Welcome to the third installment of M. D. Massey’s Druidverse series, in which Colin McCool joins the local werewolf pack in an attempt to learn to control his alter-ego. He also, likely to no one’s surprise, gets dragged into Fae business with some exceedingly sinister criminal connections.
Speaking of unhealthy connections, this story is darker in many ways than the previous two as Colin comes face to face with parts of himself that he has previously rejected and tried to bury. He also is confronted with blatant child exploitation and his own propensity to not just violence, but torture, so if graphic depictions of these things could cause problems for someone in the audience, you might be better served skipping this one.
That said, this book featured some entirely new as well as briefly encountered faces from previous stories with which Colin must deal, though the cast didn’t expand by more than a handful. I didn’t have trouble remembering who was who. However, some of them didn’t seem to be very fleshed out. Otherwise, the more established characters, as well as Colin himself, were well drawn.
The plotting was tight, though straightforward, as I’ve come to expect. The author introduces a new plotline under the main featuring his girlfriend, Bella, but it didn’t impact the events of this story. It mostly seems to have been left dangling as a hook on which to hang future novels in the series.
As for the world-building, Massey fills in more about werewolves, shapeshifters, and how they fit into and function in this universe. The Fae are also shown as more gray in their behavior and morality than as strictly capriciously cruel agents of pain and destruction. Colin still keeps in mind that no matter how much he comes to like and respect a few of them, trusting them or letting his guard slip around them would be a grave mistake.
In all, Moonlight Druid was a good reading experience. Massey kept his storytelling uncomplicated, but engaging. I enjoyed this portion of Colin’s tale as much as the previous two, sensitive material aside, and I look forward to picking up the next book in the series.
Book Title Moonlight Druid
Author M. D. Massey
Copyright 2017
Publisher Modern Digital Publishing
Edition 1st
Format Kindle
Dreams of Blue Glass 