Once in a Full Moon ~ Ellen Schreiber

Once in a Full Moon (Full Moon #1)
Katherine Tegen Books
December 28, 2010
288 pages
Buy/info @ Amazon

Ellen Schreiber, the author of The Vampire Kisses series, has a new series starting, this one about werewolves. This, the first in the series, introduces Celeste Parker who lives in Legend's Run, a town with it's very own werewolf legend. A legend no one gets much use out of, save for telling scary stories around camp fires.

Celeste has a great life, big house on the 'right' side of town, two best friends--and they're all dating best friends. But things change when the new boy, Brandon Maddox shows starts school. Celeste finds herself drawn to him, unable to sate her curiosity in the new boy from the wrong side of town.

Throw in more than one close encounter with a pack of wolves, a strange visit to a psychic for fortune telling and a right/wrong side of town school division and things get even more difficult and confusing.


Once in a Full Moon was a very light paranormal romance, werewolf story. There was the story line about about Celeste not being happy with the division in the school among the rich kids and the not rich kids (the Eastsiders and the Westsiders) and kind of trying to do something about it. Then there was the story line about Brandon and who/what he was. Then there was the storyline about the werewolf legend. And then there was the part about Celeste and her friends and their friendship. For me, they didn't all quite work together great nor did any of them really stand out.

It was sort of a popular-girl-trying-to-be-better story meets a werewolf story but one of the two needed to be stronger or more developed for it to really work. It was like the Celeste at school stuff took away from the paranormal side of the story without adding to it.

I do think I will read more of the series, though, to see if Celeste develops into a stronger character (I think she was)--I didn't connect with her much in this book--and because I found the 'legend' interesting.

For the competing story lines and the fact that I didn't connect with the character:

Rating: 6/10


(read via NetGalley)