"Blood Moon" definitely delivers on what it promised in its marketing: a YA story very reminiscent of "Twilight", "The Vampire Diaries", and other paranormal fiction from the late 2000s and early 2010s.

It’s tropey, it nods to its predecessors, and it’s a fun, easy, bingeable read. As someone who grew up loving those franchises, and as a Black woman myself, I did enjoy finally getting a vampire YA story with diverse characters instead of the same “mysterious” white love interests that flooded the genre in its heyday.

That said, while I appreciated the book for what it was, there were several aspects that didn’t quite land for me.

For one, I often found myself frustrated with how oblivious the heroine was. I know this is a staple of the genre: an unsuspecting main character being thrust into a supernatural world they didn’t know existed, but Mira’s ignorance stretched my suspension of disbelief sometimes. The author later explains this by suggesting it was her subconscious rejecting the idea of the supernatural out of her own fear, but it didn’t fully work for me. When a character has grown up surrounded by werewolf mythology, hears constant references to werewolf stories in college, sees media reports about protests claiming werewolves exist, and is confronted with a mysterious boy who’s clearly not human… how do you not connect the dots? It felt sloppily executed.

Another thing: sometimes the "Twilight" parallels were a little too on the nose. Mira’s dad is a police chief, she only calls her parents by their first names, another character nicknames her “Bells” (for Mirabella), and one of the love interests is someone from her childhood who she played with as a kid, just like with Bella and Jacob. None of this ruined the story for me, but the similarities were so blatant at times that they made me mentally pause.

As for the pacing, the story itself is fine. It’s very much a coming-of-age style narrative and has all the classic tropes you associate with a college romance, but I sometimes just felt like the story dragged, and wished Mira had been given more agency in piecing together what was happening around her. Even Bella Swan was more active in trying to uncover Edward’s secret. Mira, by contrast, often came across as oddly naïve and unwilling to use common sense to connect the dots of what was occurring around her.

That being said, I actually really liked the ending and it saved quite a bit of the book for me. It picked up where the story had lost me and left me curious to see where things could go next.

So, I’d say that, overall, I had fun with this book both as a nostalgia trip and as a Black woman who’s happy to see Black heroines in paranormal romance. Growing up, I definitely missed that kind of representation. Still, I wouldn’t call this book amazing, because, at times, it leaned a little too heavily on borrowing from the big YA vampire franchises. I think it’s perfect for anyone that is looking for that nostalgic vibe, but might not be a good fit for people looking for something more original.

🎧 Audiobook/Narration Note
The narrator was fantastic! She gave each character a distinct voice, and in the final chapters especially, she completely blew me away. 10/10, no notes.


Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ALC in exchange for my review.

BLOOD MOON by Britney S. Lewis was one of the books I was really excited to get to this year. Unfortunately it did live up to my expectations. I’m sad because I really wanted to love this book. I admired Britney’s willingness to bring diversity and representation into her stories.

I felt that it was far too similar to twilight and the vampire diaries, a bit of a copy and paste of those stories I wish there was more originality to the story to make the story its own. I wanted it to feel fresh, unique, and new.

I also felt the relationship of the characters felt forced, I wish there was more time but into the characters development and relationship. Felt too tropey and alot of moments felt repetitive and dragged on quite a bit. The pacing for the story felt slow and rushed at the end.

Thank you Netgalley for this opportunity to read and listen to the audiobook.

3.5 stars. Loved the idea (a campus vampire diaries? absolutely!), but had a few issues with the execution. There wasn’t a lot of depth to the characters so it was hard to connect to them. The MMc and FMC also seemed more like brother and sister with their conversations and how they bickered, and then suddenly, with no build, they were into each other? Again hard for me to see the romance. Hoping this was all just the set up for a great book 2. I’ll definitely be reading that one.

Audio Narration: 4/5 Really good performance, Definitely one I'd recommend the audiobook for! No issues with pacing, pausing, inflection. The narrator does a great job with bringing this story to life, the suspense she creates with her inflection really adds to the overall experience! Variation in character voices is good but could be a little more distinct, I occasionally wanted a little more.

An utterly addictive page-turner you won’t be able to put down!

The author has marketed this as “Justice for Bonnie” and for the “Team Jacob” folks — Honestly I don’t have the information to tell you if she succeeds (I never read or watched them, don’t judge me, i’m kinda old) — but I can tell you this book was phenomenal.

What’s to love…
- southern, small-town setting
- Werewolves 🐺 Vampires 🩸 Witches 🧙🏾‍♀️
- secrets + mystery
- Nostalgia vibes, yet wholly original
- dare I say, enemies-to-lovers? 👀 but also kinda friends-to-lovers x2
- basically the romance was 🔥
- mini love triangle, that even the love triangle haters won’t mind.
- lush prose + imagery
- contemporary college setting with characters that felt much older, this book could have easily aged up and still felt natural (perhaps New Adult is a better designation?)
- THAT EPILOGUE! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! GIVE ME BOOK TWO RIGHT NOW!

What’s not to love…
- the imagery and prose got a little heavy handed at times, usually not an issue for me, but it seemed to occasionally contrast the overall vibes of the story.
- I like being left wanting more, but in this case I think we could have gotten a smidge more during book 1. A little more relationship development, especially between the side characters and the FMC would have been nice.

5 stars for the narration. I think the narrator did a really great job with the content they were given. I would love to listen to more audiobooks by them.

3 stars (DNF at 50%) for the story itself. I was so excited for this story marketed as Bonnie from TVD getting what she deserves. Unfortunately (for me), this felt a lot more like Twilight. I think a lot of people will love this story but it ended up not being for me. I felt there was a lot telling rather than showing. It also felt like everything was happening TO Mira versus her own actions causing the plot to progress. Everyone close to her keeping secrets also left me feeling really restless and frustrated instead of captivated and on the edge of my seat.

Unfortunately, Blood Moon didn’t quite click for me. While I appreciated the premise, I found it a bit too familiar and was hoping for something that stood out more distinctly from similar titles. The narrator’s voice also felt a touch too mature for the characters’ ages, which made it harder for me to fully connect with the story.

Thank you to the publisher for the ALC. All thoughts are my own.

4 ⭐️
🫑
🎧- Audio ARC
Themes/Tropes: Werewolf/Vampire, College Setting, love triangle, family secrets, slowburn, YA

Firstly, a big thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and Britney S. Lewis for the audiobook ARC of Blood Moon. This book has a similar vibe to Immortal Dark, but more werewolf forward vs. vampire forward, although there are both in this tale.

This book takes place in a non-existent suburb of Kansas City at a non-existent college. As a native KC reader, I was kind of disappointed in how they represented the city. Why set this book in Kansas City and then use nothing about the city itself? Also, the non-existent city Mira (FMC) is from is called Timber Plains, Kansas and allegedly has a “dark wood”. THERE ARE NOT WOODS IN KANSAS. It’s the literal plains. Also, there are A LOT of references that imply Kansas City is in KS. And while there is a Kansas City, KS, the city of Kansas City is actually in Missouri. Which is also more wooded. This really pulled me out of the book and almost made me drop this to a 3-3.5. If you aren’t going to pay tribute to a city you’re using in a book, then just use made up towns all-together.

NOW, that being said, this book follows an FMC whose mom abandons her under suspicious circumstances in her youth. She is now college age and headed off to college; where some very strange things start to happen to her. Firstly, there are two handsome men orbiting her for attention, but they aren’t exactly what they seem. Second, she starts unpacking who she is, who her family is, and that (dun, dun, dun) magic and the supernatural are real!

Now, this is book one in a series. This book ends on quite a cliffhanger, so I am excited to see where this goes and will definitely be reading book 2.

This gave me Twilight vibes, but BIPOC edition ☠️
AND I LIVE FOR IT LOL.

I was screaming every time I found lil references here and there. It’s nothing too crazy-cringe, but such a fun homage.
“I need you to say it out loud…”
The way this had me cacccklinggg 😭😭😭
I’m a lowkey Twihard, so idc idc idc.

And then the “Have you been watching me outside of my window…”
*I lowkey feel like this is one, but like lowkey lmfao.
The love triangle was giving too.
Idk whose team I’m on fr. I’m so torn 😩
But then again… WHY CHOOSE BABY— I love Mira’s friends lmfao. Esp, I think it was Abby? Who was always saying”Why Choose” ☠️
She’s so real for that.

I’m so curious how everything will pan out ‘cause that ending?! And how did she not know… you know?
Idk. I need the sequel to answer a few things!!
But overall, I enjoyed this & I can’t wait to find out more ‘cause I just know so much more will develop and uncover in book 2… I need it.
And my girl Adenrele Ojo narrating?
Yeah… I knew I was gonna like this 🫶🏽

Blood Moon by Britney S. Lewis shows a lot of promise, blending werewolves, vampires, and a college setting, but it felt like it dragged on in certain areas. For example, the main character (FMC) doesn't discover there are werewolves until about the 50% mark of the book, which made the pacing feel slow.

The love triangle also tends to dominate the plot, and it gets a little repetitive, especially with the main character taking so long to recognize the supernatural elements around her.

I did enjoy the female narrator’s performance, but I felt that her portrayal of the male characters came off a bit more intense in comparison.

While the plot had some interesting moments, it didn’t feel particularly fresh or unique. The dynamic between the werewolves, vampires, and the love triangle reminded me a lot of other vampire/werewolf stories, like Twilight and The Vampire Diaries.

Overall, I’d give Blood Moon 2 stars. It had its moments, but it just dragged on and it held it back from being something more impressionable.