Claire de Lune

Johnson’s debut—her take on the popular werewolf lit genre—glimmers with mystery and a budding romance amid Romeo and Juliet–like complications. Claire is finally starting to feel like a normal teenager. It’s her 16th birthday, popular kids have shown up at her pool party, and wicked cute Matthew seems to like her. Then Claire discovers the family secret—she and her mother are werewolves. It’s an especially inopportune revelation, since a rogue werewolf is killing people in town and Matthew’s father, a member of the Federal Human Protection Agency, is leading the charge to capture and “cure” lycanthropes. Claire’s feelings for Matthew are too strong for her to obey her mother’s order to stop seeing him, and her secrets keep piling up as her full transformation approaches. With Claire’s local pack on the hunt for the rogue and an innocent werewolf in danger, things accelerate quickly as the next full moon approaches. Claire’s supportive relationship with Matthew is downright enviable, and her struggle to adjust and integrate the two sides of her life rounds out a satisfying story. Ages 12–up. (May)