Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson

Summary (courtesy of GoodReads):   Claire is having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and gorgeous Matthew keeps chatting and flirting with her as if she's the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: she's a werewolf.
As Claire is initiated into the pack of female werewolves, she must deal not only with her changing identity, but also with a rogue werewolf who is putting everyone she knows in danger. Claire's new life threatens her blossoming romance with Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt. Now burdened with a dark secret and pushing the boundaries of forbidden love, Claire is struggling to feel comfortable in either skin. With her lupine loyalty at odds with her human heart, she will make a choice that will change her forever?

And here's what I thought:   I had been reading other bloggers' reviews of this book and they seemed pretty varied between liking this book, and not really loving it.   So, I decided to pick it up and give it a try (the baeutiful book cover was also part of the allure).  Of course, I had to wait for it  (I was on the holds list at our library).    What I found was a good story, although one that had a few flaws in it.   I'm not going to have any spoilers here, and you can see the summary of what the book's about above.   Overall, I actually liked the story.   Claire isn't a perfect character, and has moments of being a little.... whiny.   However, I think she's pretty realistic for a 16 year-old who's just figuring out she's going to be in for some big changes.   She's not happy about it, and she'd much rather concentrate her energy on Matthew --- who, of course, happens to be the son of a major-league jerk, and the enemy of her mother's pack.   I felt that the author did a good job of adding some mystery into the story, and making it hard to tell at times who the rogue werewolf is.   I also like how Christine Johnson made the pack all-female, and how being a werewolf wasn't seen as a curse at all, but as a gift from the Goddess.    I suppose I could do a little paragraph here about female-power, and monthly curses....but I won't.   I know you're glad I didn't.

The flaws I found in the book weren't big enough to keep me from turning the pages.  However, there were a few "Huh?" moments --- like, in this world werewolves are known to exist, but Claire's mom's pack feels the need to keep everything a big secret.  I mean, one bad rogue doesn't make an entire group evil.   But then again, Matthew's dad is a fanatic; I don't think he'd listen to reason.  He probably hates werewolves so much because he knows he can never be one.   Is this wolf-envy?   But I digress.   Overall, even though this story wasn't perfect, it had enough elements that I enjoyed that I wanted to keep reading. 

If you'd like to read some other well-written reviews of this book, please visit:  The Book Smugglers, The Story Siren, and The Ninja Librarian.