Review: Claire de Lune

Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson

publisher: Simon Pulse

release date: May 18th 2010

hardcover, 336 pages

intended audience: Young Adult

source: YA Addict ARC Tours

rating:


Description from goodreads:
Torn between two destinies?

Claire is having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and gorgeous Matthew keeps chatting and flirting with her as if she's the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: she's a werewolf.

As Claire is initiated into the pack of female werewolves, she must deal not only with her changing identity, but also with a rogue werewolf who is putting everyone she knows in danger. Claire's new life threatens her blossoming romance with Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt. Now burdened with a dark secret and pushing the boundaries of forbidden love, Claire is struggling to feel comfortable in either skin. With her lupine loyalty at odds with her human heart, she will make a choice that will change her forever?

Review: This one really had some interesting twists on a common theme, and it made for an extraordinary, fun story. Claire is a regular teenage girl who just wants the normal things: a mother who is around more, the guy she likes to like her, to talk to her best friend about boy problems. But normal is a little difficult to come by in a town where every person in it is afraid of becoming the next werewolf attack victim. A girl can't even enjoy her sixteenth birthday party without it being evacuated because of a sighting! That normal life gets even more out of reach for Claire when she discovers she herself is turning into a werewolf.

Although for me, the plot did drag in a few parts, for most of the story, it was propelled at a nice pace by some really great plotlines. The relationship between Claire and her mother was really fascinating---I thought it was very realistic the her powerful, strong minded mother, Marie, who had so much pride in being a werewolf would expect her daughter to take to it so easily. In fact, Claire hates it, she hates lying to the people she loves and she hates the animal instincts that come with turning. I loved the twist that all werewolves were women, and they were more like covens than packs. It gave them more of a magical feel.

The love story is really sweet. I love the risks that Matthew and Claire took to be to together and to make it work. Their whole relationship is a huge risk since Matthews father is a scientist whose whole life's work is about finding werewolves and "curing" them. He is leading the town in the effort to get rid of werewolves and so Marie forbids Claire to see Matthew. Ahhh, forbidden love. I love it!

I love how this story constantly kept you guessing who the "bad guy" was. Several different characters were suspicious and had motive, and in the end it was not who I thought it would be!
All in all, a really great story! I'm not if there will be a sequel or not, but I will definitely pick it up if there is!
Favorite quote: She meant it as a joke, Claire could tell, but the secret shriveled and dried in Claire's mouth like an autumn leaf.