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Moonrise
Annie Sutherland is fast finding out her life was built on lies. Haunted by her father’s death, Annie seeks out his protégé in the CIA, James McKinley, and is thrust into a secret shadow world that sends shivers of terror through her. For she finds James is no longer the conservative bureaucrat she remembers, but a mysterious, tortured fugitive—very armed and very dangerous. Annie and James are thrown together on a wild run that draws them closer to each other. Yet Annie is still not sure who James really is—a tender, passionate lover or a ruthless assassin? Who can she possibly trust with violence exploding all around her...and love perhaps the greatest snare of all…?
416 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 1996
48 people are currently reading
802 people want to read
About the author
Anne Stuart
203 books2,062 followersAnne Stuart is a grandmaster of the genre, winner of Romance Writers of America's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, survivor of more than thirty-five years in the romance business, and still just keeps getting better.
Her first novel was Barrett's Hill, a gothic romance published by Ballantine in 1974 when Anne had just turned 25. Since then she's written more gothics, regencies, romantic suspense, romantic adventure, series romance, suspense, historical romance, paranormal and mainstream contemporary romance for publishers such as Doubleday, Harlequin, Silhouette, Avon, Zebra, St. Martins Press, Berkley, Dell, Pocket Books and Fawcett.
She’s won numerous awards, appeared on most bestseller lists, and speaks all over the country. Her general outrageousness has gotten her on Entertainment Tonight, as well as in Vogue, People, USA Today, Women’s Day and countless other national newspapers and magazines.
When she’s not traveling, she’s at home in Northern Vermont with her luscious husband of thirty-six years, an empty nest, three cats, four sewing machines, and one Springer Spaniel, and when she’s not working she’s watching movies, listening to rock and roll (preferably Japanese) and spending far too much time quilting.
Anne Stuart also writes as Kristina Douglas.
Her first novel was Barrett's Hill, a gothic romance published by Ballantine in 1974 when Anne had just turned 25. Since then she's written more gothics, regencies, romantic suspense, romantic adventure, series romance, suspense, historical romance, paranormal and mainstream contemporary romance for publishers such as Doubleday, Harlequin, Silhouette, Avon, Zebra, St. Martins Press, Berkley, Dell, Pocket Books and Fawcett.
She’s won numerous awards, appeared on most bestseller lists, and speaks all over the country. Her general outrageousness has gotten her on Entertainment Tonight, as well as in Vogue, People, USA Today, Women’s Day and countless other national newspapers and magazines.
When she’s not traveling, she’s at home in Northern Vermont with her luscious husband of thirty-six years, an empty nest, three cats, four sewing machines, and one Springer Spaniel, and when she’s not working she’s watching movies, listening to rock and roll (preferably Japanese) and spending far too much time quilting.
Anne Stuart also writes as Kristina Douglas.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
June 29, 2018
3.5/5
I'm not sure what to say about this one. Well, I liked it for the most part, if you ask me. The suspense part was pretty intriguing and it was the thing that kept me turning the pages. However, there were parts I found illogical and a little bit too far-fetched. But for some inexplicable reason, those didn't bother me much.
Anyway, my major problem with this book is that I didn't quite enjoy two main characters as much as I expected. The heroine, Annie, was weak and stupid at times (or maybe most of the time??), but somehow, I could make an exception for her, given that she was extremely sheltered growing up. But then again, that didn't mean I was ok with her weakness or how she handled things.
Now, what to say about the hero of this book… James’s character almost hit the spot for me. Yeah, almost. Close, but no cigar. I tend to fall in love with the author’s dark brooding heroes, but the fact that James couldn’t make my heart flutter says a lot about him. What bugged me the most about him was that he considered killing Annie, not once or twice, but throughout the story! And the funniest thing was that she knew this fact as well but she still loved him and wanted him anyway!
Yeah, fine. Whatever. None of my business. Duh.
Well, this might sound like a negative review. Then why 4 stars?
My actual rating is 3.5 stars but I rounded it up to 4. And to answer the above question, I think this one deserved more than 3 stars. Let’s just say, I like it when the book gives me a lot of thrills and chills and it can keep me guessing and wondering what will happen next throughout. And this book could accomplish these. So, 4 stars it was.
Overall, a dark, intense, and edgy romantic suspense/thriller.
I'm not sure what to say about this one. Well, I liked it for the most part, if you ask me. The suspense part was pretty intriguing and it was the thing that kept me turning the pages. However, there were parts I found illogical and a little bit too far-fetched. But for some inexplicable reason, those didn't bother me much.
Anyway, my major problem with this book is that I didn't quite enjoy two main characters as much as I expected. The heroine, Annie, was weak and stupid at times (or maybe most of the time??), but somehow, I could make an exception for her, given that she was extremely sheltered growing up. But then again, that didn't mean I was ok with her weakness or how she handled things.
Now, what to say about the hero of this book… James’s character almost hit the spot for me. Yeah, almost. Close, but no cigar. I tend to fall in love with the author’s dark brooding heroes, but the fact that James couldn’t make my heart flutter says a lot about him. What bugged me the most about him was that he considered killing Annie, not once or twice, but throughout the story! And the funniest thing was that she knew this fact as well but she still loved him and wanted him anyway!
Yeah, fine. Whatever. None of my business. Duh.
Well, this might sound like a negative review. Then why 4 stars?
My actual rating is 3.5 stars but I rounded it up to 4. And to answer the above question, I think this one deserved more than 3 stars. Let’s just say, I like it when the book gives me a lot of thrills and chills and it can keep me guessing and wondering what will happen next throughout. And this book could accomplish these. So, 4 stars it was.
Overall, a dark, intense, and edgy romantic suspense/thriller.
November 14, 2011
Warning: Tammy drops the f-bomb
You gotta hand it to Anne Stuart. She has found a formula for each of the two types of books she writes - historical romances and contemporary romantic-suspense, and follows each of them. To. The. Letter.
Moonrise is the latter formula. It's like there's a master checklist AS follows each time she writes one. If I had to guess, I'd say it goes something like this:
1. Heroine: naive, virginal, malleable, mostly two-dimensional, sometimes humourless, virtually always having kept a secret torch for Hero for years. In this book the heroine was a little more likable than I usually find AS' to be - she was coming in to her own and finally realizing how manipulated she had been by her dead father.
2. Hero: tough, lone wolf, stone-cold killer/spy/black ops/you-name-it, chiseled, ageless, timeless, questioning his humanity and usually convinced he is unredeemable. He has known the heroine forever, constantly weighing whether to kill her or fuck her, and has probably done or tried the second at some point years ago;
3. The story: some tragedy - parent/brother/best friend/spouse dies and heroine is left to figure out what happened, or talk to the Hero, who is usually the last one to have seen the deceased, or is completely clueless to some big secret she is holding until the bad guys descend.
4. Many attempts on lives follow, including Hero again wrestling with his huge existential dilemma - kill her or fuck her? Fuck her, then kill her? Poor guy. Endlessly gazing at the back of her neck, behind her ear - break her neck or shoot her? Bodies pile up everywhere.
5. "We're going to die so what the fuck" sex happens, usually followed by some tears and heroine's epiphany that she's in love with Hero. Hero has a similar eureka moment, although his is more confusion about why his cock and his trigger finger seem to be connected. Kill her, fuck her, fuck her, kill her.
6. More intrigue, terror and passion (thanks to the synopsis for this) now, followed by the inevitable double betrayal - big, big secret kept by the Hero from the heroine, and both of them sandbagged by the identity of the actual bad guy. Hero has usually determined a solution to his existential argument by this point - he won't have to do either because the heroine will leave him after his big lie. She never does, of course, he makes her feel SAFE. Hero chooses the "fuck her" option and after the best sex of his life ends solves his dilemma for good.
7. Bad guy dispatched after a narrow escape by Hero and heroine, who then head off into the sunset as the screen fades to black.
Formula aside, after a bit of a slow start Moonrise was pretty good. Nothing new or earthshaking in it, but it was fast-paced and full of action, with a bad guy that wasn't really obvious until the big reveal. It was like reading an action movie - it kept my butt planted squarely in my chair from about page 50 until I was finished. :D
3.5 stars
You gotta hand it to Anne Stuart. She has found a formula for each of the two types of books she writes - historical romances and contemporary romantic-suspense, and follows each of them. To. The. Letter.
Moonrise is the latter formula. It's like there's a master checklist AS follows each time she writes one. If I had to guess, I'd say it goes something like this:
1. Heroine: naive, virginal, malleable, mostly two-dimensional, sometimes humourless, virtually always having kept a secret torch for Hero for years. In this book the heroine was a little more likable than I usually find AS' to be - she was coming in to her own and finally realizing how manipulated she had been by her dead father.
2. Hero: tough, lone wolf, stone-cold killer/spy/black ops/you-name-it, chiseled, ageless, timeless, questioning his humanity and usually convinced he is unredeemable. He has known the heroine forever, constantly weighing whether to kill her or fuck her, and has probably done or tried the second at some point years ago;
3. The story: some tragedy - parent/brother/best friend/spouse dies and heroine is left to figure out what happened, or talk to the Hero, who is usually the last one to have seen the deceased, or is completely clueless to some big secret she is holding until the bad guys descend.
4. Many attempts on lives follow, including Hero again wrestling with his huge existential dilemma - kill her or fuck her? Fuck her, then kill her? Poor guy. Endlessly gazing at the back of her neck, behind her ear - break her neck or shoot her? Bodies pile up everywhere.
5. "We're going to die so what the fuck" sex happens, usually followed by some tears and heroine's epiphany that she's in love with Hero. Hero has a similar eureka moment, although his is more confusion about why his cock and his trigger finger seem to be connected. Kill her, fuck her, fuck her, kill her.
6. More intrigue, terror and passion (thanks to the synopsis for this) now, followed by the inevitable double betrayal - big, big secret kept by the Hero from the heroine, and both of them sandbagged by the identity of the actual bad guy. Hero has usually determined a solution to his existential argument by this point - he won't have to do either because the heroine will leave him after his big lie. She never does, of course, he makes her feel SAFE. Hero chooses the "fuck her" option and after the best sex of his life ends solves his dilemma for good.
7. Bad guy dispatched after a narrow escape by Hero and heroine, who then head off into the sunset as the screen fades to black.
Formula aside, after a bit of a slow start Moonrise was pretty good. Nothing new or earthshaking in it, but it was fast-paced and full of action, with a bad guy that wasn't really obvious until the big reveal. It was like reading an action movie - it kept my butt planted squarely in my chair from about page 50 until I was finished. :D
3.5 stars
June 16, 2021
Night had already fallen—it came early in October, and the moon was beginning to rise, covering the area with a silver light. In the moonlight, fresh blood would look black.
I'm going to get this out of the way right away, there isn't any romance in this story. I know this is classified as romance but Annie and James' relationship is love/hate, zero romance, think more teeth gritting than swoony. As I've talked about before, Stuart has my trust as a reader, so when her heroes cross my fiction world soft lines, I hang in there. Y'all, I lost count of the times Jame said or thought about killing Annie, I'm not talking about the “haha, I could strangle you” out of love/frustration we see more often in romance, more of the:
He looked down at her slender, delicate throat, and thought about how much pressure he'd need to exert to break her neck. It would be simple, easy, no more than a flick of the wrist, and she and her questions would be no threat to anyone.
He was either going to have to do his damnedest to convince sharp-eyed, quick-witted Annie Sutherland that her father was a harmless bureaucrat who'd died in a freak accident. Or he might have to kill her himself.
If someone was going to kill Annie Sutherland, then it ought to be him.
"I ought to fucking kill you," he said furiously. "You stupid little bitch, if I had any sense I'd cut your throat and have done with it."
That last line was said around the 85% mark, this was some stark stuff, folks.
The man who knew the secrets. That's what her father had said years ago. If ever anything happened, anything questionable, she could go to McKinley for the answers, Win had told her in a rare burst of openness.
Moonrise was a romantic suspense that was extremely slow and plodding with getting the mystery and suspense going. We're introduced to Annie who's father has just died and now after six months, Annie is finally coming out of the grief and questioning his death, she doesn't believe he fell down the stairs drunk and broke his neck. In a last letter to her, her father tells her to go to James McKinley if she ever needs help. James was her dad's sort of protege and she's known him since she was a kid and used to have a crush on him. What Annie doesn't know is that her father worked for the CIA and lead a covert group of men and women. James was one of those covert soldiers and is now semi-hiding out on a small island in the Gulf of Mexico.
He just stared at her. "Told you what?"
"What you do for a living. What my father had you do. He said they call you Dr. Death. Why?"
"Because I'm fast, scientific, and relatively painless. And I make house calls." His voice was icy.
Annie finds James with the help of her ex-husband Martin, who also worked for her dad and from there the story becomes a bit grid-locked with James constantly talking about killing Annie with the underlining sense that he is attracted to her and Annie begins to feel like a character in a daze just following along. The main suspense arc of finding out who and why Annie's dad was killed takes so long to get going and it isn't until the latter half of the book that there is actual movement and we start to get answers. James kills the people being sent after them, Annie is clueless, James wonders if he should just kill Annie, Annie is dazed by the little clues leading her to find James is a killer and her dad isn't who she thought he was, and some villain povs to try and keep the danger and mystery element alive, rinse and repeat this with a sprinkling of attraction and you have the story.
"Fuck it," he said, more to himself than to her. "I've killed for you. I've earned you."
The story structure just felt lackluster, the pacing was off and secondary characters and villains weren't always used correctly. There was a pretty bizarre scene where James and Martin talk, semi-argue about who is going to sleep with Annie to get her to trust them. It didn't fit because of how she already was trusting James and if it was included to show James did have feelings for her, it didn't completely accomplish that because of how awkward and uncomfortable the scene ending up feeling. When Annie and James end up in Ireland (James drugs her for the entire trip there, for some reason) their relationship starts easing into starting up, again, I can't quite call it a relationship with romance. Their sex scenes always had a whiff of non-consensual to them and after Annie tells James she loves him(?!?) it turns into this:
She sat back on her heels, suddenly nervous, and he looked down at her. "Keep on, Annie," he taunted. "Show me how much you love me."
There was that beginning whiff again that she was at first only going to give him head because she didn't want him to kill her. Stuart always plays with power dynamics in her books, I just think she missed more of the mark this time, for me personally anyway.
He was furious with her for thinking he could kill her.
If you couldn't tell, this was a dark and angst read but Stuart has humor in her books, it's usually gallows but it can be found in edges. After 80% of reading James spout off about killing Annie, he's angry that Annie thinks he really is going to kill her at the end. Besides the dark humor of it all, it was supposed to finally show James' love for Annie but these two just didn't have the growth journey I usually look for in emotional relationships; I started off thinking James loved Annie but didn't think he was good enough for her, I ended thinking he loved her the same. Annie's growth felt the same to me and we probably need to see the same psychiatrist for our love of fictional anti-hero men. She does get a couple licks in though with affronting James by guessing his age just a little younger than her father's and commenting in her thoughts on his thinning hair in the back of his head while he is napping.
"What's going to happen to us, James?" she whispered.
"We're probably going to die."
There was a fair amount of the story told through flashbacks, too. I don't typically mind flashbacks but with the pacing already off, they didn't help matters, especially considering that one of the flashbacks had the most romance between James and Annie. Along with the non-romance happening between the main couple that could be hard for some to read, one of the villains uses a homophobic slur a couple times. The ending was also abrupt, especially in a more epilogue publishing era. This couple was the opposite of ooey-gooey make you swoony and even though I like teeth-gritting emotion, this was raw without the emotion.
I'm going to get this out of the way right away, there isn't any romance in this story. I know this is classified as romance but Annie and James' relationship is love/hate, zero romance, think more teeth gritting than swoony. As I've talked about before, Stuart has my trust as a reader, so when her heroes cross my fiction world soft lines, I hang in there. Y'all, I lost count of the times Jame said or thought about killing Annie, I'm not talking about the “haha, I could strangle you” out of love/frustration we see more often in romance, more of the:
He looked down at her slender, delicate throat, and thought about how much pressure he'd need to exert to break her neck. It would be simple, easy, no more than a flick of the wrist, and she and her questions would be no threat to anyone.
He was either going to have to do his damnedest to convince sharp-eyed, quick-witted Annie Sutherland that her father was a harmless bureaucrat who'd died in a freak accident. Or he might have to kill her himself.
If someone was going to kill Annie Sutherland, then it ought to be him.
"I ought to fucking kill you," he said furiously. "You stupid little bitch, if I had any sense I'd cut your throat and have done with it."
That last line was said around the 85% mark, this was some stark stuff, folks.
The man who knew the secrets. That's what her father had said years ago. If ever anything happened, anything questionable, she could go to McKinley for the answers, Win had told her in a rare burst of openness.
Moonrise was a romantic suspense that was extremely slow and plodding with getting the mystery and suspense going. We're introduced to Annie who's father has just died and now after six months, Annie is finally coming out of the grief and questioning his death, she doesn't believe he fell down the stairs drunk and broke his neck. In a last letter to her, her father tells her to go to James McKinley if she ever needs help. James was her dad's sort of protege and she's known him since she was a kid and used to have a crush on him. What Annie doesn't know is that her father worked for the CIA and lead a covert group of men and women. James was one of those covert soldiers and is now semi-hiding out on a small island in the Gulf of Mexico.
He just stared at her. "Told you what?"
"What you do for a living. What my father had you do. He said they call you Dr. Death. Why?"
"Because I'm fast, scientific, and relatively painless. And I make house calls." His voice was icy.
Annie finds James with the help of her ex-husband Martin, who also worked for her dad and from there the story becomes a bit grid-locked with James constantly talking about killing Annie with the underlining sense that he is attracted to her and Annie begins to feel like a character in a daze just following along. The main suspense arc of finding out who and why Annie's dad was killed takes so long to get going and it isn't until the latter half of the book that there is actual movement and we start to get answers. James kills the people being sent after them, Annie is clueless, James wonders if he should just kill Annie, Annie is dazed by the little clues leading her to find James is a killer and her dad isn't who she thought he was, and some villain povs to try and keep the danger and mystery element alive, rinse and repeat this with a sprinkling of attraction and you have the story.
"Fuck it," he said, more to himself than to her. "I've killed for you. I've earned you."
The story structure just felt lackluster, the pacing was off and secondary characters and villains weren't always used correctly. There was a pretty bizarre scene where James and Martin talk, semi-argue about who is going to sleep with Annie to get her to trust them. It didn't fit because of how she already was trusting James and if it was included to show James did have feelings for her, it didn't completely accomplish that because of how awkward and uncomfortable the scene ending up feeling. When Annie and James end up in Ireland (James drugs her for the entire trip there, for some reason) their relationship starts easing into starting up, again, I can't quite call it a relationship with romance. Their sex scenes always had a whiff of non-consensual to them and after Annie tells James she loves him(?!?) it turns into this:
She sat back on her heels, suddenly nervous, and he looked down at her. "Keep on, Annie," he taunted. "Show me how much you love me."
There was that beginning whiff again that she was at first only going to give him head because she didn't want him to kill her. Stuart always plays with power dynamics in her books, I just think she missed more of the mark this time, for me personally anyway.
He was furious with her for thinking he could kill her.
If you couldn't tell, this was a dark and angst read but Stuart has humor in her books, it's usually gallows but it can be found in edges. After 80% of reading James spout off about killing Annie, he's angry that Annie thinks he really is going to kill her at the end. Besides the dark humor of it all, it was supposed to finally show James' love for Annie but these two just didn't have the growth journey I usually look for in emotional relationships; I started off thinking James loved Annie but didn't think he was good enough for her, I ended thinking he loved her the same. Annie's growth felt the same to me and we probably need to see the same psychiatrist for our love of fictional anti-hero men. She does get a couple licks in though with affronting James by guessing his age just a little younger than her father's and commenting in her thoughts on his thinning hair in the back of his head while he is napping.
"What's going to happen to us, James?" she whispered.
"We're probably going to die."
There was a fair amount of the story told through flashbacks, too. I don't typically mind flashbacks but with the pacing already off, they didn't help matters, especially considering that one of the flashbacks had the most romance between James and Annie. Along with the non-romance happening between the main couple that could be hard for some to read, one of the villains uses a homophobic slur a couple times. The ending was also abrupt, especially in a more epilogue publishing era. This couple was the opposite of ooey-gooey make you swoony and even though I like teeth-gritting emotion, this was raw without the emotion.
March 31, 2025
4 to 4.5 stars
This was actually, really, really good 😊
It started out slow, but that helped build the mystery behind Win’s death. I love Stuart’s darker heros! James was great with the right mix of mystery and danger. This was up there with Nightfall and Ritual Sins.
I find that I like Stuart’s 90s contemporary dark romances over her 2000s historicals. The mmcs are edgier and the fmcs have personalities and spines. I’m also not a big fan of her dual romances that she’s writes into her historical romances.
This was actually, really, really good 😊
It started out slow, but that helped build the mystery behind Win’s death. I love Stuart’s darker heros! James was great with the right mix of mystery and danger. This was up there with Nightfall and Ritual Sins.
I find that I like Stuart’s 90s contemporary dark romances over her 2000s historicals. The mmcs are edgier and the fmcs have personalities and spines. I’m also not a big fan of her dual romances that she’s writes into her historical romances.
October 24, 2014
One of Anne Stuart's earlier books and still it makes a great read.
Tortured and dark hero helping the heroine, who he's had feelings for many years but never told her, find the truth about her father's death.
Fast paced, suspense filled action, sexual tension.....the hallmarks of this author's writing.
Great read.
Tortured and dark hero helping the heroine, who he's had feelings for many years but never told her, find the truth about her father's death.
Fast paced, suspense filled action, sexual tension.....the hallmarks of this author's writing.
Great read.
August 16, 2016
Malo. Realmente éste libro es muy malo. Cuando lees la sinopsis parece que la historia promete, pero no ha sido más que un batiburrillo ilógico y sin sentido.
Lo único bueno que ha tenido es la narrativa tan sencilla y amena. ¡Leñes! Es malo pero me ha enganchado con su forma de narrar. Pero ése es únicamente su punto a favor.
Por lo demás la historia es mala. No entiendes por qué James tiene que matar a Annie, pero a la vez se convierte en su salvador cargándose a por lo menos quince personas durante el libro, que los persiguen para matarlos. Los personajes están muy mal construidos y son totalmente ilógicos, ella es una pava con un pseudosíndrome de Estocolmo, y él un pseudofrío torturado que se tira medio libro borracho y cargándose a gente sólo con sus manos. Decir que su amor es insustancial y absurdo sería mucho decir, porque el libro tiene romance cero y sí una relación muy tóxica.
No lo recomiendo para nada, pero no tiro la toalla porque otros libros de ésta mujer sí me han gustado.
Lo único bueno que ha tenido es la narrativa tan sencilla y amena. ¡Leñes! Es malo pero me ha enganchado con su forma de narrar. Pero ése es únicamente su punto a favor.
Por lo demás la historia es mala. No entiendes por qué James tiene que matar a Annie, pero a la vez se convierte en su salvador cargándose a por lo menos quince personas durante el libro, que los persiguen para matarlos. Los personajes están muy mal construidos y son totalmente ilógicos, ella es una pava con un pseudosíndrome de Estocolmo, y él un pseudofrío torturado que se tira medio libro borracho y cargándose a gente sólo con sus manos. Decir que su amor es insustancial y absurdo sería mucho decir, porque el libro tiene romance cero y sí una relación muy tóxica.
No lo recomiendo para nada, pero no tiro la toalla porque otros libros de ésta mujer sí me han gustado.
April 22, 2015
3.5-stars
I want to thank my gr friends for recommending Anne Stuart books (HR and RS) to me this year. I have read 10 books so far and only dnfed Ritual Sins:/
James Bond is my favorite anti-hero action character so perhaps it sorta explains why I like AS anti-heroes. No matter how unapologetically ruthless they are, I can always find a slight hint of humanity in these characters that make me root for them even though AS TSTL-heroines consistently test my limit.
First published in 90’s, I thought James and the storyline in Moonrise were an interesting mapping of Ice series. It is rare for me not to enjoy an AS book unless the male lead really fails to impress me.
I want to thank my gr friends for recommending Anne Stuart books (HR and RS) to me this year. I have read 10 books so far and only dnfed Ritual Sins:/
James Bond is my favorite anti-hero action character so perhaps it sorta explains why I like AS anti-heroes. No matter how unapologetically ruthless they are, I can always find a slight hint of humanity in these characters that make me root for them even though AS TSTL-heroines consistently test my limit.
First published in 90’s, I thought James and the storyline in Moonrise were an interesting mapping of Ice series. It is rare for me not to enjoy an AS book unless the male lead really fails to impress me.
May 19, 2010
So here it is.....this is the third book I've read by Anne Stuart. I appreciate her willingness to go places and do things with her characters that many authors don't have the courage or talent to do. I've read A Rose at Midnight where the heroine was the "dark" character, and I've read Nightfall which might be the most memorable and haunting book that I've ever read.
Moonrise takes the idea of a "dark" romance to a whole new level. Nightfall was also very dark, but what I appreciated about Nightfall is that the reader is given a look into the relationship so that despite the "darkness" of the plot, you could believe in the couple. Not quite so with this book.
James McKinley is one tough guy! He is a killer, admittedly, and is cold as ice. He agrees to help Annie Sutherland get to the bottom of her father's murder. The suspense in this novel is it's greatest strength, and I dare you to figure out what's really going on before finally Stewart just outright tells you!
Although it is implied, I NEVER believed that Annie could love this man or that he loved her. This was devastating for me as I am a "romance is my number one priority" type of girl. I NEED to believe that a couple, regardless of how dysfunctional, truly care for one another. All that I believed was that James could kill Annie at any point of the book, and that Annie was stupid to be putting her life into this "loose cannon's" hands.
This is supposedly Stuart's greatest work, but it doesn't hold a candle to Nightfall IMHO!
Moonrise takes the idea of a "dark" romance to a whole new level. Nightfall was also very dark, but what I appreciated about Nightfall is that the reader is given a look into the relationship so that despite the "darkness" of the plot, you could believe in the couple. Not quite so with this book.
James McKinley is one tough guy! He is a killer, admittedly, and is cold as ice. He agrees to help Annie Sutherland get to the bottom of her father's murder. The suspense in this novel is it's greatest strength, and I dare you to figure out what's really going on before finally Stewart just outright tells you!
Although it is implied, I NEVER believed that Annie could love this man or that he loved her. This was devastating for me as I am a "romance is my number one priority" type of girl. I NEED to believe that a couple, regardless of how dysfunctional, truly care for one another. All that I believed was that James could kill Annie at any point of the book, and that Annie was stupid to be putting her life into this "loose cannon's" hands.
This is supposedly Stuart's greatest work, but it doesn't hold a candle to Nightfall IMHO!
June 13, 2008
A huge disappointment—this is what I felt once I finished this novel. I kept hoping it would get better but it was painfully slow with two terribly irritating characters. After about 50 pages in, with the story going nowhere fast, I felt like I was trudging my way up an endless hill through the thick mud. It was a laborious read to say the least. I’m starting to wonder if Anne Stuart’s earlier heroes (loved her ICE men) are all robotic, unfeeling weirdoes who hurt the heroine repeatedly (physically and emotionally) without any remorse whatsoever and the idiot heroine stands by and takes it all. The other thing that bothered me about the hero here and in the other earlier novels was the excessive drinking. You’d think they’d be hospitalized for alcohol poisoning for the amount that they send back!
The heroine, Annie, is a strange bird. She’s not here or there and pretty much lets people dictate her life to her. Why she loves James is hard to fathom because up to the end he couldn’t care less about what she does. I was hoping for some big redemption scene to make up for how he treated her but there was nothing. Even the sex scenes were blah and totally devoid of anything resembling love or like even!
It’s a very moribund, cold story where people talk about dying like they were going to sleep. The romance I felt was non-existent and by the end the characters were just too TSTL and apathetic for me.
Can’t give half stars here but it’s more a 2.5 than a 3.
The heroine, Annie, is a strange bird. She’s not here or there and pretty much lets people dictate her life to her. Why she loves James is hard to fathom because up to the end he couldn’t care less about what she does. I was hoping for some big redemption scene to make up for how he treated her but there was nothing. Even the sex scenes were blah and totally devoid of anything resembling love or like even!
It’s a very moribund, cold story where people talk about dying like they were going to sleep. The romance I felt was non-existent and by the end the characters were just too TSTL and apathetic for me.
Can’t give half stars here but it’s more a 2.5 than a 3.
December 26, 2011
Moonrise is going to end up being one of those novels that is going to be hard for me to rate. Not because it wasn’t engrossing enough but rather because I felt that a vital aspect of the story was missing in action even when the story ended. I wanted so much more for both James and Annie who seemed to go through so much in the span of just a couple of days. And although the mystery and suspense potion of the novel was superbly done as always, the romance aspect of the novel seemed to suffer making this novel not as enjoyable as it would have been otherwise.
27 year old Annie Sutherland is a woman who has led a sheltered life, a woman who has been manipulated endlessly by her father without even her being aware of the fact. With the sudden death of her father Annie withdraws into herself in grief until a missing picture from her father’s living room causes her to question how her father had actually died. Her quest to find the truth brings her to the doorstep of her father’s protégé James McKinley, a man whom she remembers as being part pf her life since Annie was 7 years old.
The James that she encounters is such a different version from the man that haunts her memories. The James that she finds in a remote cabin in an island off of Mexico has an aura of dangerousness that makes her nervous, but not enough to make her back down from her quest to find what it is that had killed her father. Though James would rather kill Annie than tell her the truth, something deep inside of him stalls at the thought of putting his hands around her neck and squeezing the life out of her. And James knows deep inside that his reluctance to end her life is reason enough to send her packing.
With killers turning up every step of the way, James and Annie travel from Mexico to the US and then to Ireland to find the truth. In the process both Annie and James are forced to remember their shared past and a fragile connection that had gone beyond anything they have encountered before or ever since, a passion and attraction that still seems to linger on stronger than ever. And when the truth does come out at the very end, it is a surprising one that proves Anne Stuart’s mastery when it comes to weaving tales of mystery and suspense.
James turned out to be a yummy hero of the dangerous type. He is a lethal killing machine, someone whose soul cries out to wash away all the blood that he has shed in the name of justice and a country he believed in. His tormented soul is one that comes across vividly, his one weakness being the attraction that burns deep inside of him to possess Annie Sutherland, the one woman who had remained forbidden to him from such a long time back. James is well versed in the art of deception, as good as the man who taught and mentored him, the man whose daughter trusts him with her life; a mission that James knows is a foolhardy one even long before killers start turning up at his doorstep.
Annie proved to be a difficult heroine to place. She has been brought up all her life thinking her father to be totally someone else from the man he actually was, a man who had molded and mapped out her life for her from childhood until his death. The fact that her father turned out to be the total antithesis of what she believed him to be is what makes her change her attitude and outlook towards everything that happens afterwards, her courage and wits the only two things that keeps her going even when James makes no secret of what he wants to do to her.
Though there was this sweet bit of shared history and passion between James and Annie, I felt that they had both outgrown who they were back then and had turned into much harder versions of themselves to be really able to love and accept each other as they were. James tries his hardest to keep Annie at bay, he fights constantly with his feelings that should have made his capitulation that much sweeter. And though as mouth-wateringly sexy as James was, their encounters barely hinted at the deeper emotions between them, that just sort of left me feeling empty deep inside.
Somehow I kept up my hope and belief that towards the end, I would see one thing, no matter how insignificant from James that would signal that he feels a gut wrenching love for the woman for whom he kills and taints his hands with more blood even when his heart and soul yearns for sweeter and softer things in life that he knows aren’t meant for him. But alas, the story ends on an empty note, and though a shared happily ever after is an implied one, I just did not feel the love that should have been there between two characters who held me riveted throughout their story.
Recommended for hard-core fans of Anne Stuart.
Rating=4/5
Original review posted on MBR's Realm of Romance
My quotes included below the review!
27 year old Annie Sutherland is a woman who has led a sheltered life, a woman who has been manipulated endlessly by her father without even her being aware of the fact. With the sudden death of her father Annie withdraws into herself in grief until a missing picture from her father’s living room causes her to question how her father had actually died. Her quest to find the truth brings her to the doorstep of her father’s protégé James McKinley, a man whom she remembers as being part pf her life since Annie was 7 years old.
The James that she encounters is such a different version from the man that haunts her memories. The James that she finds in a remote cabin in an island off of Mexico has an aura of dangerousness that makes her nervous, but not enough to make her back down from her quest to find what it is that had killed her father. Though James would rather kill Annie than tell her the truth, something deep inside of him stalls at the thought of putting his hands around her neck and squeezing the life out of her. And James knows deep inside that his reluctance to end her life is reason enough to send her packing.
With killers turning up every step of the way, James and Annie travel from Mexico to the US and then to Ireland to find the truth. In the process both Annie and James are forced to remember their shared past and a fragile connection that had gone beyond anything they have encountered before or ever since, a passion and attraction that still seems to linger on stronger than ever. And when the truth does come out at the very end, it is a surprising one that proves Anne Stuart’s mastery when it comes to weaving tales of mystery and suspense.
James turned out to be a yummy hero of the dangerous type. He is a lethal killing machine, someone whose soul cries out to wash away all the blood that he has shed in the name of justice and a country he believed in. His tormented soul is one that comes across vividly, his one weakness being the attraction that burns deep inside of him to possess Annie Sutherland, the one woman who had remained forbidden to him from such a long time back. James is well versed in the art of deception, as good as the man who taught and mentored him, the man whose daughter trusts him with her life; a mission that James knows is a foolhardy one even long before killers start turning up at his doorstep.
Annie proved to be a difficult heroine to place. She has been brought up all her life thinking her father to be totally someone else from the man he actually was, a man who had molded and mapped out her life for her from childhood until his death. The fact that her father turned out to be the total antithesis of what she believed him to be is what makes her change her attitude and outlook towards everything that happens afterwards, her courage and wits the only two things that keeps her going even when James makes no secret of what he wants to do to her.
Though there was this sweet bit of shared history and passion between James and Annie, I felt that they had both outgrown who they were back then and had turned into much harder versions of themselves to be really able to love and accept each other as they were. James tries his hardest to keep Annie at bay, he fights constantly with his feelings that should have made his capitulation that much sweeter. And though as mouth-wateringly sexy as James was, their encounters barely hinted at the deeper emotions between them, that just sort of left me feeling empty deep inside.
Somehow I kept up my hope and belief that towards the end, I would see one thing, no matter how insignificant from James that would signal that he feels a gut wrenching love for the woman for whom he kills and taints his hands with more blood even when his heart and soul yearns for sweeter and softer things in life that he knows aren’t meant for him. But alas, the story ends on an empty note, and though a shared happily ever after is an implied one, I just did not feel the love that should have been there between two characters who held me riveted throughout their story.
Recommended for hard-core fans of Anne Stuart.
Rating=4/5
Original review posted on MBR's Realm of Romance
My quotes included below the review!
July 2, 2018
Pasión mortal es el libro que he escogido para el Reto Rita 2 de este mes de junio.
Pues voy a ser breve ya que os anticipo que el libro no me ha gustado nada y hay poco que contar.
A raíz del supuesto accidente que ha acabado con la vida de su padre Annie empieza a descubrir cosas que le hacen pensar que ese accidente no fue tal. Con ayuda de su exmarido Martin, Annie acude a buscar a James McKinley, el hombre de confianza de su padre, casi un hijo para él, para que la ayude a descubrir quién lo asesinó. Durante el proceso descubre que la vida que conocía es una mentira y que ni James ni su padre son quienes creían que eran.
Annie es una chica que ha sido criada y educada entre algodones, protegida del mundo, viendo y siendo lo que su padre quería que ella fuera.
James es un asesino frío y despiadado que trabajaba para una organización secreta de la CIA, el padre de Annie fue su mentor, pero algo salió mal, el padre de Annie ha muerto y James ahora vive escondido esperando que alguien de la organización acabe con su vida en cualquier momento.
James se pasa todo el libro debatiéndose entre: 1º) matar a Annie y 2ª) cómo evitarla y no tocarla de ninguna manera para mantener a raya sus instintos y la atracción que siente por ella.
En las casi primeras doscientas páginas del libro casi no pasa nada... huyen, se esconden, cambiando de un sitio a otro, pero no sucede nada interesante, solo se van desvelando pequeños datos que le van mostrando a Annie que ni su padre ni James son los burócratas aburridos que ella pensaba y que le muestran hasta que nivel su padre manejaba si vida sin que ella siquiera se diera cuenta.
La relación entre ambos personajes me ha parecido de lo más tóxica y enfermiza que puede haber. Los personajes están entre dos aguas; ambos se odian, pero se atraen. Annie por un lado siente un miedo atroz por James y por las cosas que va descubriendo de él, pero por otro, y sin ser totalmente consciente de ello, se siente atraída por él, un tipo que cada dos segundos le dice que puede ser él la persona que la termine matando, muy normal todo. Por otro lado James se debate entre matar a Annie antes que otros acaben con ella y la atracción que desde siempre ha sentido por ella, pero a la que prefiere matar antes que dar rienda suelta a algún sentimiento.
Luego tendremos que padecer dos violaciones, porque sí, para mí son violaciones aunque la autora y la prota quieran hacernos creer otra cosa, porque Annie dice no, aún así le sujeta las manos, le tapa la boca, le hace daño... pero como luego se excita y tiene un orgasmo se da por valida, y no señores, eso para mí es violación, pero Annie sigue ahí, en plan mártir porque estar con él es mejor que quedarse sola y que otros acaben con su vida. A partir de esa primera escena este libro dejó de tener el poco sentido que le quedaba para mí.
No he encontrado ni amor, ni química, ni ternura, ni nada semejante al romanticismo en este libro, así que no entiendo como está catalogado de suspense romántico, lo dejaría en suspense y de eso, en mi opinión, tiene poco.
Le doy una estrella por el final, que ha sido lo único que me ha parecido que tenía algo de ritmo e intriga en todo el libro, por lo demás no me ha gustado nada de nada.
Reseña en: https://bibliotecariarecomienda.blogs...
Pues voy a ser breve ya que os anticipo que el libro no me ha gustado nada y hay poco que contar.
A raíz del supuesto accidente que ha acabado con la vida de su padre Annie empieza a descubrir cosas que le hacen pensar que ese accidente no fue tal. Con ayuda de su exmarido Martin, Annie acude a buscar a James McKinley, el hombre de confianza de su padre, casi un hijo para él, para que la ayude a descubrir quién lo asesinó. Durante el proceso descubre que la vida que conocía es una mentira y que ni James ni su padre son quienes creían que eran.
Annie es una chica que ha sido criada y educada entre algodones, protegida del mundo, viendo y siendo lo que su padre quería que ella fuera.
James es un asesino frío y despiadado que trabajaba para una organización secreta de la CIA, el padre de Annie fue su mentor, pero algo salió mal, el padre de Annie ha muerto y James ahora vive escondido esperando que alguien de la organización acabe con su vida en cualquier momento.
James se pasa todo el libro debatiéndose entre: 1º) matar a Annie y 2ª) cómo evitarla y no tocarla de ninguna manera para mantener a raya sus instintos y la atracción que siente por ella.
En las casi primeras doscientas páginas del libro casi no pasa nada... huyen, se esconden, cambiando de un sitio a otro, pero no sucede nada interesante, solo se van desvelando pequeños datos que le van mostrando a Annie que ni su padre ni James son los burócratas aburridos que ella pensaba y que le muestran hasta que nivel su padre manejaba si vida sin que ella siquiera se diera cuenta.
La relación entre ambos personajes me ha parecido de lo más tóxica y enfermiza que puede haber. Los personajes están entre dos aguas; ambos se odian, pero se atraen. Annie por un lado siente un miedo atroz por James y por las cosas que va descubriendo de él, pero por otro, y sin ser totalmente consciente de ello, se siente atraída por él, un tipo que cada dos segundos le dice que puede ser él la persona que la termine matando, muy normal todo. Por otro lado James se debate entre matar a Annie antes que otros acaben con ella y la atracción que desde siempre ha sentido por ella, pero a la que prefiere matar antes que dar rienda suelta a algún sentimiento.
Luego tendremos que padecer dos violaciones, porque sí, para mí son violaciones aunque la autora y la prota quieran hacernos creer otra cosa, porque Annie dice no, aún así le sujeta las manos, le tapa la boca, le hace daño... pero como luego se excita y tiene un orgasmo se da por valida, y no señores, eso para mí es violación, pero Annie sigue ahí, en plan mártir porque estar con él es mejor que quedarse sola y que otros acaben con su vida. A partir de esa primera escena este libro dejó de tener el poco sentido que le quedaba para mí.
Quería gritar para protestar, para rogarle, pero no dijo nada. Reconocía la mirada brutal y decidida de su rostro, la desesperación, el odio hacia sí mismo mientras la embestía con silenciosa y constante determinación, y cerró los ojos, dispuesta a soportarlo.
No he encontrado ni amor, ni química, ni ternura, ni nada semejante al romanticismo en este libro, así que no entiendo como está catalogado de suspense romántico, lo dejaría en suspense y de eso, en mi opinión, tiene poco.
Le doy una estrella por el final, que ha sido lo único que me ha parecido que tenía algo de ritmo e intriga en todo el libro, por lo demás no me ha gustado nada de nada.
Reseña en: https://bibliotecariarecomienda.blogs...
March 28, 2025
The most tortured, dark hero up till now in Anne's book.
The baseline here is same as some of her spy hero books.
Dark hero with amazing out of the world spy instincts, virginal heroine having a crush on the said spy, running for their lives, fighting the attraction, and finally giving in to the temptation.
That being said, the most important thing is the way to go about it.
As usual the writing is brilliant, characters are strong and the plot is intense.
Suspense element is maintained throughout the book. Story was fast paced moving through different continents. Emotions were running high, and were justified.
Final verdict: A good read.
The baseline here is same as some of her spy hero books.
Dark hero with amazing out of the world spy instincts, virginal heroine having a crush on the said spy, running for their lives, fighting the attraction, and finally giving in to the temptation.
That being said, the most important thing is the way to go about it.
As usual the writing is brilliant, characters are strong and the plot is intense.
Suspense element is maintained throughout the book. Story was fast paced moving through different continents. Emotions were running high, and were justified.
Final verdict: A good read.
August 21, 2009
I would have liked this book more except I thought the heroine Annie had the charisma of a wet dishrag. Too bad. I thought James, the hero was some kind of yummy. An Irish spy. Yes, please. Another book I need to reread to see if it has improved as I have aged.
February 3, 2012
So Anne Stuart does it for me again. I loved this book and found it really hard to put down, also when your sleeping and dreaming of the characters you know that you've found a book that will be on your keepershelf and reread many times.
Annie (h) has just lost her father, and there are a few things that don't seem to add up with his death. His death was ruled an accident but there was something missing from his house. With that and severl other questions coming to mind she askes her ex-husband who was also her father's right hand man about her misgivings. He inturn sends her to James, another one of her father's proteges and someone she once had a raging crush on.
James (H) has been in hiding for sometime now and he can't believe it when Annie showes up at his door. Only one person really knew were he was and he has no idea why he would send Annie to him, except that they know James is an assassin and they must want Annie taken out. So many people want James taken out and Annie could be the one they sent to do the job, so he decides to see what she wants and to bide his time....he could alway put her down later.
I really loved how James struggled with a suddenly rising conscious, years of instinct and killing, and his feelings for Annie. Watching Annie come into her own after years of being and doing what her father had wanted was good too. This story was action pact all the way to the end..... and the only negative thing I could say about the book was that the end....the very end was a little anticlimatic.
Annie (h) has just lost her father, and there are a few things that don't seem to add up with his death. His death was ruled an accident but there was something missing from his house. With that and severl other questions coming to mind she askes her ex-husband who was also her father's right hand man about her misgivings. He inturn sends her to James, another one of her father's proteges and someone she once had a raging crush on.
James (H) has been in hiding for sometime now and he can't believe it when Annie showes up at his door. Only one person really knew were he was and he has no idea why he would send Annie to him, except that they know James is an assassin and they must want Annie taken out. So many people want James taken out and Annie could be the one they sent to do the job, so he decides to see what she wants and to bide his time....he could alway put her down later.
I really loved how James struggled with a suddenly rising conscious, years of instinct and killing, and his feelings for Annie. Watching Annie come into her own after years of being and doing what her father had wanted was good too. This story was action pact all the way to the end..... and the only negative thing I could say about the book was that the end....the very end was a little anticlimatic.
May 20, 2014
I really enjoy Anne Stuart books. I loved James, the assassin. Annie was good too, the author often writes slightly wimpy heroines, I didn't mind her though. Anne Stuarts hero's are usually cruel and rough. I love them. However I am always slightly frustrated that the hero's don't go completely over the top in their alpha tendencies, you know that bit where they cant quite be as cruel to the heroine as you want them to be ,they never quite follow through with their threats. I think in this book James followed through a bit more than usual, he was near perfect.
I have to say that I think she writes some of the best alpha males in books. I know that is a total contradiction. Her alphas are great. I think this guy is one of the best, I loved him. I just know that if this author could go really over the top with the erotica, bdsm angle she would blow the roof off. She is that good a writer. Of course if you don't need or want that angle you will be happy anyway. However she has limits as an author she does not cross. Her heros are still dark and cruel, she is known for them. Her writing is wonderful, I loved the story.
I would recommend anyone to read Anne Stuart books.
I have to say that I think she writes some of the best alpha males in books. I know that is a total contradiction. Her alphas are great. I think this guy is one of the best, I loved him. I just know that if this author could go really over the top with the erotica, bdsm angle she would blow the roof off. She is that good a writer. Of course if you don't need or want that angle you will be happy anyway. However she has limits as an author she does not cross. Her heros are still dark and cruel, she is known for them. Her writing is wonderful, I loved the story.
I would recommend anyone to read Anne Stuart books.
October 16, 2012
I like Anne Stuart because she writes guys that are unapologetic about being kind of crazy. These are assassins and bad ass dudes that just so happen to meet the girl that Complicates the agenda. They don't become squishy and sweet in the process, they just figure out, after some plot twists and turns and probably a miscommunication, how to get the job done with a partner.
I just hate when the Girl who does the Complicating is lame in comparison. When she's a softie who stomps and pouts. Not that she necessarily did all those obnoxious things, but here it came close and I was bored by the drama and Annie's crazy dad who mentored James into being a cold-bloodied killer? It was too much. Too fantastical and too General Hospital and it unraveled what had been interesting about James and put a nail in the coffin of what could have been intriguing and daring about Annie.
And then it just ended and that was that.
I just hate when the Girl who does the Complicating is lame in comparison. When she's a softie who stomps and pouts. Not that she necessarily did all those obnoxious things, but here it came close and I was bored by the drama and Annie's crazy dad who mentored James into being a cold-bloodied killer? It was too much. Too fantastical and too General Hospital and it unraveled what had been interesting about James and put a nail in the coffin of what could have been intriguing and daring about Annie.
And then it just ended and that was that.
April 14, 2014
3.5 Anti-Hero Hotness Stars
Another great Anne Stuart book, though not as great as some of her other books. She definitely writes the best dark anti-Hero's, her hero's are definitely a guilty pleasure...they are soooo bad yet you can't help yourself for falling for them!!!
I realllllly liked James, he's your typical AS anti-Hero, ruthlessly dangerous, heartless, and stone cold. I had a hard time liking the heroine in this one, Annie had the personality of a wet rag and if it wasn't for James and the storyline I might have given up on the book. As I said not my favorite AS but worth the read just to meet James.
James & Annie
Another great Anne Stuart book, though not as great as some of her other books. She definitely writes the best dark anti-Hero's, her hero's are definitely a guilty pleasure...they are soooo bad yet you can't help yourself for falling for them!!!
I realllllly liked James, he's your typical AS anti-Hero, ruthlessly dangerous, heartless, and stone cold. I had a hard time liking the heroine in this one, Annie had the personality of a wet rag and if it wasn't for James and the storyline I might have given up on the book. As I said not my favorite AS but worth the read just to meet James.
James & Annie
June 10, 2010
This book started out slow for me. Annie got totally on my nerves. Her father dies in a mysterious way and she goes to James to help her, who she thought of as a kindly father-ish figure. Well, he's a lot younger and a lot more mean than she thought. She wants his help to find out if her father was murdered and to find out who did it. So, since she goes to him for help you would think she wouldn't argue and complain all the time but noooo, she's not only argumentative but questioning everything he says. What did she expect? I hate this in the heroine - if you ask for help, don't fight that help! The ending was a surprise and I ended up getting teary-eyed. But it took 2/3 of the book before it started making a turn around. If you're an Anne Stuart fan, I think this was her 2nd book, so you may want to read it just to say you've read all her works.
November 29, 2012
Odd that I should pick this up right after reading Bob Mayer's Lost Girls. The heroes were similar in that they were tough guys with a history of killing, but this was a much better book. The characters had more depth and more emotion, plus this didn't have annoyingly bad research on a key plot point. This is my first Anne Stuart and Moonrise pulled me through the story easily though the ending is a bit abrupt. I would have like a glimpse of where they settled and a chance to see them finding peace and redemption together. Will give Anne Stuart another try in the future.
July 8, 2015
I'm on a bit of an Anne Stuart kick at the moment just because I've been in the mood for grittier romance.
This one was a great addition to my shelf, but not my absolute favorite of hers.
I didn't really take to our heroine, though she's so similar to the majority of this author's heroines -- sheltered, somewhat naive, and often plagued by very bad taste in men.
I did, however, enjoy the suspense, especially with the "twist" (though I personally had that part figured out from the beginning)
Overall, though, not a bad way to pass the day.
This one was a great addition to my shelf, but not my absolute favorite of hers.
I didn't really take to our heroine, though she's so similar to the majority of this author's heroines -- sheltered, somewhat naive, and often plagued by very bad taste in men.
I did, however, enjoy the suspense, especially with the "twist" (though I personally had that part figured out from the beginning)
Overall, though, not a bad way to pass the day.
April 23, 2015
The entire plot is absolutely unbelievably ridiculous.
Apart from it, our hero killed dozens of people with bare hands, no second thoughts, and we are to believe that, down there, he's a good man with a conscience. There's too much killing in this book, it is nauseating.
The writing is good, so there's the bonus star.
Apart from it, our hero killed dozens of people with bare hands, no second thoughts, and we are to believe that, down there, he's a good man with a conscience. There's too much killing in this book, it is nauseating.
The writing is good, so there's the bonus star.
December 31, 2007
Anne Stuart's best book. For now. :) Moonrise has all the basic elements of her books perfectly put together.
May 31, 2015
Absolutely loved this book. True to Anne Stuart's bad-boy style.
December 31, 2015
Nothing loveable about this hero along with a dull heroine
Read
August 14, 2019Convoluted in plot and characters. Well damn intriguing but I am not sure any way believable. Why did he help her? Why does she have sex with her father's murderer?
Why don't you rage and go screaming into the night when you realize how much of a puppet you have been all your life? That nobody have ever loved you? Because you can't tell me her father loved her in any way...
Every single relationship was a scum, even her doctor was...
Why don't you rage and go screaming into the night when you realize how much of a puppet you have been all your life? That nobody have ever loved you? Because you can't tell me her father loved her in any way...
Every single relationship was a scum, even her doctor was...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2015
Over the years, Anne Stuart's writing has gotten darker and darker. Her skill is undeniable. She can draw you along, even when there isn't a character in the book you really care for. I read this book in a single day. The laundry is barely touched, I read it during supper, I read it when I should have been doing research of my own. And I'm really glad it's over. I am not sure I even want the book in my house.
That's the kind of book this was for me. Gripping and ugly, spell-binding and annoying. While the action was non-stop, the book was Dark with a capital D. What was even more aggravating for me was that the characters were all over the place. She loves him, she slaps him, she wants to bed him, then she's rolling off the other side of the bed and standing horrified against the wall before he can even touch her. He wants to bed her, and then he storms out of the room after insulting her with cutting brutality. After a while I was ready to slap both of them. They both needed a good shrink.
So while the writing was astounding, all the back-and-forth between them stretched credulity for me.
That's the kind of book this was for me. Gripping and ugly, spell-binding and annoying. While the action was non-stop, the book was Dark with a capital D. What was even more aggravating for me was that the characters were all over the place. She loves him, she slaps him, she wants to bed him, then she's rolling off the other side of the bed and standing horrified against the wall before he can even touch her. He wants to bed her, and then he storms out of the room after insulting her with cutting brutality. After a while I was ready to slap both of them. They both needed a good shrink.
So while the writing was astounding, all the back-and-forth between them stretched credulity for me.
January 23, 2016
It's so good I'm melting inside. I became mushy and sentimental after I read the part of his soulless work before he became a renegade. This is an interesting read of a MAN who loss his way down to dark abyss pit. He's a machine, automaton killer and he's good in what he do. I'm sad to his lonely childhood and became compassionate to his wicked long dark life. If he heard me saying I pity him, I'm already a dead woman. But he's just a product of the worldly evilness of soulless men around him. You'll met him at the first chapter as a lone wolf amidst the tiny island off the gulf coast of Mexico where he'll be forced out on his cage by his past nightmare, Annie Sutherland, the only daughter cherished by Win's Sutherland, his so-called father for almost 22 years of his life. Her presence will unraveled vicious tainted truth and nothing will ever be the same for both of them until the last page is opened. He will captivate any emotions inside the reader, be it disappointment, anger, loath, pity, or disgust, but in the end we will love him in many ways not just one. A perfect marred antihero for a perfectly handmade heroine.
September 27, 2013
Annie finds herself chasing after her father death back to her past of heartache. Annie uncover many things that leads to her father death. In between of finding the truth she has to cooperate with her father right hand man that is a totally alcoholic that soon to be very attractive to her. Many characters plays a roll in her father death but what she has to go through to recover the truth could cost her own life to be taken away. Someone puts a contract out to kill before she uncovers the truth.
Thanks to James her father right hand man that has been in her life every since she was a little girl. Now she's a grown women that runs to him for help so when James opens the door to find her standing there asking for his help. He turns her down because he knows trouble had followed her and he was tired of killing and running. He tires to explain to her to let it go and go back home to her husband and she reveals that she was no longer married. As long as James is around Annie is untouchable as they run for their lives.
Thanks to James her father right hand man that has been in her life every since she was a little girl. Now she's a grown women that runs to him for help so when James opens the door to find her standing there asking for his help. He turns her down because he knows trouble had followed her and he was tired of killing and running. He tires to explain to her to let it go and go back home to her husband and she reveals that she was no longer married. As long as James is around Annie is untouchable as they run for their lives.
August 5, 2012
Twisted, Seductive and Deadly -
Moon Rise was not what I usually read, but based on the reviews I read, I had to give it try. Wow, I am glad I did. This was one of those stories that grabs you from the very first word and keeps you until the very end. It was seductive, scary, violent, twisted, sick, crazy and incredibly sexy. I loved it. I might even be a little ashamed to admit just how much I loved it.
This is the story of Annie Sutherland, whose father died and she was after the truth. She was convinced he was murdered and was convinced that James McKinley had all the answers. James is a ruthless killer who does not care about anyone or so it seems. He and Annie set off together on the run looking for the answer to one burning question, Who killed her father and why? She and James grow closer to the unfortunate truth and they fall hard for each other.
The killer ending will surprise you.
Moon Rise was not what I usually read, but based on the reviews I read, I had to give it try. Wow, I am glad I did. This was one of those stories that grabs you from the very first word and keeps you until the very end. It was seductive, scary, violent, twisted, sick, crazy and incredibly sexy. I loved it. I might even be a little ashamed to admit just how much I loved it.
This is the story of Annie Sutherland, whose father died and she was after the truth. She was convinced he was murdered and was convinced that James McKinley had all the answers. James is a ruthless killer who does not care about anyone or so it seems. He and Annie set off together on the run looking for the answer to one burning question, Who killed her father and why? She and James grow closer to the unfortunate truth and they fall hard for each other.
The killer ending will surprise you.
October 29, 2012
I was really surprised and disappointed in this book. I had heard such fabulous things about the author but in the end, I didn't like this book at all. I kept reading to see if it would get better (it didn't). I foresaw the ending, not because I'm psychic or extremely intelligent, but because it was expected and uninspired. The characterization was cliche. I understand that there needs to be a character arc - the bad boy with no soul needs to care about our prim and proper gal who has discovered her feisty side. While these two characters are fighting their attraction to each other (because of all of their emotional baggage of course), they are downright abusive. Though it isn't played out that way, the male protagonist pretty much rapes the female protagonist. It is entirely unbelievable that the characters would behave in such hateful ways toward each other, and then realize that they have been in love the entire time. Entirely disappointing.
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