Blog Tour: Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty | Book Review

Title: Blood and Moonlight
Author: Erin Beaty
Genre: YA Fantasy / Mystery
Publication Date: June 28th, 2022
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to the publisher and TBR and Beyond Tours for a complimentary earc to review! All opinions are my own.

Check out the other tour dates here!

“In this medieval YA fantasy thriller, an orphan with a secret, magical sight gets caught between a mysterious genius and the serial killer he’s hunting.

Rising above the city of Collis is the holy Sanctum. And watching over its spires is Catrin, an orphan girl with unique skills—for she alone can spot the building’s flaws in construction before they turn deadly.

But when Catrin witnesses a murderer escaping the scene of his crime, she’s pulled into the web of a dangerous man who will definitely strike again. Assigned to capture the culprit is the mysterious, brilliant, and enigmatic Simon, whose insights into the mind of a killer are frighteningly accurate.

As the grisly crimes continue, Catrin finds herself caught between murderer and detective while hiding her own secret—a supernatural sight granted by the moon, destined to make her an outcast, and the only thing that might save her and those she loves from becoming the next victims…” (Goodreads)

Amazon | B & N | Book Depository | Indigo | Indie Bound

After a few years as a stay-at-home mother and navy wife with a casual family blog, Erin upped her game and started writing her first novel in the spring of 2014. She is now the author of the Traitor’s Circle Trilogy published by Imprint, Macmillan and in several foreign languages. She and her husband have five children, two cats, and a vegetable garden and live wherever the navy tells them to go.

Erin has taught classes at The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk and has also served on the advisory board of Hampton Roads Writers Author.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Facebook

Let’s talk about the cover first. It is gorgeous and I love it so much! It is definitely a favorite for this year. I’m also pretty ecstatic to have finally read another book by this author. It has been so long in between her last trilogy and I knew from the beginning of seeing this book I had to read it.

One thing that hasn’t changed is her writing. It’s still something I enjoy and I like seeing what new characters she has come up with as well as the plot. This plot was much different from her previous books as this time around she tackles a murder mystery. Can’t go wrong with a change and it’s always cool to see what an author can do when they switch things around.

The book is told from one perspective and it comes from Catrin. She works under an architect and helps find flaws in the structure so that no workers will hurt themselves. I can’t say I have ever read a book with that job and it was nice to see something different. I also liked learning about the structure they were building and those who also worked with Catrin. Sometimes they could be quite shady. As the murdering begins other characters were introduced and it was hard to pin point who to trust. I’m not surprised that Cat was so wishy washy with her choices of who it could be. I would have been in the same boat!

There were a few characters that I liked more than others. This could be due to page time as well. Two I really liked were Simon and Julianne (I think that is how you spell her name but I could be wrong 😂). They both were dealing with a lot in the background and some of it is discussed on page. One’s mental state was much worse and I felt for them. It was hard to see them deteriorate over the course of the book. I did like the added author’s note in the back that discussed what she was going for when it came to that character.

The fantasy aspect of this book was pretty interesting to say the least. The reader is discovering this secret world right along with Cat and I wished I had more of it! The magic that dealt with the moon and blood was just too cool to be so short.

Even though there was a lot of things I liked about this one, I still wish I got more of certain things and that the reveal and conclusion wasn’t so anticlimactic for me. Obviously this may not be an issue for others and so it’s not really a big deal.

Overall, this was a nice read in-between all of my heavier fantasy novels I have been reading. It gave me a cool mystery to dive into and maybe one day we will get more from this world. *fingers crossed*