Masked by Moonlight by Nancy Gideon

Masked by Moonlight by Nancy Gideon
Purchased a kindle version.

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PJVs QUICKIE POV: Immersion into Nancy Gideon's world might not have been a ride lined with daisies and chocolate, but it was completely entertaining and engrossing. Gideon plunges you face first into the criminal underbelly of New Orleans, shakes you up a bit with some tough moral choices and delivers characters that will resonate with you for a long time after you've put the book down.

REVIEW: Charlotte "Cee Cee" Caissie is a detective with the NOPD, intent on bringing down the crime syndicate that runs the New Orleans criminal element. Her motivations are highly personal and revenge motivated, the Mafioso in charge having had her father killed and herself and her friend kidnapped and assaulted repeatedly. She is on a mission of social justice that will not ebb until she sees Jimmy Legere behind bars, or better, dead. What is putting a major cramp in her plans though, happens to be her growing attraction to Legere's muscle and the most feared man in New Orleans, Max Savoie.

Gideon's Moonlight series is a winner, in my opinion. I might not have agreed with the actions of the characters, or the direction everything took, but Gideon succeeded in sucking me into the series...hook, line and sinker. Her understanding of the seedier aspects of crime life had me wondering who her relatives are. She introduced character after character, that at first you might not like, but in time they grew on you so completely that you might actually love 'em a little bit. Gideon looks at things from a different angle than most PNR writers, the characters were deeper emotionally than I am used to, and her "beasts" were original and realistic.  They were troubled, deep and dark, but not in the usual snarky/disturbed UF way, the characters were very 3 dimensional and their actions were believable.

My troubling spots regarding this novel were those disagreements with the character actions. Without giving too much away, let me try to explain. The entirety of novel has to do with the struggle between right and wrong and the grey line that good and evil walks. On one hand you have Max, crime bosses enforcer, a man feared, but not respected because he is basically a dog on a leash. In the beginning he is almost in possession of a childlike naivete, a do-as-your-told and don't ask any questions mentality. Upon coming into contact with Detective Caissie his leash becomes too tight - and the scales fall from his eyes. His sexual awakening takes him from a dog on a leash, to one straining against the cage he had been put in. His actions are completely understandable... it is the Detective's that strike me as wrong. Just a slight association with any criminal element could be detrimental in officer's career. The slow descent made it more believable, but I guess the totality of the situation. I just didn't see this relationship as working. Which I guess, in the end led to the intensified suspense of the novel.

In light of New Orleans being my life-long domicile I put the relationship in this novel in perspective of how it would be viewed by the general public. Not to good. New Orleans is known for it's corruption. Our police force is highly tainted with cases like the Danziger 7 predominant in our news of late. If it were known that a female officer was associating with a high-profile crime boss...well the woman would be stripped of her badge almost immediately, especially after some of the incidents that occurred in the novel.

So, while and excellently written and highly entertaining paranormal romance, I did have a few hiccups with setting and plot threads of the story-line, BUT, I will be reading on and love the fact that the series was released so quickly. And that is my long and drawn out opinion.


RECOMMENDATIONS: While not similar in any way, Masked by Moonlight was very reminiscent of the Anita Blake series, the earlier novels. It was the inner struggle between the black and white right and wrong, and the real grey version.  If you enjoyed Anita in her pre-ardeur books, you should enjoy the Moonlight series by Nancy Gideon.