Rayne Auster

The blurb outlines two elemental lands and implies that the two lands used to balance each other's extremes with mystic, legendary Gatekeepers. The story centers around the king of the fire-land and a slave who stumbles into his bonding ceremony on the day he comes of age.

I like the duality concept, but unfortunately, the book is not smart. The heroes are utterly passive and never proactive; secondary characters tell them where to go and what to do at every turn. The author doesn't follow show more clear cause and effect. In the beginning, how does a slave get into a king's bonding ceremony? Was it held in the center of the marketplace? Why were there no guards, even though the country is in a state of war and extreme unrest? World and setting details are incongruent or don't make sense with the information given, either. If a Council rules until the king comes of age, why did one guy become a tyrannical regent? The slave lived a life of complete isolation, yet claims to be well-read. So who taught him to read? Who taught him to speak or how to be mannerly? It's also worth noting that he is the only slave in the entire book and the whole concept of slavery is never mentioned in any other context, ever.

The story bits are broken up by repetitive "scholarly" pieces which read like Rod Sterling (of the original Twilight Zone) beating fantasy-facts into the reader's head with a baseball bat. The author is weird about details, too. She spent a lot of time talking about rock patterns in the desert, but after the king's formal ceremonial robes, the reader has no idea what anyone wears. When the main characters meet other peoples, there's no telling if or how they dress differently. I must also say, it's distracting to read of sitting people sitting down (again), or naked people getting undressed within the same scene. A good editor would help with those pesky point-of-view slips, too.

In short: NOT recommended. In fact, AVOID this one. show less

I bought this a while ago, primarily because of its cover art. This cover art, by the way, has very little to do with the actual story. The character on the cover looks like he's probably a grouchy, broody fighter. Ankerite has his wolfie ears, but that's about where the similarities stop. Ankerite's first response to trouble isn't to fight, because he knows he can't possibly win against a true werewolf, but rather to run or hide. I'm pretty sure Ankerite doesn't even have the character on show more the cover's facial scar.

In my review for Mary Calmes' Change of Heart, I wrote “On the one hand, I consider this book to be really flawed in a lot of ways. On the other hand, Calmes hit on enough of my favorite romance tropes that I was willing to put up with the flaws.” That's pretty much how I feel about this story, too. I've read it maybe three times now. The first time around, I didn't really notice its flaws because I was blinded by the parts of it that appealed to me. The flaws became more obvious after I reread the story. I still enjoyed it, but I'd hesitate to recommend it to other people.

I love reading about romance between an outcast character and a more powerful/popular/accepted character who doesn't care about the outcast character's status. Moonlight's Silver definitely pushed the right buttons with me in that respect. His whole life, Ankerite was considered a freak, unable to shift fully into one form or another. Linden stood up for him and protected him right from the get-go, without even knowing anything about him or why he was running from Cole. He immediately took issue with Cole referring to Ankerite as “it” rather than “he,” and he didn't like it when one of his pack members got a little too familiar with Ankerite. I loved that.

Like I said, though, this story definitely has flaws. One of them is that there's not much there – this story felt more like a lead-in to a longer work than a complete and self-contained short story. By the end, readers know very little about any of the characters, except for maybe Ankerite. And the information we're given about Ankerite just brings up more questions. How long has he been on his own? Did anyone in his family ever try to look for him? What about Sam, his bodyguard? Did Sam only take care of him because he was paid to, or did he genuinely like Ankerite? What was Ankerite's life like when he wasn't running from werewolves? Was he friends with any of this coworkers at the bookstore he worked at, or did he just hide at home whenever he wasn't working? None of these questions are answered, and, as far as I can tell, Auster has no other stories, novellas, or books set in this world that could help fill in the blanks.

The world-building, what there was of it, wasn't very good. There were werewolves, they had territories that didn't necessarily encompass whole cities, and half-werewolf children couldn't fully shift into either human or wolf form and were generally looked down upon by other werewolves. Linden's pack seemed to be some kind of more-accepting offshoot. That's pretty much it. I couldn't even really say how homosexuality was viewed among the werewolves in this world, because, on the one hand, it seemed to be accepted without comment (Ron and Darren were more amused by Linden's protectiveness of Ankerite than anything) and, on the other hand, there was this thought Ankerite had when Linden kissed him:

“This was wrong but, at the same time, oh so right. Ankerite knew logically that they shouldn’t be doing this, but he no longer cared.” (21)

Was he thinking this because they were both guys? Because he was a half-werewolf and Linden was a full werewolf? I have no idea. Even during my first and most generous read, those two sentences confused me. This wasn't the only thing in the story that didn't quite make sense - how many modern-day people would be "crying for a stake" (17) after seeing Ankerite's ears? More likely, they'd initially think he was a cosplayer of something.

After my first read, I decided I enjoyed this story enough that I wanted to try one of Auster's longer works, so I bought Gatekeeper. Unfortunately, the flaws I was able to ignore in a shorter work like Moonlight's Silver became unbearable in Gatekeeper, and I have yet to finish that one.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

I love shapeshifter stories, especially in M/M romance. So I decided to give this short story a shot. Overall, it was enjoyable, but not quite as good as it could have been. Since this is a short story, the world-building was sketchy but more than sufficient for the length. The main character also got just enough background/description to make me like him, and want to know his story. And want him to have his HEA. Where it fell short was with his love interest.

Ankerite has been on the run - show more he's a half breed (not fully werewolf nor human). After successfully hiding for years he's discovered by another werewolf who begins to hunt him. Luckily, he runs into Linden's territory where he's claimed as the Alpha's mate. There is a very tender and explicit sex scene between them that made the story worthwhile, but Linden is never more than a one dimensional character. This limited the romance severely, even for a short story. However, the author introduces other characters and hints at unanswered questions that could lead into another story. I think that would be great - like Amber Kell's werewolves, the series of novellas is stronger as a whole than any individual story. Rayne's writing is good and I would eagerly read another story set in this world. show less

This short story is a big teaser, and I'm not sure I'm using the word in a positive meaning :-) Joke aside, I like it but after having just finished one of the nicer sex scene I read lately, I'm here eager to read more and the short story is ended, just like that, in a blink of an eye. (big pout).

First teasing: the cover. Have you seen that? well obviously you have, I'm posting it very big so you can see it. The cover is actually a big teasing even if it's not fully respectful of the main show more character, Ankerite is more a lost puppy than a dangerous killer like he appears in the cover. Nevertheless the cover served its scope, since it teased me into getting this short story, even if I usually don't read the shorts by this publisher.

Second teasing: the story. Yes, I know, many of you are skittish when dealing with human and "animal", and thinking at a boy/man who is not fully man and not fully wolf, a guy with eyes, ears and tail like a wolf and all the rest like a man, makes you cringe. Me? it makes me interested. What can I say, I find it cute. Even more when the guy not only has "external" evidences of his nature, but also some inner "urges", like the need to mating, and get all excited around his mate, Linden. And Linden is more a big mutt than a dangerous wolf... right, he can be dangerous if he wants, and he is an Alpha for his pack, but with Anke he is more a both lover than "brother", he represents all the family the boy lost and now he desperately needs.

Third and last teasing... big one this one: the end. Actually also the beginning and all in between. The reader is plunged in the middle of a story, there was something else before, and it seems really interesting, Anke's original family. They need to be wealthy, they hired a bodyguard for their "freak" son, and this bodyguard was a nice man. What happened? where is that nice man? Why Anke felt the need to leave his family when he was only 16 years old? And then what happened before?

On Linden's side: what is his story? Who is Darren? and Cole and Ron? what is his life before that made him such a nice, but strong man? And now that he has found his mate, what will happen to them? This story is just too short to fully satisfy me, I see a lot of potential in this setting, I really hope this is only an excerpt of something longer, just a taste to tease the reader to come back for more. To me, it worked perfectly.

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/834446.html show less