Review: Blood Moon (Drake Chronicles, #5)

Blood Moon by Alyxandra Harvey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


3.5 stars

The music was bad, the fires were cozy. It was nice. Normal.
You know, until the screaming.
And that kind of scream in Violet Hill could mean only one thing.
Vampires.

Although I had a lot of fun reading it, the fifth and penultimate installment of the Drake Chronicles didn’t quite meet my expectations. Blood Moon is more like a really long chapter than an actual book. It starts exactly where Bleeding Hearts left off, with Solange’s three sets of fangs in Kieran’s neck, and it ends with another vicious cliffhanger.

Remember my Storm review from about a month ago in which I kept going on and on about the four hot Merrick brothers? Well, there are seven Drake brothers, they’re vampires and they’re all gorgeous. The youngest, Nicholas, is in a relationship with his sister Solange’s best friend Lucy, and they make the cutest couple in the history of the universe. Quinn finally abandoned his womanizing ways for Hunter, a vampire hunter and a student at the Helios-Ra academy. Logan is bound to Isaboe, a Hound vampire that survived the French Revolution. Connor is hopelessly in love with Christa, Lucy’s cousin who was recently turned into a vampire. But none of that matters now that the Blood Moon festival is approaching and their mother’s coronation is just day away.

Everyone misses the good old days when the Drake family was living in exile in Violet Hill and all they had to worry about were the Helios-Ra agents roaming the woods. Everyone, including me. I understand how a series works, I know that Harvey needed to up the stakes so close to the series finale, but the sheer number of tribes and groups, human and vampire both, that were going against the Drakes was staggering, and I was confused and lost most of the time.

Blood Moon is told from Lucy’s, Nicholas’s and Solange’s perspective. Although my favorite couple didn’t get to spend much time together, I could feel how strong their relationship has become and how much they love each other. Lucy has always been one of my favorite characters in the world, she’s what’s pulling me back toward these books and I can totally imagine her as my best friend. (She’d have to actually exist first, but you know, details.) Nicholas is not far behind, he is the perfect brother, the perfect young vampire (NOT of the vegetarian kind) and a perfect boyfriend to Lucy. I loved seeing his family and Lucy through his eyes again. Solange, on the other hand, was a disappointment. I can’t say I ever really liked her, but now she’s reached the point of no redemption. Of course the cause for her actions was made clear in the last part of Blood Moon, but I’d already stopped caring by then, and I don’t think I’ll ever care again.

Bloomsbury and Walker Children’s decided that it’s time to wrap up this series, and I have to say I agree with them. Harvey mentioned the possibility of writing a spin-off about Lucy and I truly hope she’ll get her chance. She and Nicholas are the only ones I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to. The last book is called Blood Prophecy and should be out in January 2013.