expose his darkest secret. NOW THEY’RE BOTH IN OVER THEIR HEADS. Testing boundaries they weren’t meant to cross means facing the truth about who and what they are—and what they need from each other. If Max is the murderer she seeks, Charlotte could be his next victim. She can’t afford to trust any man. Good thing Max isn’t one.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Nancy Gideon sets her paranormal romance MASKED BY MOONLIGHT in New Orleans, where Detective Charlotte Caissie has been trying to find a way to catch her father’s killer at the hands of an underworld boss. She’s never been able to prove it, and the muscle that protects the boss is a real enigma to CeeCee. Max is tall, dark and sexy, and even though he is danger incarnate, Charlotte has never feared him. After being kidnapped, assaulted, and raped with her best friend as a teen, she’s never been interested in any man…except Max. There’s something safe and comforting about him. In a dark alley she sees him change before her eyes in order to kill two men aiming to kill her. Can she settle for being the girlfriend of a monster? A killer? A mobster’s muscle? Will it help or hurt her and her career to delve into Max’s past.

Gideon definitely cloaks this tale in darkness and shadows. Max has been kept almost like a leashed, pet pit bull by mobster Jimmy Legere. His mother was killed when he was very young, and Jimmy found Max next to her body in a swamp. Jimmy taught him everything he knew and expects complete loyalty. Too bad Max never knew that there were other beings just like him, even in New Orleans. Thankfully, Charlotte helps him embrace who and what he is. I love how hard it is for her to reconcile Max’s good and evil sides, and how that works with her being a cop.

At times I felt like Charlotte, her partner, her best friend the nun, and Max, made logic leaps that escaped me, but it all came together in the end.

MASKED BY MOONLIGHT is more than a scary werewolf tale. It is a steamy romance; a whodunit; a story of intrigue and power. I look forward to reading more of Gideon’s work in the future.

Susan Barton