fictionalkate's review
3.0
The book After Moonrise tells two stories – one each by bestselling authors PC Cast and Gena Showalter. Both stories are separate but each involves the fictional paranormal detective agency, After Moonlight.
The first book, Possessed by PC Cast, tells the story of Kent Raef – a psychic detective specialising in being able to Track violent emotions. When Lauren Wilcox knocks on his door needing his help to solve the mystery of how her twin sister Aubrey died, Raef gets drawn into a paranormal phenomenon he’s never seen the likes of before. Aubrey’s spirit brings him light and joy instead of the dark and negative he’s been exposed to all his life. With the twins life forces being linked and Lauren getting weaker every time Aubrey tries to voice what happened to her – Raef has to solve the mysteries of Aubrey’s death before Lauren becomes a victim too.
In Gena Showalter’s story, Haunted, Aurora Harper seeks her new neighbour Levi Reid’s help when she starts painting a murder scene. Convinced that her paintings are the key to a murder she somehow witnessed and the repressed, Harper and Levi seek the assistant of After Moonrise before someone else gets hurt.
I really liked the After Moonrise link between the stories. The agency makes an appearance in each story and there are a few characters that appear in both stories.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the romance in Possessed. It felt a little rushed and a bit too much like insta-love for my liking. The nature of their semi-love triangle was a little strange and I think had Possessed been longer (and the romance and partnerships been allowed to grow a little more) I would have enjoyed the situation more. Despite being a similar length, I much preferred the relationship in Haunted. Levi and Harper felt more natural in their pairing and I enjoyed witnessing their relationship grow.
The mysteries in both stories were entertaining and delivered some twists that I wasn’t expecting.
Overall I enjoyed both stories and consider them to be representative of the authors work. I’d definitely recommend this collaboration for fans of PC Cast and Gena Showalter.
The first book, Possessed by PC Cast, tells the story of Kent Raef – a psychic detective specialising in being able to Track violent emotions. When Lauren Wilcox knocks on his door needing his help to solve the mystery of how her twin sister Aubrey died, Raef gets drawn into a paranormal phenomenon he’s never seen the likes of before. Aubrey’s spirit brings him light and joy instead of the dark and negative he’s been exposed to all his life. With the twins life forces being linked and Lauren getting weaker every time Aubrey tries to voice what happened to her – Raef has to solve the mysteries of Aubrey’s death before Lauren becomes a victim too.
In Gena Showalter’s story, Haunted, Aurora Harper seeks her new neighbour Levi Reid’s help when she starts painting a murder scene. Convinced that her paintings are the key to a murder she somehow witnessed and the repressed, Harper and Levi seek the assistant of After Moonrise before someone else gets hurt.
I really liked the After Moonrise link between the stories. The agency makes an appearance in each story and there are a few characters that appear in both stories.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the romance in Possessed. It felt a little rushed and a bit too much like insta-love for my liking. The nature of their semi-love triangle was a little strange and I think had Possessed been longer (and the romance and partnerships been allowed to grow a little more) I would have enjoyed the situation more. Despite being a similar length, I much preferred the relationship in Haunted. Levi and Harper felt more natural in their pairing and I enjoyed witnessing their relationship grow.
The mysteries in both stories were entertaining and delivered some twists that I wasn’t expecting.
Overall I enjoyed both stories and consider them to be representative of the authors work. I’d definitely recommend this collaboration for fans of PC Cast and Gena Showalter.
katiecatbooks's review
2.0
Spirits. Romance. Vapid females.
Story: This book contains two novellas from two different authors both set in the same city and about the same detective agency. The first story is about a male detective with psychic powers trying to help a set of female twins. The second story is about a male detective and a blond female artist trying to catch a killer.
Characters : Curtis Raef is an older attractive detective, cold hearted, sarcastic and talks down to women. Lauren Wilcox and her twin are young, attractive and despite how he treats them, they both find Raef irresistible and throw themselves at him. Levi Reid is a rough and tough detective, quick to leap to his gun and other forms of violence. He is sarcastic and treats women like they are objects. This doesn't bother Aurora Harper, who has just moved in down the hall. Named after a Disney Princess, she is blond, waif like, and throws her full trust and body to Levi without any hesitation. Both males are misogynistic and all three females are vapid.
Language: This book contains Harlequin level sexual content and it's cast is made up of adults who all think and speak like 12 year old girls. The plot of the first book is extraordinary flimsy and whole the plot in the second book is more original, it's horrible characters drag the novella down.
This is my first reading experience of both authors and I have zero interest in pursuing any of their books in the future.
Story: This book contains two novellas from two different authors both set in the same city and about the same detective agency. The first story is about a male detective with psychic powers trying to help a set of female twins. The second story is about a male detective and a blond female artist trying to catch a killer.
Characters : Curtis Raef is an older attractive detective, cold hearted, sarcastic and talks down to women. Lauren Wilcox and her twin are young, attractive and despite how he treats them, they both find Raef irresistible and throw themselves at him. Levi Reid is a rough and tough detective, quick to leap to his gun and other forms of violence. He is sarcastic and treats women like they are objects. This doesn't bother Aurora Harper, who has just moved in down the hall. Named after a Disney Princess, she is blond, waif like, and throws her full trust and body to Levi without any hesitation. Both males are misogynistic and all three females are vapid.
Language: This book contains Harlequin level sexual content and it's cast is made up of adults who all think and speak like 12 year old girls. The plot of the first book is extraordinary flimsy and whole the plot in the second book is more original, it's horrible characters drag the novella down.
This is my first reading experience of both authors and I have zero interest in pursuing any of their books in the future.
shelleyrae's review
3.0
After Moonrise includes two loosely linked short stories by bestselling paranormal romance authors, P.C. Cast and Gena Showalter.
In P.C. Cast's Possessed, Kent Raef is a Psy investigator whose particular gift allows him to track negative emotions. When Lauren Wilcox approaches Raef to help solve the murder of her twin sister, Aubrey, Raef is puzzled that he can find no trace of the killer until the sisters reveal their unusual plight. Aubrey's murderer has stolen her soul and while the twins can communicate, each time Aubrey begins to speak of her death she is forcefully ripped back into the veil, taking part of Lauren's life force with her. To release Aubrey's tormented spirit and save Lauren, Raef must find the killer, and hope.
Haunted by Gena Showalter is peripherally linked to Possessed when Aurora Harper and Detective Levi Reid seek the help of the After Midnight Agency. On leave from the Oklahoma police force after attacking a serial killer, Levi blames the odd blackouts he is experiencing on stress. Holed up in his new apartment, nursing his anger over his suspension, Levi is not inclined to help his crazy blonde neighbour when she knocks on his door.
Harper is desperate, each morning she wakes to discover she has painted a faceless, gruesome murder scene and she is convinced the image is a repressed memory of a brutal crime. Worried she, or her best friend Lana is at risk of becoming the sadistic killer's next victim, Harper begs Levi to help her solve the mystery.
While each tale combines romance, raunch, mystery and action both stories have strengths and weaknesses.
I really liked that they were linked by the AM (After Mooonrise) Agency as provides a framework that unites the stories despite their differences.
I thought the plot in Haunted to be stronger, even though I figured out the twist fairly early on (can you guess which whispered line from a popular movie was running through my mind), yet the premise of Possessed had some interesting and original elements.
I preferred the relationship that developed between Levi and Harper to the uncomfortable triangle in Possessed, though Cast deserves credit for creativity. The sex scenes in both tales are heated, balanced precariously between erotica and fade to black.
The characters in each story are well defined given the constraints of the format. The male leads, are the tortured alpha's common to the genre and the women have core strength despite their weaknesses.
Fans of Cast and Showalter will enjoy this offering as should those who readers who read within the genre, especially if you have a thing for ghost stories. I would not be surprised if further collaborations based around the After Moonrise Agency are already in the works.
abbeyleec's review against another edition
1.0
I didn't really like these books. I wanted to like these two stories because the authors are amazing but something about the two stories bored me. I did finish this book in a day and I laughed in some parts. There just wasn't much development and there was a lot of sexual stuff that I didn't think was needed and was very instant lovey.
booksavvyreviews's review against another edition
1.0
Nope. Mm, nope and nope. I accidentally bought this book and I thought heeeey why not, sure...I've never read any P.C. Cast and I've been meaning to give Gena Showalter another chance.
Nope, nope, nope.
Apparently I bought the audio to the book which made it worse, sometimes I find audio able to pull me in where a book doesn't. This was a lose lose situation. The audio made it seem highly lame and even more dry.
Ahhh. Just no.
Nope, nope, nope.
Apparently I bought the audio to the book which made it worse, sometimes I find audio able to pull me in where a book doesn't. This was a lose lose situation. The audio made it seem highly lame and even more dry.
Ahhh. Just no.
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