Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Hunter's Moon Blog Tour: Book Review & Interview with Author Lisa Kessler

I am happy to be hosting Lisa Kessler's Hunter's Moon Blog Tour today!

Read on for everything about rye book, about the author, my book review & an exclusive short interview with Mrs. Kessler!

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Sasha’s future was stolen from her the moment she was bitten. Now she's on the run from the Nero Organization that transformed her from a human detective into a shape shifting jaguar assassin. When a rogue bounty hunter threatens her younger sister, she'll be forced to fight, and with nowhere else to turn, Sasha will need to trust the one man who has every reason to want her dead.

Aren is a werewolf with a secret. While protecting his twin brother and Alpha of the Pack, he found his one mate for life. Sadly she's also the jaguar assassin who tried to kill them both. Now Aren is struggling between his animal nature to love and protect her, and his loyalty to the Pack.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lisa Kessler is an award winning author of dark paranormal fiction. Her debut novel, Night Walker, won a San Diego Book Award for Best Published Fantasy-Sci-fi-Horror as well as the Romance Through the Ages Award for Best Paranormal and Best First Book.

Her short stories have been published in print anthologies and magazines, and her vampire story, Immortal Beloved, was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award.

When she's not writing, Lisa is a professional vocalist, performing with the San Diego Opera as well as other musical theater companies in San Diego. You can learn more at http://Lisa-Kessler.com

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BOOK REVIEW: Hunter's Moon is the second book in author Lisa Kessler's Moon Series, about a Pack of werewolves living in Reno, trying to avoid an organization called Nero, who want to experinent on them and other shifters, jaguars.

In Moonlight, we learned about Adam Sloan and his finding his mate, Lana, a jaguar. In Hunter's Moon, we read from his twin brother, Aren's, point of view, and his mate: Sasha, a jaguar assassin who had tried to kill him and capture Lana so Nero could experiment on her.

Now Sasha is on the run from Nero, after she realized that there was no cure to make her human again. Nero tries to find her, but their hunters all wind up dead, thanks to Aren's desire to protect his mate. But, as be gets closer to Sasha, what will happen? His twin might've been mated to a kind jaguar, but his was a deadly killer!

And, since a werewolf novel is nothing without a little (actually, make that a lot) of danger, Sasha's human sister is now the target of a crazed bounty hunter sent by Nero, and the only place she'll be safe is with the Pack, none of whom are too fond of Sasha.

In this novel we learn more about the Pack, more about Nero and a lot more about human nature and the meaning of live. As the reader learns about Sasha's past and self-hate, they will feel for her as a friend, and many will swoon over Aren even more than Adam (I can honestky say that I did!).

It is refershing to read a story with frequent plot twists, revelations and romance that doesn't take away from the real story.
Mrs. Kessler's novels keep getting better and gripping the reader into their velvet chains.

If you haven't read Moonlight, do that before you pick up Hunter's Moon! There are a lot of spoilers from the first book, as it is the continuation! And be on the lookout for the next books, focusing on Nadya, Sasha's young sister.

Overall, this is a book that will keep the reader enchanted, make them laugh, cry and cringe. Amazing read for fans of romance, the paranormal and adventure stories!

5 out of 5--epic!

AUTHOR INTERVIEW:

1. I'm sure you'll get this one a lot, but why did you choose to write as Sasha and Aren this time around and what was the biggest difference as opposed to writing as Adam and Lana?

Great question! Each book in the series will be a new main pair, and the plotline of each book really leads us toward the next couple as the larger picture of Nero unfolds during the course of the series. After the big battle at the end of Moonlight, we weren't sure if Aren killed or saved Sasha, so it felt right that their book should be next to finish that story.
There was a huge difference between Aren and Sasha and my previous pair. Unlike Lana from Moonlight, Sasha knew what she was up against. It was so fun to write her, and I actually interviewed my cousin who is a female detective to get all the weapons information and police-sounding phrases. Lots of Sasha's kick-ass-ness is due to my cousin's insider info.
And Aren was very different from his twin in book one, not only because he has a permanent injury to his ankle, but he also felt extremely torn between his mate and the Pack. They had good reason to hate Sasha, and he knew that, so it made for layers of conflict to work my way through. :)

2. Why did you make both brothers fall for jaguars? Was it because they are twins or did it just happen?

It actually just happened. When Sasha head-butted Aren in the fight in Moonlight, it also hit me right then that it would be amazing if that was the moment he realized she was his mate. LOL
It didn't occur to me until much later that both brothers were mates to jaguars.

3. Why did you use Elvis as such a big part in Hunter's Moon?

When I named Adam and Aren I knew Aren's name was spelled uniquely because of his mother's love of Elvis. It was really fun for me to weave Elvis music into the book. I'm a huge fan and even got married by Elvis in Las Vegas! True story!

4. What emotions/lessons do you want readers to take from Aren and Sasha's stories?

I felt like they both learned so much! I think the bottom line of this book is that forgiveness often needs to start with yourself. And I think another point that resonated through the story is that love without trust isn't love at all.

5. The next book in the series is going to be from Nadya's point of view. Can you tell the reader a little more about it, please?

The next book, Blood Moon, will be Nadya and Gareth's story. Poor Gareth! He's lost every member of his family and now he finally finds his mate, but she's dying after being bitten by a werewolf with mutated DNA. Ugh!  It's a really powerful story so far though! I really love Gareth. He's very tortured, and Nadya is the opposite. She knows her future looks grim, but she's not hiding from it. She wants to really live with whatever time she has left. It's going to be a really powerful book...  (Don't tell Gareth, but I already know how to save Nadya. He'll figure it out.... eventually!)

Purchase Hunter's Moon via the following:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

iTunes Books

GIVEAWAY:

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Interact with Mrs. Kessler online via the following:

Official Site

Twitter

Blog

Facebook

Moon Series Facebook

Goodreads

14 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for reviewing Hunter's Moon!!! I'm thrilled you enjoyed the book and secret confession.... I fell harder for Aren too! LOL Don't tell Adam! :)

    Thanks for the great interview questions too!

    Lisa :)

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  2. My pleasure! Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the tour! I look forward to Blood Moon!

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  3. Awesome read a must for anyone.
    Great interview.

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  4. Thank you. Mrs. Kessler is always a joy to work with!

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  5. Loved Hunter's Moon, I can't wait for the next book!

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  6. :) Indeed. It sounds like it's going to be wonderful!

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  7. Awww you guys are making my day!!! I'm so glad you're enjoying the Moon Series! :)

    Thanks for coming by!

    Lisa

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  8. I can't wait for you to get to know Gareth better in Blood Moon!!! :)

    Thanks for coming by and commenting!

    Lisa

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  9. Were you married by an Elvis impersonator? OR how long have you been married? I thought ya'll were just-a-few-years-newlyweds. :-))) I'm from Memphis. I ran into Elvis twice after square dancing... he bought our pizzas and walked around and introduced himself each time... because he wanted the pizza parlor for his private party. LOL! We didn't mind moving on out as he was so nice about it. I used to walk around his backyard every time I had my car worked on... the dealership was right next door. I still can picture the string mop that always hung from his back door and the TCB garden that housed his Mom. Unfortunately, I was never at a car dealership when he came in as he'd always buy cars for everyone there. My best friend in high school got a TCB ring as she was at his jeweler when he walked in. sigh... Loved his songs... I had tickets to his concert in Memphis that he never made it to... he died before the concert. Oh! AND I square danced with one of the doctors and 1 of the nurses who were on duty at the hospital when he died and one of them assisted at his autopsy too.

    Great interview Lisa! I loved Aren's name :-)

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  10. Haha This is why I love doing interviews: we learn so much & get great conversation pieces! :)

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  11. OMG those were AWESOME Elvis stories!!! :) I hope you kept those tickets... :) Does your friend still have her TCB ring??? I'd completely geek out!!! What cool memories of Elvis! :)

    I got married by an impersonator in Vegas... It was SOOO fun! Elvis drove me down the aisle in a pink Cadillac! Seriously! I'll have to see if I can post a couple pics... Most fun wedding ever!

    Thanks for commenting and sharing your stories Linda!!! You're the coolest!!! :)

    Lisa

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  12. I'd love to see your pics Lisa! :-)))

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  13. Thanks for the interview. I read book 1 in the series and enjoyed it very much and I'll absolutely read book 2 - I just have to wait some more days...

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  14. Glad you liked the interview! Book 2 is even better than the first; I'm sure you'll love it!

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