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Under a Twisted Moon
Amelie hid what she was her whole life, always running from the monster inside, afraid one day it would come out unbidden and destroy everything she knew. She found herself trapped in a life with no escape, sleeping with the enemy and avoiding anything that brought her joy,
Until the day the monster broke free.
Amelie was thrust into a world of new dangers and
challenges only to find where she truly belonged. Now if she could only do something about the enemy in her bed...
Until the day the monster broke free.
Amelie was thrust into a world of new dangers and
challenges only to find where she truly belonged. Now if she could only do something about the enemy in her bed...
306 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 9, 2013
1 person is currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Susan Simone
18 books10 followersSusan is a writer and artist by day, a child and pet wrangler by night, and occasional crazy person on the weekends. She lives in a place where new hybrid cars, beat up farm trucks, and Amish horse and buggies meet in fast food parking lots for coffee.
Susan grew up in central Wisconsin, only to move to rural Ohio in adulthood. She's a country girl through and through with progressive and optimistic ideas of nation and society. A shamanic pagan by faith and major sci-fi fan she is an eclectic person and welcomes as much diversity into her life as she can to feed her fertile imagination. She lives by the motto, "Let your freak flag fly!"
Susan is the author of "Silent Heart", "Under A Twisted Moon", and other titles forthcoming. In addition she has published articles on the Yahoo! Contributor Network in a wide variety of subjects such as the validity of deity in the American government and the use of easy to find herbs.
In addition to writing Susan is an editor with J. Ellington Ashton Press as well as a graphic design student at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division. She does her own cover art and has worked with businesses in the past for logo creation and event announcements.
Susan grew up in central Wisconsin, only to move to rural Ohio in adulthood. She's a country girl through and through with progressive and optimistic ideas of nation and society. A shamanic pagan by faith and major sci-fi fan she is an eclectic person and welcomes as much diversity into her life as she can to feed her fertile imagination. She lives by the motto, "Let your freak flag fly!"
Susan is the author of "Silent Heart", "Under A Twisted Moon", and other titles forthcoming. In addition she has published articles on the Yahoo! Contributor Network in a wide variety of subjects such as the validity of deity in the American government and the use of easy to find herbs.
In addition to writing Susan is an editor with J. Ellington Ashton Press as well as a graphic design student at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division. She does her own cover art and has worked with businesses in the past for logo creation and event announcements.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 26, 2013
Amelie is trapped in more ways than one.
A long time ago when she was a young girl she was forced to hide away a part of herself that she did not yet understand. She changed to make her parents happy and for a time things stopped being so hard. Eventually she grew up and now she's the wife of Rick McConnell a soldier in a secret branch of the military. It's a life she knows and understands, she loves being a teacher and while things aren't always the best she thinks she's got a handle on her life.
Nothing is out of the ordinary until the day that one of her students gets lost in the woods and the part of herself she thought she'd left in her past comes back.
Hounded by the police, reporters and her abusive husband Amelie feels like everything is falling apart. She never wanted for the monster inside her to ever get out again and now all of the things she thought were so simple are becoming far more complex. What will she do to adapt?
Amelie is a heroine that grows over the course of her ordeal. After years of abuse she's learned a rhythm that can help her avoid her husband's wrath and when it can't the ways that she can deal with the least amount of punishment. When her past is revealed however, it becomes harder and harder to hide from what she is and what she must do to have a life. She must begin to see her inner strengths and accept that she can change the place where she's been held prisoner all these years. While she's aided by some unexpected allies it is SHE who must make the changes she needs in her life.
Under a Twisted Moon is my favorite book by Simone so far because it manages to do so much with it's 490 pages. Amelie could easily have been another PNR heroine or hallmark lady of tragedy. Instead she's a real person dealing with very real problems and not all of them were generated by her husband.This sense of realism offers you a chance to see into an abusive relationship and how it destroys both people from the inside out, especially when the root of that relationship is founded in two different pasts. We never know if Rick's abusive personality comes from his top secret military service but it does seem to have increased as the violence of that role has escalated. Amelie is in a relationship with Rick because he was an escape from her abusive parents but we often seek out that same sort of relationship when we try to set out on our own.
Amelie is confronted by the monster within. A part of herself that was villianized by her parents and hidden away by Amelie to stop their abuse. This inner monster then becomes Amelie's salvation when she finds that it's one of the many things that could have offered her strength if she had held on to it instead of locking it away. The monster then is really her freedom, her sense of independence and confidence. Her parents push this side of her away and effectively neuter her spirit, making her a victim who can then be victimized by her spouse when he comes along. The cycle of abuse not only makes people into victims of the abuser it sets the scene for other abusers to take on that same role for the victim and later the potential children born of that relationship.
Amelie's inner monster is at first broken and flawed, it has been marred by her abuse and because of this she fears it as much for the pain it causes her to address it. Over time and with the guidance of others she is able to repair the abuse and it's revealed that it was the way she chose to mangle and hide away the monster that made it hurt her.
Real life victims of abuse face the same sort of flawed outlook and rationalization for their staying in the relationship. They see the parts of themselves that could be their strengths as weaknesses, things to be avoided and buried inside, they become damaged for lack of that element of their spirit and only they can bring it back to the surface and reassemble it in a healthy way.
Clearly Simone's message here is that abuse can only crush a spirit if it is unwilling to see the strengths hidden within and wield them to gain back control of self. Amelie was always strong she only needed to see it.
A long time ago when she was a young girl she was forced to hide away a part of herself that she did not yet understand. She changed to make her parents happy and for a time things stopped being so hard. Eventually she grew up and now she's the wife of Rick McConnell a soldier in a secret branch of the military. It's a life she knows and understands, she loves being a teacher and while things aren't always the best she thinks she's got a handle on her life.
Nothing is out of the ordinary until the day that one of her students gets lost in the woods and the part of herself she thought she'd left in her past comes back.
Hounded by the police, reporters and her abusive husband Amelie feels like everything is falling apart. She never wanted for the monster inside her to ever get out again and now all of the things she thought were so simple are becoming far more complex. What will she do to adapt?
Amelie is a heroine that grows over the course of her ordeal. After years of abuse she's learned a rhythm that can help her avoid her husband's wrath and when it can't the ways that she can deal with the least amount of punishment. When her past is revealed however, it becomes harder and harder to hide from what she is and what she must do to have a life. She must begin to see her inner strengths and accept that she can change the place where she's been held prisoner all these years. While she's aided by some unexpected allies it is SHE who must make the changes she needs in her life.
Under a Twisted Moon is my favorite book by Simone so far because it manages to do so much with it's 490 pages. Amelie could easily have been another PNR heroine or hallmark lady of tragedy. Instead she's a real person dealing with very real problems and not all of them were generated by her husband.This sense of realism offers you a chance to see into an abusive relationship and how it destroys both people from the inside out, especially when the root of that relationship is founded in two different pasts. We never know if Rick's abusive personality comes from his top secret military service but it does seem to have increased as the violence of that role has escalated. Amelie is in a relationship with Rick because he was an escape from her abusive parents but we often seek out that same sort of relationship when we try to set out on our own.
Amelie is confronted by the monster within. A part of herself that was villianized by her parents and hidden away by Amelie to stop their abuse. This inner monster then becomes Amelie's salvation when she finds that it's one of the many things that could have offered her strength if she had held on to it instead of locking it away. The monster then is really her freedom, her sense of independence and confidence. Her parents push this side of her away and effectively neuter her spirit, making her a victim who can then be victimized by her spouse when he comes along. The cycle of abuse not only makes people into victims of the abuser it sets the scene for other abusers to take on that same role for the victim and later the potential children born of that relationship.
Amelie's inner monster is at first broken and flawed, it has been marred by her abuse and because of this she fears it as much for the pain it causes her to address it. Over time and with the guidance of others she is able to repair the abuse and it's revealed that it was the way she chose to mangle and hide away the monster that made it hurt her.
Real life victims of abuse face the same sort of flawed outlook and rationalization for their staying in the relationship. They see the parts of themselves that could be their strengths as weaknesses, things to be avoided and buried inside, they become damaged for lack of that element of their spirit and only they can bring it back to the surface and reassemble it in a healthy way.
Clearly Simone's message here is that abuse can only crush a spirit if it is unwilling to see the strengths hidden within and wield them to gain back control of self. Amelie was always strong she only needed to see it.
August 4, 2016
Initially I was uncomfortable with the level of domestic abuse portrayed in this book but after reading how Amelie becomes empowered once she embraces her wolf, I realised the violence wasn't gratuitous. The book starts with her being weak and vulnerable and someone who is scared of her own shadow. By the end, she is very much an Alpha wolf who is strong, resilient and in full control of her destiny. It sends out a powerful message to those women and men as to what they can achieve with the right love and support.
Amelie is a recessive born werewolf who is married to Rick, a Special Ops Marine who hunts down and kills werewolves. Amelie has always known she is different because of the exorcisms she was put through as a child, but doesn’t understand about werewolves or even believe they exist. When her partial transformation is filmed and shown on TV, she comes to the attention of Nathan, the Alpha of the local werewolf pack. It was Nathan’s intention to kill her for revealing their kind to the world but after meeting her and realising that she knows nothing of their kind, he decides to educate her instead. He also believes that she is an alpha female wolf which is unheard of! Her exposure turns her into a minor celebrity with news crews hounding her everywhere she goes. Her career as a school teacher is put on the line because of the film and she also ends up on the hit list of the independent Nosferatu (secret werewolf hunters) as well as the Military's werewolf hunters. During her ‘education’, she is taught how to ‘change’ and she slowly but surely bonds with each member of the pack. The pack trainer and medic, Little John, becomes aware of the domestic abuse and he makes it clear to her that the abuse is NOT okay. He leaves her to tell Nathan about the abuse and being given that choice further increases her empowerment.
She eventually finds the courage to leave Rick and decides to tell him when he comes back from his latest mission. Things go wrong with her plans however, and Rick ends up almost killing her during one of his rages. When she finally tells Rick that their marriage is over, he is arrested and she ends up back at the den full time. Her relationship with Nathan deepens as does her relationship with all of the pack members and she finally feels that she has a family. Rick, however, refuses to believe that she would choose a ‘dog’ over him and persuades himself that she is being held against her will. When the pack relocates without leaving any clues, Rick's rage comes back into play but this time, it is his lieutenant who suffers at his hands. Facing a court martial, Rick escapes and goes in search of Amelie and the pack with plans to liberate her from the pack. The only problem with that plan is that he doesn't know where the pack has moved to.
The story didn’t end as I expected it to but it didn’t disappoint too much. It would be nice to see how the other characters develop but I think this is a stand-alone novel. Despite my initial misgivings, I absolutely loved the book and was engrossed from the first page. I haven’t read any of the author’s other work but I would love for her to write more romantic suspense stories involving werewolves!
Amelie is a recessive born werewolf who is married to Rick, a Special Ops Marine who hunts down and kills werewolves. Amelie has always known she is different because of the exorcisms she was put through as a child, but doesn’t understand about werewolves or even believe they exist. When her partial transformation is filmed and shown on TV, she comes to the attention of Nathan, the Alpha of the local werewolf pack. It was Nathan’s intention to kill her for revealing their kind to the world but after meeting her and realising that she knows nothing of their kind, he decides to educate her instead. He also believes that she is an alpha female wolf which is unheard of! Her exposure turns her into a minor celebrity with news crews hounding her everywhere she goes. Her career as a school teacher is put on the line because of the film and she also ends up on the hit list of the independent Nosferatu (secret werewolf hunters) as well as the Military's werewolf hunters. During her ‘education’, she is taught how to ‘change’ and she slowly but surely bonds with each member of the pack. The pack trainer and medic, Little John, becomes aware of the domestic abuse and he makes it clear to her that the abuse is NOT okay. He leaves her to tell Nathan about the abuse and being given that choice further increases her empowerment.
She eventually finds the courage to leave Rick and decides to tell him when he comes back from his latest mission. Things go wrong with her plans however, and Rick ends up almost killing her during one of his rages. When she finally tells Rick that their marriage is over, he is arrested and she ends up back at the den full time. Her relationship with Nathan deepens as does her relationship with all of the pack members and she finally feels that she has a family. Rick, however, refuses to believe that she would choose a ‘dog’ over him and persuades himself that she is being held against her will. When the pack relocates without leaving any clues, Rick's rage comes back into play but this time, it is his lieutenant who suffers at his hands. Facing a court martial, Rick escapes and goes in search of Amelie and the pack with plans to liberate her from the pack. The only problem with that plan is that he doesn't know where the pack has moved to.
The story didn’t end as I expected it to but it didn’t disappoint too much. It would be nice to see how the other characters develop but I think this is a stand-alone novel. Despite my initial misgivings, I absolutely loved the book and was engrossed from the first page. I haven’t read any of the author’s other work but I would love for her to write more romantic suspense stories involving werewolves!
August 6, 2016
I found this to be a well-written and well-developed story. Although not my usual type of read, I am definitely glad I picked this up and hope to read more from Simone. Find yourself captivated in the dual perspective of UNDER A TWISTED MOON ... Perhaps you'll also find yourself wishing your inner demon a werewolf.
August 4, 2015
i liked this book lot especially for a stand alone novel
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews