Customer Reviews

Moonrise

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of all the books historical and contemporary I really love and Keep, this is MY FAVOURITE! I have it in a well used paperback, but was delighted to find it in hardback.

WOW!! Anne Stuart is always SUPER but this one is absolutely a knockout!!!

Annie Sutherland is fast finding out her life was built on nothing but lies. Her father had been murdered. The former head of the CIA hit squad (though she does not know this), left her instructions,that she should seek out his former 'pet' James Mc Kinley...and man she thought she knew, and once even may have been falling in love with.

Only nothing is as it seems, and nothing was as it seemed. James is holding up on an island, looks like a man haunted by demons. Gone is the conservative bureaucrat she adored, leaving her facing a tortured fugitive - but one that is armed and extremely dangerous. Suddenly, the Texas accent is an Irish brogue, hinting he hold secrets that could mean her life.

Annie and James are thrown together on a cross-country trek, which eventually leads to Ireland and back again to the US, all on the quest to solve the murder of her father . Is James a cherish lover or the man assigned to kill her?

Stuart crafted a knock out of a book that should not be missed.

WISE Readers and Writers Book of the Month January 2000 and Book of the Year 2000

A master of the psychosis that rules the human mind, Stuart puts a fresh twist on the darker side of romance. Suspicion, murder and mayhem are interwoven with a strong sexual attraction between the two characters. Who to trust and who to love never become quite clear until the end. A very good novel from a writer who never disappoints.

Who killed Annie's father, and why,is the question to be answered by this very unique novel. Is James Annie's savior, or her killer? Even though you think you know the answers, the story pulls you in, and doesn't let go until the very last word. Anne Stuart's Moonrise does seduce the reader as well as the protagonists.

Annie Sutherland wants answers. After discovering her father's body at the bottom of the stairs with a broken neck, she is horrified to discover that he has been murdered. Until he was gone, she didn't realize that her father molded her into exactly what he wanted his only daughter to be, docile, elegant, and ladylike. He even went so far as to hand pick and train a husband for her. Even after realizing how much she was manipulated, Annie wants to find who killed the man she had loved forever. So she goes to the only person that she thinks she can trust, the man that her father loved like a son.

James McKinley is doing all that he can to keep himself alive. When Annie turns up on his doorstep in Mexico, he tells himself that it would be easier on both of them if he would just kill her. He can't do it though. He watched her grow from a child of seven to a woman of twenty seven, and he is unable to take her life in the many lethal ways he knows how. This infuriates him. He felt he lost his soul so long ago, and that this blond haired angel can make him feel anything again fills him with a rage that he embraces.

James and Annie travel the globe to uncover the conspiracy around Win Sutherland's murder. When the murderer was uncovered I was so shocked that I didn't comprehend for about a half a page! The only thing that I think could have been better was the ending. I am curious to see how Stuart would depict her darker characters taking a stab at a normal life, with a normal relationship.

Above all, this was a great book. If you try this and like it, also try Nightfall by Anne Stuart!

This was not a typical romance/suspense book! It was dark, exciting, a mile-a-minute adventure. James MacKinley was a killer; Annie Sunderland about the only person in the world who could get under his skin and boy, was it tough!

A 1996 book by Anne Stuart and not for the feint of heart. Very moving in many ways but not a romance that is smooth and sweet! This book had grit and one cannot put it down until the story is resolved.

Becoming a big fan of Anne Stuart's.

So here it is.....this is the third book I've read by Anne Stuart. I appreciate her willingness to go places and do things with her characters that many authors don't have the courage or talent to do. I've read A Rose at Midnight where the heroine was the "dark" character, and I've read Nightfall which might be the most memorable and haunting book that I've ever read.

Moonrise takes the idea of a "dark" romance to a whole new level. Nightfall was also very dark, but what I appreciated about Nightfall is that the reader is given a look into the relationship so that despite the "darkness" of the plot, you could believe in the couple. Not quite so with this book.

James McKinley is one tough guy! He is a killer, admittedly, and is cold as ice. He agrees to help Annie Sutherland get to the bottom of her father's murder. The suspense in this novel is it's greatest strength, and I dare you to figure out what's really going on before finally Stewart just outright tells you!

Although it is implied, I NEVER believed that Annie could love this man or that he loved her. This was devastating for me as I am a "romance is my number one priority" type of girl. I NEED to believe that a couple, regardless of how dysfunctional, truly care for one another. All that I believed was that James could kill Annie at any point of the book, and that Annie was stupid to be putting her life into this "loose cannon's" hands.

This is supposedly Stuart's greatest work, but it doesn't hold a candle to Nightfall IMHO!

Unpopular as I may be I have to say that this book wasn't what I expected based on all the great reviews received here. James McKinley, a very dark, dangerous man sets out to help Annie Sutherland, daughter of a man he loved as a father, find her father's killer. They are constantly pursued by assasins who want to end their lives to keep them for getting too close to the truth about an organization but the thing is that James wasn't ever really decent to Annie. How she could fall in love with such a man is beyond me. Ms. Stuart's books always have a dark and dangerous character that loves but doesn't want to admit it and protects but while this guy did protect when needed, where is the love? I have enjoyed all lf Ms. Stuart's other books especially Black Ice and Cold as Ice were favorites but this one.... not even close.

OH MY WORD! This book is so dark and deadly, you get this itchy claustrophobic feeling like it sort of crawls under your skin and makes it too tight! No one pushes my buttons the way Stuart does and this book - well, I cannot understand why it's not being reprinted! Is Signet books NUTS????

I will never forget James....pant pant!

I love tales of underworlds, and this one was really worth the premium. A treasure...to be appreciated by those of all ages. Put this one on the bookshelf next to Huck Finn

I picked up this book because reviewers have said this is Anne Stuart's best work. It was definitely darker and more intense than the handful of books that I have read of hers. Even though this book was darker than I usually like, it was great.

This is taking your bad boy hero to the extreme! James is an ex-terrorist/ex-CIA agent that is a killing machine and his only weakness is Annie. The author never comes out and says it, but I believe that James has been in-love with Annie for years and in the end, he will do anything for her and to protect her.

It is hard to imagine their life beyond this book, but Stuart's books often end that way.