Author: Tess Grant
Genre/Age: Paranormal/YA
Series: Full Moon Trilogy (Book One)
Publisher: Books We Love Ltd.
Links: Goodreads
Synopsis: Kitty Irish has heard all the rumors swirling around Daniel Phinney. Most of them involve a gun, a flask, and a temper. One chance encounter with the WWII veteran over a grisly find in the woods pulls the cover off the dark secrets of their small town, and Kitty is drawn into an unlikely partnership.
Armed with an antique rifle and a handful of homemade silver bullets, the two form an efficient team. Unfortunately, their game is werewolf hunting, and disaster is only a bite away.
That coppery smell was blood.
Maddie had the scent too. The golden retriever pressed forward, nose scuffling through the mulch. Her fluffy tail hung inactive. A wiggly rear end might divert too much energy from her nose.
Somewhere high above, a cloud ghosted over the sun, and the forest light grew dark green and cool. Kitty moved forward slowly. It would be just perfect to step into the middle of something completely nasty. Her shoes still looked mostly decent after a winter indoors. A big smear of muck across the toes would really round out her look.
Maddie suddenly growled, stopping dead. One paw hung suspended in the air and her body tensed.
“Maddie? What’s the problem?”
The retriever lowered her head to the ground, slowly pacing a circle. Kitty leaned over the spot that had thrown the dog off. Maybe it was a coyote. Maddie hated them.
A paw had indented the soft ground right where the aging dog had spooked. Kitty nodded—positive it was a coyote—and crouched down next to it to get a better look. Maddie circled around her, chest rumbling. Kitty knew a little about prints. Her dad had been pointing them out to her since she could walk. Deer and rabbit marks were everywhere, but this didn’t belong to one of the gentle guys. It had the four toes and pads of a predator, and it was big. Laying her hand over top of it, she could spread her fingers and barely cover it. Deep claw marks dug into the leaf mold ahead of the pads. Cats sheathed their claws when they walked; this was some sort of huge canine.
If this was a coyote, it was mutant. What sort of a thing made a print like that?
Kitty moved forward into the deep shadows under the trees. Something dead was in there. Flies buzzed and whirled under the trees. Maddie stayed where she was, guarding the print.
The carcass lay half-hidden under some ferns at the base of a broad oak. It was a deer, or what was left of one anyway. Its soft tan hide lay torn; its white stomach stained brown with dried blood. Great gashes ran the length of it, shoulder to haunches. Kitty’s stomach churned. This was about killing to kill; not one bite was missing. Sickened, she turned to leave, halting at the sight of the head. She had assumed it was at the end of the neck tucked away unseen under the bracken. She was wrong.
Completely detached, it lay under the next tree.
Whatever had done this was no dog.
Five Favorite Movie Scenes
by Tess Grant
The question for the day is what are my five favorite movie scenes? Wow! That’s a tough one. I’ve seen a lot of movies, but I tried to pull out five of my faves. I can’t say these are absolutely my most favorite scenes; they just speak to me. They’re all from relatively recent movies, mostly because these scenes have replaced many of the old ones I used to like. Read on to see what I like…there are definitely some trends that you’ll see in Hunter’s Moon!
The question for the day is what are my five favorite movie scenes? Wow! That’s a tough one. I’ve seen a lot of movies, but I tried to pull out five of my faves. I can’t say these are absolutely my most favorite scenes; they just speak to me. They’re all from relatively recent movies, mostly because these scenes have replaced many of the old ones I used to like. Read on to see what I like…there are definitely some trends that you’ll see in Hunter’s Moon!
1) Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War: The final scene is my favorite! Here’s your back story…the Avengers have been broken apart by disagreements. Iron Man has returned back to the Avenger’s compound but Captain America has gone rogue, leaving behind his shield and uniform. Some of the Avengers are locked in a floating prison. The final scene is a voice-over by Captain America reading a letter to Iron Man in which he relates their differences but acknowledges that when push comes to shove, he will always be there. As the voice-over draws to a close, it shows the teammates who are in jail. Sam, Cap’s best friend, paces like a lion, frowning. Then he spins around, a smile breaking across his face. From the shadows we see Steve Rogers approach with a matching smile. He has arrived to break them out.
Bottom line? When the going gets rough, your friends will always have your back. Sounds like Kitty’s and Phinney’s relationship from Hunter’s Moon to me.
2) The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy: Okay, true, these are two movies. But I wanted to point out a fight scene and I can’t choose just one. In Identity, an attacker comes after Jason with a machine gun and a knife. Jason goes after him with a pen. Yes, a pen.
In Supremacy, some guns come out, but the fight boils down to a knife…and a rolled-up magazine.
Bottom line: I’m all for super-powers and amazing prowess with a weapon, but sometimes the only thing you have at hand is your wits and whatever is closest. Like a pen or a magazine.
Or a homemade silver bullet.
3) The Hunger Games: The scene that always gets me from The Hunger Games is the scene where Rue dies and Katniss surrounds her body with flowers. Then as she walks away, Katniss locates one of the hidden cameras and raises her fingers in the District 11 salute. Unbeknownst to her, back in District 11 all the viewers raise their fingers in an answering salute before breaking out into a riot against the oppressors from the Capitol.
Bottom line: It just speaks to me. First the salute, then the answer. It’s powerful stuff.
4) Despicable Me: The Rescue. Vector has kidnapped Gru’s adopted girls and Gru has gone to get them back. Even though Gru is a supervillian, he’s not that physically imposing. So when he back-flips over heat-seeking missiles, punches a great white shark, and tight-ropes a wire thousands of feet above the earth just to save his girls because he loves them, it’s awesome!
Bottom line: Love can motivate some amazing feats.
5) Return of the King: Although the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy could probably count as one big favorite scene, Sam carrying Frodo up Mount Doom has got to be the best. Frodo is down and can go no further, exhausted by his long struggle with the ring. Sam, loyal to the end, cannot carry the burden itself, but he can carry Frodo and he does.
After nearly ten years as a forensic anthropologist, Tess Grant semi-retired to a farmette in the backwoods of Michigan. She lives at the edge of the Manistee National Forest with her husband, children, and a number of strange critters, none of whom are werewolves.
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