Moon Sworn by K. Arthur

My time of mourning has begun. Keri Arthur’s Moon Sworn is so fabulous that its criminal. I mean, this is it for Riley. There is no more and after reading Moon Sworn, I so want more.

Shape-shifting werewolf and vampire Riley Jenson is through with death—causing it, solving it, surviving it. Her soul mate, Kye Murphy, is dead—and at Riley’s own hands. Not even the seductive embrace of her vampire lover, Quinn, can fully ease her mind, for she has begun questioning everything that makes her Riley—including her job at the Directorate.

Now, the ritualistically slain bodies of ex-cons have started turning up. Reluctantly, Riley takes the case, but something even worse is waiting in the wings. A vicious enemy from her past is determined to strip Riley of everything that gives her life any meaning: her lover, her brother—and even her own identity. Can Riley survive this ultimate assault? All she knows is, she must fight one last time to find answers, before everything goes dark forever.

Seriously, Moon Sworn was freaking fabulous and I can’t believe we won’t be returning to Riley’s world any time soon. Yes, I know we have Risa’s book coming out soon, but it won’t be Riley.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been assured that we will see Riley in the Dark Magic series, but I’m still going to miss her.

So yes, I am a huge fan of Keri Arthur, but that’s because her stories are always entertaining and are not clichéd in any way.  Okay, so maybe that sounds kind of weird, at least it does in my head, but even though this was Riley’s last, it wasn’t as traumatizing as some of her previous ones.  HOWEVER, Riley is threw a huge curve ball that makes this new case more emotionally rougher than anything else.  I love how Arthur made sure that Riley went out with a bang without making her life even more miserable than it has been.

That’s another thing I thought was great.  Riley has been through so much, especially in Bound to Shadows, that it would have to be hard for anyone to move on from those type of experiences.  Yet, by the end of Moon Sworn, Riley is…yeah, I’m not going to finish that thought.  Let’s just say that Riley doesn’t get the life she wants, but she’s not going to be unhappy with it either.  I really don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but yeah, if you’re like me, you’ll like what she gets dealt with.

Even though Moon Sworn is the end, I have a lot of hope that this isn’t the last that we’ll see of Riley.  During my interview with Keri, she does mention that Riley (along with Liander, Rhoan and Quinn) will show up in the first book in Risa’s series (the spin-off).  Granted, it might not be a lot, but while a lot of things are tied up in Moon Sworn, I see a few things that could easily be expanded on later with novellas or short stories in anthology collections.  I don’t know if we’ll see anything, but there’s definitely some things left behind that may show up later.  If anything, we’ll definitely see some things with Risa – we’ll have to (hopefully).

Throughout the whole series, Riley’s wolf pack has always been a thorn in her side and we finally get to see Riley, and Rhoan, fight back.  Blake really oversteps the line this time and all I am going to say is I so love Riley and Rhoan’s reaction.  They’ve dealt with Blake before, and I thought they made a very good point in not messing with them, but hey, fools never learn.

Really, Moon Sworn was simply an amazing read that did manage to answer all of the questions I had, as well as leaving me with all sorts of ideas on how Riley and her family live at the end.  I don’t want to say too much, because I so could, but seriously, anyone who is a fan of Riley and Keri Arthur are going to love Moon Sworn.  So don’t wait, go out and buy it today.

Simple warning…there may be spoilers in the comments.  There were things I would love to discuss, but I dislike revealing anything in my reviews.  However, if someone brings it up, I’ll jump in for sure.  You have been warned.  *grin*

Read Order:
Full Moon Rising
Kissing Sin
Tempting Evil
Dangerous Games
Embraced by Darkness
The Darkest Kiss
Deadly Desire
Bound by Shadows
Moon Sworn

Also reviewed by:
Fiction Vixen
Michelle’s Book Blog
The Geeky Bookworm

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

4 Comments

  1. I’m so excited to read Moon Sworn – I love the Riley Jensen series so much – I feel like Riley has grown and changed alot with the series and I love it when characters “grow-up” and mature as a series goes on. I’m sad that it’s the last book though and hope that Riley gets a good happy ending.

  2. I did not love it. I have loved every single one before it. I would still suggest buying it. It seems to me that Riley is suffering from pretty severe PTSD, which totally makes sense. I did not like that it seemed like a pretty obvious diagnosis to me but it went untreated (and I don’t mean in the traditional sense because who know how dhampires are to be treated for PTSD). I do not like that Riley made pretty big decisions when she seemed so shell shocked. I was bothered that during the time she had lost her memory (which kind of seems like a long-twisted-not the best way to get revenge) she was so curious she could not stop chasing the bad guys. She spent a lot of time feeling and telling her that she does not want a life in the directerate but when she is without her memories she shows that she is not afraid of action, knows how to hunt a lead and feels driven to hunt a lead. I don’t like that there was not another outlet shown for Riley to use all of her skills that she obviously enjoys using. When Kate Daniels walks away from the Order, she is given her own firm to operate. What is Riley going to do? An occasional consult for the directorate seems pretty lame. I don’t Riley to lose being herself and it feels like the life of wife and mother is set up to do just that. I just felt like the author sent Riley home to knit socks. I also do not like that they left open what type of changes the drugs were doing to Riley. It was obviously an issue but not a wrapped up issue. I did not get the feeling that Riley was getting exactly what she wanted just in a different way. Yes I understand she is getting mate, she got her moon ceremony and she is going to have babies to mother, but what about her? Being a wife and mother is not enough, although it is wonderful. I wanted a piece of the puzzle filled in that left me feeling like Riley understood what she wanted for herself and found it. Instead I feel like she was traumatized and she is going to role herself in the being a spouse and a mother (roles I know she has always longed for and are true to character) to chase the PTSD away. And it just doesn’t work that way. There has to be an outlet for Riley. Something that keeps her being her when mothering and being a wife just overwhelms a person. Hope it makes sense.

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