Rating: 3.75⭐️
Moonbright by Leah Ryan is a paranormal werewolf romance, the first book that I’ve read by this author. And there’s so much that I absolutely love about it. And a couple I don’t.
The main character is one, a small woman, a healer of mysterious origin who has been alone in the dark woods since childhood. She’s hand built herself a small homestead over the years, chickens and herbs, carefully tended. And she’s mended the wolves that have come needing medical care, and her specially crafted medicines that she’s created over her years tending them.
Ryan hints at a dark history behind a child , 12 years old that had to live alone in the woods, learning to build herself a makeshift home, forging for herself and learning enough to survive to craft and maintain her livelihood.
But we never find out what happened to Mel the Healer , now 22, in her past life to bring her to the existence she living now.
The book is full of these unexplained mysteries, around characters and the world history. It’s just there, part of the story. If this sort of thing is something that you as a reader find irritating, then really this book, and probably the writer, are not for you.
What I love about this book? That it honestly made me laugh out loud in many instances. The dialogue is dry, sarcastic, and funny. Guffaw funny at times. Scenes too, including ones with Mel’s pet chicken Nugget. And the relationship between Mel and her best friend, a rough woman hunter, Kestria, who stops by with venison and other items to help Mel keep going. Their friendship feels real and established, believable in their past history and conversations.
Events shake up Mel’s current situation as the local healer, and care givers to the wolves in the woods. Who aren’t exactly wolves but werewolves.
Ryan brings in a long ongoing war between humans and werewolves, with the humans being unaware that the wolves are actually supernatural beings with families.
And a romantic relationship between a young Mel and the older Alpha Keer, which I don’t feel is as strong an element here or as believable in a romantic sense. The role that Mel eventually transitions into for the pack works at the beginning and then seems to be lost towards the end.
That’s much of what I have issues with the story here. It starts off extremely strong, terrific characters and interesting plot choices, albeit with missing parts to major characters back history that’s never filled in.
But towards the ending, the narrative speeds up, crashing towards a dramatic buildup that’s never quite right. There’s one scene where, a climactic moment occurs. There’s talking, and the villain gets driven (stalks) off.
Oddly unsatisfying because nothing is really settled for good. It’s a temporary fix.
And that real ending? Think the end of The Sopranos. That sort of mid-sentence abruptness. Because this literally ends mid-sentence.
Yes. It absolutely feels incomplete. And I didn’t like the way that show ended either.
Moonbright by Leah Ryan starts off strong, has some great characters, especially in Mel the healer and her best friend, Kestria. Even Nugget the chicken.
But the romance didn’t exactly work and that the story felt rushed, while an unfinished ending will never be ok with me. Finish the sentence! And the ending is.
Interesting.
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Blurb
I have a cottage, a garden, a pink chicken named Nugget, and a strict personal
policy against asking questions.
That last one is why it took me years to notice that the wolves I’ve been
stitching back together are not, technically, wolves.
In my defense, nobody told me.
In their defense, they were trying very hard not to.
Now my cottage is rubble, my best friend has a tail, and thirty werewolves are
standing in my herb beds having a collective crisis about how much I know.
Their Alpha is taking it worst. One eye. All scars. No interest whatsoever in
humans, in healers, or in a woman who talks this much.
He also won’t stop watching my hands while I work.
Neither of us plans to mention it.
Then someone starts turning moonbright into poison. The flower I grow. The one
I’ve been using to keep every single one of them alive.
And it turns out there’s exactly one person left who knows how to turn it back.
It’s me. It’s the one with the chicken.
🌙 Standalone fantasy werewolf romance with a full HEA
🌙 Laugh-out-loud funny — banter-heavy, dual POV
🌙 Grumpy/sunshine · touch-starved alpha · forced proximity
🌙 Found family · fated mates · healer heroine
🌙 Slow burn, explicit, takes its time getting there
🌙 One (1) pink chicken. One (1) homicidal rooster named Keer Jr.
May 9, 2026
Accessibility
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Language
English
File size
1.5 MB
Enhanced typesetting
Enabled
X-Ray
Not Enabled
Word Wise
Enabled
Print length
368 pages
