After reading Once in a Full Moon I’ve learned an important fact, never kiss a guy under a full moon especially after he’s just been bitten by a wolf. Bad idea. Things will just get crazy and he’ll turn into a wild animal…literally. Celeste learned that lesson the hard way, even though she fair warning but why would a seventeen year old listen to a physic right? They aren’t real right? Wrong. Once in a Full Moon had the potential to be a great uniquely interesting story but it fell a bit flat for me. Though towards the end had some interesting moments. The pacing of the beginning was a bit slow, since the story is told in first person by Celeste our main character we see her life through her eyes. Celeste thinks she has the perfect life with the best friends and the perfect boyfriend Nick, the most popular guy in school. Things get a bit interesting when Brandon comes into the picture and Celeste feels this intense connection to him. Just your typical high school romantic triangle. Through out the story there was something missing, I wanted more action, more spark. I wanted Celeste to have more conviction in her wants and decisions and not worry so much about what her friends wanted. Celeste wasn’t a strong enough character to hold the story. Speaking of her friends, I didn’t feel true friendship from Ivy or Abby half of the time. I don’t know if it was intentional but it felt like they just wanted her to be something that she wasn’t and keep to the status quo, not really listening or caring about her feelings. Nick wasn’t memorial at all; he just acted selfish and stuck up most of the time, only really focusing on him self. Which I wanted Celeste to drop him so bad but in the end there hast to be a character we love to hate and that was defiantly Nick for me. After a couple of chapters in I started to fear the story would fall totally flat but Brandon did bring some small spark back into the story. When Celeste gave into her felling for Brandon and stopped listening to everyone and went with her heart, that’s when a bit of magic started to happen. Unfortunately it was so late in the story when it started. Brandon brought the intrigue and mysteriousness to the story that I liked. I wanted to see more of Brandon and have the chance to see inside his head. I feel this story would have worked better being told from Brandon’s point of view since all the interesting things were happening to him. Hopefully if this story continues into a series we can see things from Brandon’s point of view. Even though the pacing was a bit slow and I didn’t really care for the characters I found that did like what Ellen Schreiber was trying to do. Though the tale of the werewolf have been around for centuries. I like the strange twist that Ellen Schreiber created and how Celeste played as important role in the plot as Brandon. I wanted a stronger focus on the paranormal aspect and how Celeste and Brandon dealt with it. More action and reaction. I liked how the story ended leaving me curious and wanting to know more about how Celeste and Brandon relationship would survive.
