Once in a Full Moon by Ellen Schreiber

I’m not sure where to even begin a review of this book.  I was really looking forward to reading it.  I have been enjoying some of the werewolf books that seem to abound these days.  Some wonderful examples of  books with werewolves include “Shiver” by Maggie Stiefvater, "Blood and Chocolate" by Annette Curtise Klaus or any of the werewolf books by Kelley Armstrong.

“Once in a Full Moon” was not one of those shining examples.  I hate to be mean, but I think I’ve read fanfiction that was better written than this book.  The main character was shallow and self-centered.  The story was banal and trite.  There is not one character that I really liked in this book, which is unfortunate.  Brandon had some possibility, but the reader never gets to see him much since the main character professes her love for him and then spends all of her time eating hot wings with her popular, athlete ex-boyfriend. 

I honestly never figured out what the purpose of this book was.  There was no resolution and there really was no storyline.  The dialogue and the characters lacked depth.  And I was never convinced that the 2 main characters were in love.  Now, I have heard criticism of “Twilight” and even “Romeo and Juliet” that claims that the characters fell in love too soon.  I am a diehard romantic at heart and I will definitely buy into the whole “love at first sight” thing if it’s done correctly.  In this book, it was NOT done correctly.

I appreciate that the publisher was willing to give me a galley copy of this book to read and I sort of feel bad that I'm posting a review that speaks so poorly of the book.  But honestly, I could not find one redeeming quality in this book.  Some of the lines were absolutely absurd and I couldn't believe that an editor would actually let them be printed. I had to force myself to actually finish the book.  Oh!  Wait a minute!  There is one thing that I liked.  The cover is very nice.

I was hoping that I would enjoy this book and then maybe find a reason to pick up the Vampire Kisses series by this author.  This book has convinced me that my first impression of those books is probably spot on.  What is that impression?  That cheese never goes well with monsters.

I did look at some "official" reviews and I noticed that some reviewers felt that the story lacked substance but that "teenage girls will still like it."  I have to say that lines like that make me quite angry.  I think that the teenage girls that I teach would be just as insulted by the banality of this book as I was.  Let's give those teens more credit than that.  Most teens that read a lot are very articulate and have high standards for what they read.  I can't think of any teenage girls that I know that would think highly of this book.

A grade?   Wow……I am always a teacher who has sympathy for kids who try.  I guess I could find a way to give this a D just for the fact that someone tried to write it.  But I would add a comment that says that readers are better off diving for stories on fanfiction.net than spending time and money on this novel.