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Review: Dinner at the Blue Moon Cafe by Rick R. Reed

A monster moves through the night, hidden by the darkness, taking men, one by one, from Seattle’s gay gathering areas.

Amid an atmosphere of crippling fear, Thad Matthews finds his first true love working in an Italian restaurant called the Blue Moon Café. Sam Lupino is everything Thad has ever hoped for in a man: virile, sexy as hell, kind, and… he can cook!

As their romance heats up, the questions pile up. Who is the killer preying on Seattle’s gay men? What secrets is Sam’s Sicilian family hiding? And more importantly, why do Sam’s unexplained disappearances always coincide with the full moon?

The strength of Thad and Sam’s love will face the ultimate test when horrific revelations come to light beneath the full moon.







I had a hard time getting through this story.  I would pick it up, read the first chapter, and then put it back down again.  For months I did this.  Months.  I just couldn't find any interest in it at all.  I ended up forcing myself to read this more for the obligation than anything.  

It wasn't as though the writing was bad or anything like that.  I've enjoyed many, many of Mr. Reed's books and consider him a favorite author.  And the genre was fine.  I like werewolf stories.  I don't even mind horror all that much. My problem is simple.  I didn't like the main character, Thad.  He came off as wishy-washy and shallow and that just annoyed me to no end.  He couldn't make up his mind how he felt about the two new men in his life.  He seemed weak to me.

Also, I never truly believed in the love between him and Sam.  We got to see the immediate attraction between them but I never could figure out why the attraction was there to begin with.  We would get a scene with them and then the story would jump to a month later without much description of what went on the past 30 days.  I felt that there was a lot missing and it caused me to disconnect from the characters.

As a horror story, this is pretty good, even though I knew who the monster was for most of the book.  The scenes we get from the monster's point of view were appropriately descriptive and gory, showcasing the monster as it really is - a monster.  

I will admit I was nervous about how the story would end so I was happy that it turned out how I wanted it to but, again, it time jumped and I was left feeling like I missed out on a lot of important stuff.

I can't help but feel that the story would have been a lot more enjoyable for me if it were longer.  I needed to see more of the relationship progression between Sam and Thad and maybe a bit more of the day-to-day life of Thad.  As it stands now, I can't recommend this one.  Shame, since it shows lots of potential.





https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34253169-dinner-at-the-blue-moon-cafe


https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/dinner-at-the-blue-moon-cafe-by-rick-r-reed-8283-b

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