Nancy Gideon – Masked by Moonlight

The first book in the Moonlight series, published May 2010.



IN THIS STUNNING FIRST BOOK FROM NANCY GIDEON'S SIZZLING NEW SERIES, A TENACIOUS COP AND HER SHAPE-SHIFTING ENEMY SACRIFICE EVERYTHING FOR FORBIDDEN DESIRE.

ALL SHE WANTS IS REVENGE.
New Orleans homicide detective Charlotte Caissie is dedicated to bringing down the crime boss responsible for her father's murder. Using Jimmy Legere's mysterious and irresistible right-hand man is a dangerous gamble, and not only due to his reputation as more monster than man. Because her feelings for Max Savoie are . . . complicated.

THEN HE RISKS HIS LIFE TO SAVE HERS.
Rescued from the swamps as a child, Max exists silently in Legere's shadow, heeding only his voice - until Charlotte Caissie awakens his emotions and tests his loyalties. Stepping outside his cautious rules threatens more than just his heart. He could expose his darkest secret.

NOW THEY'RE BOTH IN OVER THEIR HEADS.
Testing boundaries they weren't meant to cross means facing the truth about who and what they are - and what they need from each other. If Max is the murderer she seeks, Charlotte could be his next victim. She can't afford to trust any man. Good thing Max isn't one.


Charlotte Caissie is a police officer, homicide, in New Orleans, like her father before her. When Jimmy Legere, the mob boss, tried to buy her father, and that didn’t work, he kidnapped her and her best friend, and what happened with them, was not a good thing. But her father still didn’t cave, so Legere had him killed after all. Charlotte and her best friend were freed by Max, Legere’s young protégée. He never knew Max had freed them, or he would have punished him for the betrayal. Charlotte’s best friend dealt with it by becoming a nun, shutting out the world and men. Charlotte became a cop herself, dedicated to ridding her city of the mob who rules it. And taking down Legere is her number one goal in life.

Charlotte doesn’t know Max freed them, she was unconscious at the time. But she is very much attracted to him, even though she knows he is bad news, and Legere’s right hand and punisher. A murderer, even though she cannot prove it. But still, the attraction is only getting stronger. And Max loves Charlotte, which is not something Legere is happy with. He doesn’t need his man’s loyalties corrupted. He saved Max from the swamp when he was just a little boy and his mother was killed, raised him and took care of him. So he now owns Max, and he will do as he is told!

Legere’s cousin Petitjohn is trying to sow discord between them, buy having Max followed, and telling Legere about the meetings between Max and Charlotte. He wants to take over as the mob boss of New Orleans, Legere is old and sick and he won’t have all that long to live, but Petitjohn wants it now. And he wants to take his own revenge on Legere for killing his younger brother.

Charlotte wants Max for herself, and she thinks she can use him to give her Legere. So she comes on to him, with the risk of falling in love, trying to get Max to confess that he killed the guys who’s murders she is investigating. And now Max is torn between his loyalty to Jimmy Legere, and the woman he loves. What will he do when they both betray his love for them?


I’ve read this book thanks to the many great review I have read about this series. But I am not really agreeing with them. The book didn’t do much for me.
I really could not get in touch with Charlotte, nor with Max. I love strong characters to read about. And Max is really not alpha, he wants to be controlled. So when Jimmy is murdered, and he has to take over as new mob boss, and as alpha of the other shape shifters he never knew existed, it really is not his thing. He often cries, is weak, hiding away in a corner. So how can he ever take control?
And then Charlotte. She wants Max, and when she finally has him, she is afraid what it will mean to her job, her career. She cannot be seen with him, and have the other mobsters think Max has her in his pocket. Well, she should have thought of that before. So I just found her whiny. Strong in some aspects, and very weak and clingy to Max in others. And betraying him when she should not have done that.
It also took her a very long time to understand that Max is a werewolf (in this world building, the paranormal creatures are not out of the closet), but she accepts it and his other forms without questions, even lovingly. Even after he saved her from to would-be rapists, she didn’t want to believe him the murderer and even alibied him when another cop was questioning him based on a witness report.

The story didn’t really make all that sense to me, and I could not get into the characters. Max is just a hired killer, and I could not like that. Yes, he also saves some people, but does so by killing their problems. Both Max and Charlotte (who is sometimes called CeeCee, or Lottie, and something else), are acting ruthless and selfish and weak when they should be strong. So I don’t think I will read the next book, at least not for a while.

5 stars