Review: Harvest Moon by Krista D. Ball

Description: 

Cursed, abused, and desperate to know her future, Dancing Cat sneaks a glimpse inside her tribe’s Sacred Bundle, a powerful source of spirit magic. Instead of the future, she sees her most powerful ancestor, Small Tree and incurs her wrath. Small Tree strips Dancing Cat of everything —her home, her identity, even her gender – and drops her in the middle of enemy lands.

Injured, and in a strange, new body, she is befriended by Bearclaw who is on a spirit quest. He offers her assistance and asks for nothing in return; a kindness Dancing Cat had forgotten existed. She struggles to weave a path around the obstacles of friendship, identity, and longing in order to survive her eventual return home to face even further punishment.

And she does it while wearing someone else's skin.

Review:

When Krista asked me to review her novella Harvest Moon I was a bit unsure at first. It's not what I usually read but I thought why not and gave it a try. I won't tell you more about the story because this novella only has 35 pages and the description already says everything. 

In Harvest Moon we meet Dancing Cat, the Cursed One. She's a young woman living in band of people who hate her and don't see her as more than dirt. She's lonely and desperate too. For the last two years no one really  touched her or said something nice to her. I really felt for Dancing Cat but at times she also seemed really immature to me. She's always telling that everything is not her fault and never really says why. It felt like her being childish and stubborn. Later in this story the reason is revealed and I felt bad for judging her too quickly. I also would have wished to learn more about her past messenger job. It's said that it's unusual for a woman to do that but there isn't an explanation why Dancing Cat was one. 

Bearclaw is such a nice character. He's pretty mysterious at first but with time we discover what kind of man he is. I have to admit at first I imagined him as an old guy and I was a bit confused when the attraction between these 2 started. 

That brings to one point I didn't like so much in this novella. I found myself often imagining the setting around our heroine and I couldn't. I had a picture of the direct surrounding but the general landscape just eluded me. I like the insight into the Native American way of life  and the characters were nicely developed. The overall story plot was nice, at the end it was a bit too easy for me taste but everything fit together and left me with a satisfied smile on my face. 

All in all a good fiction novella with a touch of romance- you should give it a try.

To learn more about Krista and her book please visit her website here.

Other reviews @goodreads, buy the book @Muse It Up Publishing

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