From Goodreads: When eighteen-year-old Winter McCall is offered a chance to leave her life of poverty behind on the streets of London, she moves to a remote part of the South West of England. Here she takes up the job as housekeeper to the young and handsome, yet mysterious, Thaddeus Blake.

Warned that he has some curious habits, Winter soon realises that not all is as it firsts appears at the remote mansion where she now lives and works.

Blind to the real danger that she is in, Winter finds herself becoming attracted to Thaddeus, and with nowhere and no one to run to, she slowly succumbs to his strange requests. But none of them are as strange as asking Winter to stand each night in the moonlight.

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In the wee hours of the morning, Tim O’Rourke released his latest novel, Moonlight, a new series that he’s had under wrap and key, only recently announcing its upcoming release to his fan base.  Highly exuberant about any new release of O’Rourke’s, I set aside my vast reading pile to swoop in and devour this enticing story of Winter and Thaddeus.  And once again, O’Rourke does not disappoint.

Winter—aka. Winnie—is homeless, living on the streets of London just trying to survive day by day.  Thaddeus, a poet with a massive house and odd sleeping habits, is a lonely young man looking for someone to help with the burden of his home.  Or, so he says when he approaches Winnie with the opportunity of a lifetime.  Of course, not all is what it seems, as Winnie soon discovers, and I absolutely loved sleuthing around beside her as I read, trying to piece together the puzzles within the novel and figure it out before all was revealed.  I failed, of course.  Every time I thought I knew what was happening, a new twist would arise, forcing me to change my predictions, over and over again.  It turns out that I was technically right the first time I assumed something about the characters, but only partially, and I love how O’Rourke can cause me to second-guess myself as I read.  Any novel that keeps me on my toes is amazing, in my opinion, and so far, every single one of O’Rourke’s books have done it.  Every. Single. One.  Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is the power of a truly gifted writer.  O’Rourke simply amazes me.

Winnie is a great character, and for those of you who have read O’Rourke’s Kiera Hudson series, I’d say she definitely rivals Kiera—neck and neck.  (Haven’t read the Kiera Hudson Series?  What are you waiting for?  Do. It.)  I really enjoyed Winnie’s candid, no-nonsense personality, and as she began to suspect that things were very wrong, her bravado and spunk really endeared her to my heart.  Though I didn’t agree with all her choices, in the end, I believe she did exactly as she should.

Thaddeus is, of course, an amazing character.  His nearly bi-polar personality was scary to watch, and his cagey responses to Winnie’s questions kept me on edge throughout the novel.  Of course, I was convinced he was worse than Jack the Ripper as I read (is he?  Read and find out…), so my fear for Winnie was palpable throughout the novel, especially as the truth unfolded and the characters were left with some dire choices to make.

Now, while there is a cliffhanger of sorts at the end, one of the things I love so much about O’Rourke’s writing is that he generally closes each novel very neatly.  As the reader, I know there is more to come, but the main concerns within this novel have been address very well, and though I’m dying to get my hands on the sequel already, I am content with the wait as O’Rourke didn’t leave many loose ends, as so many novels do, nowadays.  Also, I know O’Rourke writes extremely quickly, and I won’t have to wait a whole year for the sequel, so… that’s another plus.

Overall, this is a fantastic new series and if you haven’t read any of O’Rourke’s work to date, then this is the perfect one with which to begin.  There is some language usage within the novel, but otherwise the story is relatively clean, save some descriptive horror scenes, but even those were miniscule and didn’t make me squeamish.  I’d recommend this for readers aged 15 and above, especially those who like a good mystery.  Five stars.

I received a copy of this amazing novel from the author in exchange for an honest review.

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AND NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!  Tim O’Rourke is giving away ONE eBook copy of this awesome novel (international), along with a signed print of the cover, and YOU can win it HERE!  ENDS Oct 7, 2012.