Bad Moon Rising

Rating:
Summary: Romantic suspense at its' finest
Review:

His hometown of Kansas City has bad memories for special investigator, Eric Keaton, a member of the elite SAVANT force. It is because it is the place where his fiancee and his brother were murdered. Still, when a client hires Eric's company to investigate the murder of their daughter by a serial killer in Kansas City, Eric volunteers to investigate, even as his boss warns him not to step on the toes of Alex Anthony, a close friend, whose family is involved in the case.

Over the past few years, someone has murdered five contestants participating in the Rose Pageant. Coincidence or purpose, they all look like Alex's daughter, Christi, who has just returned from Europe. Eric quickly realizes that Christi is the ultimate target of the killer, who has practiced on substitutes. As Eric begins to fall in love with her and she with him, Eric must use every skill in his arsenal to keep her form becoming the final victim.

BAD MOON RISING is an elaborate, well designed and cleverly written romantic suspense novel where the tension continues to rise until the final page. The lead characters are a delightful pair while the killer is brilliantly hidden in open view, turning the novel into a sizzling intrigue. Donna Julian is heading towards the top rung of the genre with this winner.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Terrible!
Review: Bad Moon Rising is my first first book by Donna Julian and I'm sorry to say that I didn't care for it.

Five beautiful, blonde women have been murdered, all contestants in the Kansas City Rose Pageant. One woman each year for five years. The police have been unsucessful finding the killer, so one of the victim's family calls in a private investigator.

When Eric arrives in Kanas City, he has one goal. Stop a killer. He doesn't expect to be highly attracted to the Christi Anthony, a dead ringer for all five murdered women. The two are immediately attracted to eachother and Eric must protect Christi from a crazed killer.

First of all, the story line seemed interesting. It was not. The characters were boring and uninteresting. I found myself straying many, many times wishing I could just get it over with! The number one thing that turned me off from this book was the chemistry between Eric and Christi. They meet one day (while at the same time Christi seems to me to be the stupidest woman on the face of the earth!) and later that evening they are in eachother's arms on the dance floor. Okay, that's fine. But to know that they are in love that instant! Come on, they haven't even known eachother 24 hours! Save your money, there are many, many more great romantic suspense novels out there.

Rating:
Summary: Poor craftmanship, laughable lines, unbelievable denouement.
Review: Bad Moon starts off okay but rapidly tries to accomplish too much with too little attention to any kind of psychological reality. The romantic dialogue sounds like it came straight from a how to write a romance novel primer and made me giggle. (I guess that is a plus.) I frequently found myself wanting to take out a red pencil and edit the book. I would hate to see anyone else spend money on this.

Rating:
Summary: Great Story!
Review: Donna Julian's Bad Moon Rising is one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. It grabs you on page one and doesn't ever let go. She's a master of mixing tantalizing characters with suspense. I'd recommend this book with all my heart!

Rating:
Summary: Great Story!
Review: Donna Julian's Bad Moon Rising is one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. It grabs you on page one and doesn't ever let go. She's a master of mixing tantalizing characters with suspense. I'd recommend this book with all my heart!

Rating:
Summary: A sleeper.
Review: I think I was disappointed because the synopsis seemed so intriguing. I was looking forward to a good romantic suspense and instead got a mediocre murder plot and a less than satisfactory romance. The epilogue of this book tells the entire story in 4 pages while the previous 340 pages is fill. The characters of Eric and Christi are poorly developed. I couldn't feel for them. The romance between them is completely unfullfilling. In the course of about two days they fall madly in love and into bed. The author never developes a chemistry between them except for lust. The murder plot is as equally unfullfilling and less than suspensful.The killer, while not specifically indentified throughout until the end is an easy guess. Not a great reccomend for fans of suspensful romance.

Rating:
Summary: WHAT A HORRIBLE BOOK!
Review: If only I'd clicked onto Amazon before buying this book at my local bookstore. Ugh! It was awful. Luckily, it looks like there aren't any future Donna Julian novels headed our way!

Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: The plot had potential, but instead of being enjoyable, this book became quite possibly the worst I've ever purchased. The author's editors really let her down by letting this be published as is--there are lots of mistakes that simple editing would have corrected. Beyond that, the plot limps along offering no surprises, and the romance is not convincing. I will not be buying another by this author.

Rating:
Summary: Oh boy. What can I say... Worst book of the year!
Review: This was quite possibly the worst book I've read this year. Words can't even explain how bad it was! Please! Save your money! I only wish that I had read the reviews before I bought.