Moira Rogers - Crossroads

Derek Gabriel comes from a family with physic gifts but had no powers himself until a rogue wolf stripped him of his humanity and changed him into a shapeshifter two years ago. He has no pure bloodlines, meaning he is no shifter by birth, so he is considered a second-class citizen within the shapeshifters community. Derek is not totally in control of his newfound abilities; it makes him insecure and prevents him to fully live his life. He has been in love with Nicole Peyton for a long time, long before his change, but she belongs to the upper class of the shapeshifter’s community and this stops him from asking her out on a date.

Nicole Peyton belongs to the crème de la crème of the werewolf society. Her father is the alpha (leader) of the Conclave and she is supposed to follow in his footsteps but she has no interest to be part of the political scheming of the Conclave and flees to New Orleans to build a different life for herself. She owns a bar and has surrounded herself with a group of loyal friends. She has fallen in love with Derek when she first set eyes on him but he seems to be immune for her charm. Just when she and Derek are finally about to make out and admit their feelings for one another, her twin sister Michelle shows up bringing a truckload of trouble with her. Nicole now has to go back and take her responsibility as daughter of the Conclave’s alpha to help her sister and find a way to keep Derek out of harm’s way.

After reading Crux I was totally in love with the new world and the characters that Moira Rogers created, so I could not wait to return to the loyal pack of friends in New Orleans to read on in this series. Luckily I did not have to wait very long to plunge back into this series because I received Crossroads to review. Crossroads continues where Crux ends and just like with Crux it did not take me more than half a page to be fully absorbed in this story.

One of the reasons Crossroads is an addictive read is Moira Rogers’ writing, it is smooth and fast-paced, full of thorny and witty dialogues between the characters. I especially liked Alec’s snappy remarks and the way the others yank his chain so I was happy to hear that Alec’s story is up next. Another reason why your eyes are glued to the pages is the characters. Most of them we met in Crux, I just love this bunch of close friends, I want to know more about them and see them all get their own HEA’s in their own story. This combined with the fast-paced action that starts almost immediately from page one makes it impossible to put the book down.

The strong attraction between Derek and Nicole was already simmering in Crux and now comes to a full blaze, as a couple I liked them even better than Jackson and Mackenzie. I was afraid that Derek’s character would be snowed under because Nicole is very much alpha, but Derek stands his ground excellent. Nicole might be alpha material but she is also very feminine, nice and she is loyal to the bone when it comes to her friends and family. Derek and Nicole are surrounded by their friends, all of them add something to this story, I loved meeting Jackson and Mackenzie again and learned a little more about Kat and Andrew. Interesting to see how things are going to develop for Andrew, but first I want to read Alec’s story, his story is the one I now am waiting for impatiently.

The suspense in this story comes from Nicole’s sister Michelle and her lover Aaron. They have done something to upset the Conclave. I am not going into details, don’t want to giveaway too much of the story. The archaic Conclave practically rules the shapeshifter’s society, they strongly hold on to their customs, rules and hierarchical structure. It is very difficult to accomplish change, because change means that members of the Conclave have to relinquish some of their power and most members only want to obtain more power and stop at nothing to achieve this.

Although I was captivated by the Conclave and Michelle’s problems I could not help but feel that this dominated the story more than it should. To me it somehow felt that Derek and Nicole’s romance did not appear clearly while in Crux Jackson and Mackenzie’s romance did. Also I missed Marcus in this part, my heart cried out for him and I want to know if he gets his HEA. But the end was very strong and emotional; Derek proves he is a worthy partner for Nicole but not without risking everything. Another character who emotionally risks everything is Luciano, he helps Michelle but that story is not finished, I suspect we will see more of them in the next part, I certainly hope so.

Crossroads has plenty of suspense and steamy interactions between Derek and Nicole. It is a fast-paced, emotional and action-packed read! Crossroads will keep you reading until the very last page!

4 stars