Manhattan Moon by Jae

Manhattan Moon
by Jae
Pages: 95
Date: October 18 2012
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Series: Shape-Shifter Series (1.75)

Review
Rating: 4.25
Read: October 26 2016

This is my 22nd work that I’ve read by Jae. Something like the 9th short story (though I do not always remember to include that shelf). This is also the last story in the Shape-Shifter series that I had not yet read. This might be the only Jae series where I’ve actually read everything in it. Every novel length work, every short story length work.

Right, so – Shelby Carson is a psychologist who works in the psych ward at an ER in New York. Or works in an ER deal with psych patients. One, the other, or both. She works with a woman by the name of Nyla Rozaksi – a nurse. Both characters have appeared before, though the timing is a little confusing here (Shelby mentions Jorie and Griffin, and how they are an accepted Wrasa/human couple; while at the same time Shelby and Nyla are not currently a couple (and haven’t previously been) – yet I have a strong recollection that they were a couple when Jorie and Griffin meet them (meaning that they became a couple before that point, which means Jorie and Griffin weren’t an out (to Wrasa) and accepted coupling, which means . . . circling I go).

Right, sorry.

I was going to lead into it, but I kind of already indirectly indicated the issue at play in this book. Shelby is a Wrasa – a werecoyote (like Mercy Thompson, though completely different fantasy universe, one by Patricia Briggs, other by Jae), while Nyla is a human. Both, as you might expect considering, are females who like females.

Both Nyla and Shelby show signs of being interested in each other, and they go on a date. Though the date is almost instantly ruined when Shelby, indirectly, mentions the matter to a cousin – who howls at her. Then later by neighbors who catch Shelby and Nyla on her date. Neighbors who happen to be Wrasa. Humans in the past who learned about the Wrasa were killed. Things are changing now, but that doesn’t mean that Wrasa and humans are allowed to date (with the one exception of Griffin and Jorie). And so – naturally Shelby doesn’t show her good side on the date. She’s incredibly nervous, and somewhat cowering. While at the same time pulled towards Nyla.

I liked the story. Though it was a) super short; and b) incomplete (okay, so, they become a couple. But . . . what’s next? Will they somehow remain hidden? They can’t – others can literally smell the ‘mate scent’ clinging to both of them – and Shelby has to go on family gathering events on a regular basis – it’s not like she can hide in Manhattan and never see another Wrasa, there’s the gatherings, and random Wrasa living amongst the humans (like her neighbors). So the story is left incomplete. It’s not like the story was already 600 pages and the author decided that that was enough. The thing is only 95 pages long. Toss in another chapter or 5 to ‘handle’ the issue. Even if ‘handling’ it actually does involve ‘hiding’ somehow) and unlikely to be completed (what, this story came out in 2012, and none of the stories that came later addressed the issue (or, if they did, it flew past me because I hadn’t read the Shelby Nyla story yet).

October 26 2016