Character Interview: Rylie Gresham (All Hallows' Moon)

Please welcome our very special guest Rylie Gresham from the pages of Six Moon Summer and All Hallows' Moon by S.M. Reine.

SM:  Thanks for joining us today, Rylie! Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself?

Rylie:  Okay. Yeah. Hi, my name is Rylie Gresham. I'm about to turn sixteen years old. I hang out in coffee shops and sometimes drink coffee even though my mom said that's why I'm all skinny and short. I like art and movies and hanging out with guys, since girls are catty and weird. I also had a really bizarre summer.

SM:  What made your summer bizarre?

Rylie:  Well, my parents divorced, and they sent me to summer camp so their lawyers could fight in peace. I guess summer camp isn't that strange for most people, but I used to hate the outdoors, so it was really new and unusual for me. Until... things changed.

SM:  That sounds menacing.

Rylie:  If you think werewolf bites are menacing.

SM:  Whoa! So what you're saying is that you're a werewolf.

Rylie:  Yeah, I guess, something like that.

SM:  How can you be "something like that"?

Rylie:  I'm not like most werewolves. It took, like, three months for me to change after I got bitten. And I don't just change on the full moon. I change on the new moon too. But once I wake up human again the next morning, I can never remember what I did all night. I'm not dangerous or anything, I promise. I did eat a deer once, but that was an accident.

SM:  What are you going to do now that you're a werewolf?

Rylie:  I'm going to go live on my aunt's ranch. She's out in the country, so it should be safe for me to turn into a wolf twice a month out there. Way safer than in my mom's condo. Plus I'm really strong now that I got bitten, so I bet I'm awesome at ranch type chores.

SM:  Does your aunt know?

Rylie:  No! Nobody can find out that I've changed. I mean, who would believe me? The only guy who knew was Seth, but I don't know what happened to him.

SM:  Who is Seth?

Rylie:  Seth is really mysterious, so he's hard to describe. He's got dark hair and broad shoulders and miles and miles of muscly arms. And he's got that smile... Wait, what was I talking about?

SM:  How does Seth know about werewolves?

Rylie:  He's got a huge secret of his own. I don't think I'm supposed to tell anyone.

SM:  What's going to happen now?

Rylie:  I don't know. I guess I have to try to finish high school, although that means a whole new set of people to get used to, and a whole bunch of new problems to face. But whatever it is, I can take it on. I mean, I'm a werewolf now. I can just eat anything that gives me trouble.

All Hallows' Moon (Seasons of the Moon #2) by S.M. Reine

Rylie survived becoming a werewolf at great cost. She moves to her aunt’s ranch in the hopes she can enroll in a new high school and quietly continue her life... with a few distinct changes. She transforms into a beast every new and full moon and struggles to control her murderous urges.

Without many werewolves left, it’s hard to stay in hiding. A family of hunters -- Eleanor, Abel, and Seth -- recognize the signs and follow Rylie to her new home. They want to stop her before she murders someone, and the only way to do it is with a silver bullet. Seth soon realizes the werewolf is Rylie, the one monster he failed to kill. Worse yet, he’s still in love with her.

Torn between family and love, Rylie struggles to reconcile her feelings and control the wolf within while Seth fights to do what’s right. But what is right-- obeying desire or duty?


Thank you Rylie and S.M. for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

To learn more about S.M. Reine and her books, please visit her website or check out E.J.'s interview of S.M. here at From the Shadows.

Don't miss E.J.'s review of Six Moon Summer, the first book in the Seasons of the Moon series by S.M. Reine.

Guest Author Interview: S.M. Reine

Please welcome today's guest author S.M. Reine!  S.M. is the author of Six Moon Summer and The 19 Dragons.

EJ:  When did you begin writing?

SM:  The first thing I ever wrote was a story called "BATS!!!!!" (with a few more exclamation marks) on an Apple IIc+.  I was so young that I couldn't actually read, so I think I forced my poor, suffering mother to transcribe it for me.  It wasn't that bad as far as stories by sugar-spazzed children go.  It had a dilemma (she got a bat for her birthday and it escaped!) and there was drama (it flew around and got stuck in her hair!) but no real conclusion.  That was my real peak as a writer.  It doesn't get any better than bats.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

SM:  An early love of science fiction and fantasy like Star Trek, Quantum Leap, and too many comic books.  It never occurred to me there might be stories to tell about real life.  Boring!  I started writing plays about mutants in kindergarten, dragons in elementary school, vampires and demons in middle school, and never made my way into reality after that.

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?

SM:  I would be invulnerable.  Immortality is overrated -- who wants to outlive their family? -- but invulnerability would give me the freedom to live my limited years without fear.  Think of what you could do if you knew nothing would harm you!  Of course, I would probably still spend all my time writing, but  I would be liberated from the terror of paper cuts.

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.

SM:  Six Moon Summer is a unique look at werewolves that brings the element of horror back into the genre.  The hero is also super cute, which never hurts!  But the romance is really a minor subplot, and everyone seems to be enjoying it so far.  There's something for everyone: mystery, violence, romance, action, you name it.

EJ:  If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?

SM:  That's a really good question!  I haven't thought about it before.  My first reaction is to say that Evanna Lynch would make a fantastic Rylie and that Cam Gigandet could be Jericho, but casting Seth is much too hard.

Six Moon Summer (Seasons of the Moon, #1) by S.M. Reine.

Rylie's been bitten.  She's changing.  And now she has three months to find a cure before becoming a werewolf... forever.

Rylie's parents force her to attend summer camp, but she's just as miserable at the girls' camp as she was at home-- there's nothing vegetarian for her to eat at the mess hall, she hates hiking and archery, and the other campers taunt Rylie mercilessly. One night, the bullying goes too far, and Rylie runs away. She doesn't get far. It's a full moon, and she isn't alone in the forest.  She wakes up unharmed in her cabin the next morning with no memory of what happened. The only sign something has changed are the healed scars on her chest, her increasingly keen senses, and her sudden craving for raw, bloody meat.  A boy from the other camp seems to know what's happening to her, but Rylie isn't sure if she can trust herself with Seth. He's way too cute and he knows way too much.

Rylie soon learns that she only has until the end of summer before she becomes just like the monster that attacked her: a man-eating werewolf hungry for human flesh. Unless she can find a cure, she's going to transforming at the end of the summer and lose her life to the hunger.


Don't miss E.J.'s review of Six Moon Summer here.

Thank you S.M. for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

To learn more about S.M. Reine and her books, please visit her website.

Book Review: Six Moon Summer

Six Moon Summer (Seasons of the Moon, #1) by S.M. Reine.

Rylie's parents are going through a messy divorce. They send her to summer camp to get her out of the way of their fighting lawyers, but she's just as miserable at the girls' camp as she was at home-- there's nothing vegetarian for her to eat at the mess hall, she hates hiking and archery, and the other campers taunt Rylie mercilessly.

One night, the bullying goes too far, and Rylie runs away. She doesn't get far. It's a full moon, and she isn't alone in the forest. A wild animal mauls her. She's certain she won't survive. Instead of dying, she wakes up unharmed in her cabin the next morning. The only sign that something has changed are the healed scars on her chest, her increasingly keen senses, and her sudden craving for raw, bloody meat. A boy from the other camp seems to know what's happening to her, but Rylie isn't sure if she can trust herself with Seth.

Rylie soon learns that she only has until the end of summer before she becomes just like the monster that attacked her: a man-eating werewolf hungry for human flesh. Unless she can find a cure, she's only six moons away from transforming forever and losing her life to the hunger...

Review:

Just when Rylie thinks that things can't get any worse--her parents are getting divorced and have dumped her at a summer camp far from the city she calls home--something terrible happens in the forests of Gray Mountain.  Six Moon Summer is an amazing beginning to a new paranormal series.  I was immediately drawn into this dark paranormal tale.  Rylie is an outcast at the summer camp where her parents leave her while they finalize the messy details of their divorce.  Cast aside by her family and her peers, Rylie finds solace in the pages of her journal.  The nasty girls who bully her each day takes things too far though and Rylie finally runs away.  Unfortunately Rylie doesn't find peace in the dark hills of Gray Mountain.  Rylie is viciously attacked by a wolf, or at least she thinks she was, but she wakes up in her cabin the next morning with only old scars and the curious words of a mysterious boy to make her wonder what really happened.  Author S.M. Reine creates building suspense with the terror and mystery of what might happen with each phase of the ever changing moon.  An exciting new work of werewolf fiction with wonderful characters and an intriguing story.  I can't wait to read the next book in the Seasons of the Moon series.

**Side note: Rylie is described as having very pale blond hair, however the girl in the book cover pic has dark brown or black hair.  I only mention this since I found the cover image to be distracting when creating my initial image of Rylie.

I recommend Six Moon Summer (Seasons of the Moon, #1) to readers of paranormal suspense, paranormal romance, young adult (though some scenes may be more suitable for older teens and adults), and especially to fans of werewolf fiction.  Fans of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series (Shiver, Linger, Forever) by Maggie Stiefvater, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer, Firelight by Sophie Jordan, and Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson may enjoy this series.

Sensitive reader warning: violence and bloody transformations

Source: This book was provided by the author or publisher for honest review.

Don't miss our Q+A with author S.M. Reine June 2nd at From the Shadows!

Six Moon Summer on Amazon.
Six Moon Summer on Goodreads.