Once in a Full Moon

It's tough to overcome an opening line as portentous as "It began underneath the haunting glow of a full moon." Schreiber apparently wants to play both sides of the Twilight divide, following up her popular Vampire Kisses series with a werewolf tale. Overwrought, redundant prose pads an unimaginative narrative of high school angst—plus fur. Celeste Parker, 17, has a sports-obsessed boyfriend and two shop-aholic best friends. When new student Brandon shows up, they joke about him being a werewolf. Then Brandon saves Celeste from an actual wolf attack, and it's no spoiler to say that Brandon is indeed a werewolf. He's also totally hot, of course, and so, defying the warnings of a New Age fortune-teller she happened to consult, Celeste kisses him under the full moon. Although the story, which unfolds through Celeste's belabored narrative ("The silence only magnified my intense pangs of isolation"), may read to many like fan-fic, it pushes all the right paranormal, romantic buttons to give it 15 minutes of fame with its target audience. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)