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Review: Cemeteries by Moonlight (States of Love) by Hunter Frost

When a serious bout of writer’s block threatens to delay mystery author Drew Daniels’s newest book, his aunt offers her New Orleans apartment in the heart of the French Quarter as a writing retreat. She neglects to mention that it’s occupied by the enigmatic and sexy Finn Murphy, a cemetery tour guide with a penchant for Victorian attire and a Cajun accent.

A body discovered in an open crypt forces reclusive Drew to deal with Finn’s eccentric group of friends and his underlying attraction to the hot Cajun—despite warnings about Finn’s violent past. Drew might write this stuff, but he’s never had to solve a real-life murder. With a deadline looming and a killer on the loose, this retreat is proving to be anything but helpful for Drew’s novel. Drew can only hope he won’t end up a tragic tale for the Ghostly Legends & Lore, Inc. haunted tour.


There was a lot for me to love in this tale and being that the theme of this series is centered on the state where the story takes place, I was completely jazzed (see what I did there?) to grab on to Cemeteries by Moonlight based in NOLA.

Drew is a murder mystery writer suffering from writers block and his aunt offers up a change of scenery to see if that will help him out. She conveniently “forgets” that she already has her apartment in New Orleans rented out and thus we have the set up between Drew and his new roomie Finn. I fell hard for Finn from the get go, just like Drew did. He’s a hot tattooed Cajun with a French-Cajun accent and charm to spare. He works as a tour guide for Ghostly Legends and Lore, Inc. so he knows the town inside and out. It was really the perfect setup to make the location into another character. The author was able to weave the history of the locale seamlessly into Finn’s storytelling and Finn’s ability to make the history relatable was a huge attractor for Drew, as they were both storytellers after all.

For a bit Drew assumes that Finn is straight and he doesn’t usually let himself get too close to others in general and other men in particular. He’s got Tourette’s syndrome and has not had the best luck in his past meeting people who he was able to be himself with, he’d been judged and treated harshly so he has no desire to open himself up to that again. Finn isn’t just your average dude though and Drew has trouble keeping his distance from that sexy accent and those kind eyes; the way the author described Finn, I can’t blame Drew one bit!

There are a host of quirky characters and when one of their own is murdered, the junior sleuthing is on. Drew’s dad is a detective and also his beta reader so he’s not unfamiliar in the ways of investigation, that little bit made his involvement more believable. He’s having trouble being completely objective though because his heart is getting pretty attached to Drew and vice versa. Of course, as Drew gets to know the characters more he ends up questioning his own objectivity which makes complete sense, he doesn’t really know these people but he’s gotten himself pretty invested now and is determined to see it through.

There’s a bit of conclusion jumping that throws a wrench at Drew and Finn and it was logical considering what each knew of the other, but when everything came to a head and the mystery got closer to being solved, they figured it all out right quick. The confessions reminded me of old –timey classic murder mysteries with the villain reveling in some monologue-ing attention and while it made the ultimate revelations a little convenient it was still kinda fun to read in a nostalgic way.

The author managed to pack a lot of story and history into just over 100 pages and while I would have loved more of Drew and Finn together the balance was still completely satisfying. And I wanted more Drew and Finn, not because anything was missing, but just because I wanted more Drew and Finn. They were both unique characters and reading their banter as they got to know one another was in turn fun, sweet and hot. Cemeteries by Moonlight makes me want to read more from this series and more from this author.

Also, if Dreamspinner and Hunter Frost decide to make this one into an Audiobook, then this Peach would be damn grateful. Damn grateful.




**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**

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