Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff

I would like to thank Queen of Swords press for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Queen of Swords Press

Published - Out Now

Price - £13.72 paperback £3.70 Kindle eBook

Becca Thornton, divorced, middle-aged and trying to embrace a quiet life, discovers that there are still plenty of surprises to be had when her menopause kicks in with bonus lycanthropy. And she’s not the only one. The seemingly peaceful and dull town of Wolf’s Point has its own all-female werewolf pack and Becca has just become its newest member. But it’s not all protecting Wolf’s Point, midnight meetings at the Women’s Club and monthly runs through the woods. There are werewolf hunters in town and now they've got Becca and the Wolf’s Point Pack in their sights.

As if that wasn’t enough, Becca’s cute lesbian werewolf neighbor, Erin, is starting to haunt her dreams as well as her doorstep. What’s a newbie werewolf to do, between hot flashes, silver bullets and unexpected transformations? Can Becca overcome her fears and help the werewolves defeat their greatest enemy?

There are many tales and legends about humans being able to change into animals. It’s not surprising that we wonder what it would be like to swim, fly or see the world with different eyes. One of the most common legends is the werewolf where under the influence of the moon a human turns into a powerful and often wild version of the wolf. Very often such tales have been male focused with wolves being a metaphor for men’s unleashed behaviour and often focused. It’s a lot less common for women to be at the heart of the story but in Catherine Lundoff’s highly enjoyable fantasy story Silver Moon we meet an unusual but really well delivered take on the legend.

In the small remote American town of Wolf’s Point Becca Thornton has already faced a number of changes in her life. Her husband has left her for a younger woman, she now scrimps and saves in the local DIY store and increasingly in her mid-forties she finds her body reacting strangely. But Becca’s menopause seems to also be bringing out some wilder behaviour. Smell is heightened and urge to bite. It soon is revealed that for middle aged women Wolf’s Point often brings about a further type of change the ability to become a werewolf. The local Women’s Club has known this for hundreds of years and have been watching Becca for a while. They invite her to join the Pack but Becca finds this an unwelcome change to her life and while she processes what this means the town of Wolf’s Point finds an old enemy is returning for revenge.

This is a great start to a fantasy series and has a refreshing take with a focus less on men and their inner wolves and instead looking at female characters that in many stories have stopped having any function when they hit their late forties. What makes this work is the focus on our entry point character of Becca and she’s a great working class everyday character who has just gone on with rebuilding her life after various mishaps so the last thing she needed was becoming a werewolf.

Here though the werewolf gets to explore a woman not giving in to her beast but finding her own strength to control her body and instincts and how this links to a woman going through the menopause is a really interesting idea. This isn’t a power for the young it’s only given to those the town’s magic deemed responsible. We get some really good character work of Becca reacting in horror, finding out what she can do and then facing up to taking control. She thankfully doesn’t become a Lone Wolf either again Lundoff explores the idea of a Pack where here it’s the women’s group which contains a mix of women from all walks of life, cultures and sexuality. Only by women working together can the town be protected. It’s also where Becca realises a fellow werewolf named Erin is looking increasingly as someone who could become more than just friends if she wanted. It’s delivered lightly but it’s very much about a woman finding out what life in middle age can offer and not be feared.

Alongside this however we get the main plot and we see as there are werewolves there are usually slayers of werewolves to stop. Lundoff again avoids the obvious and here is a more interesting story of other werewolf groups out there less interested in co-operation and more focused revenge and stopping future werewolves. An unusual female character who knows about Wolf’s Point and yet has joined this group makes the story get a character who isn’t just a black and white villain in terms of motivation plus they are very crafty themselves. Always good to have a formidable foe in a tale and the second half of the book delivers on various wolf versus human battles in which Becca has to learn her way to approach. Really good action scenes keep up the tempo regularly and yes teeth will be used!

Overall I really enjoyed this story’s approach and refreshing angle on a legend too often dominated by man pain. Well worth your time and I’ll be looking at the sequel soon!