I love stories set in the 1920’s, and I loved author Alaya Johnson’s most recent book (Love is the Drug). So I had high hopes for Moonshine, which is a paranormal with romantic elements about a social worker in New York in the 1920s. As it turned out the book was…OK. It was entertaining but it was easy to put down. It’s the first book in a series, so the romance element ends in a cliffhanger, and the dialogue felt off somehow. Despite having many trappings of the time period, I was never convinced that the main character, Zephyr, was actually a Jazz Age woman.

In this book, New York is home to humans and vampires. Some vampires are predatory criminals and others just try to blend in. Zephyr careens from good deed to good deed (donating blood, attending political rallies on behalf of various right’s movements, teaching night school to immigrants and vampires). When she’s not doing good deeds she sings at a jazz club. She doesn’t sleep or eat very muchm not because she’s a vampire but because she’s super busy and also has no money.

Zephyr meets a mysterious man, Amir, who is not a vampire but is also clearly not human. Amir wants Zephyr to help him take down a vampire crime lord, and he’s willing to pay her a lot of money, which the perpetually broke Zephyr desperately needs. Zephyr has two advantages in taking down the crime boss. As a social worker, she goes everywhere and knows everybody. Her other advantage is that she was raised by a family of vampire fighters. Just because Zephyr chooses not to kill doesn’t mean she lacks the skills to kill if she has to.

There’s plenty to like about the book. I enjoyed the characters and the portrayal of Jazz Age New York City, and I thought the way vampires lived in the city was both plausible and interesting (they are basically treated as another immigrant group). I adored Zephyr’s mother, who shows up at an awkward moment and proceeds to steal the book with her calm common sense and grammar police tendencies. I also liked the journalist, Lily, although I failed to see how she could maintain a sense of social snobbery as a journalist in the city.

I’ve struggled to articulate why this book didn’t compel me more. I liked Zephyr, but I didn’t believe that she was actually form her time period. I certainly believe that a social worker in tenement New York would know the f-word, but based on what I knew of Zephyr I didn’t believe she would use it herself in the situations she employs it in, or any of the other swear words she used. She seemed modern in her speech and behavior, and not in a “cutting- edge Roaring 20s gal” way. Meanwhile, Amir is something of a blank character. He’s a fantasy guy, all brooding and mysterious and magical, and although he and Zephyr have some great moment he never develops into a full-realized person. I was never invested in their romance.

I also thought the book was somewhat disjointed – possibly because it’s the first book in a series. I kept thinking that something was going to be revealed about the cranky landlady. There is clearly a whole other story going on involving Zephyr’s roommate. Zephyr’s family seems to come from a completely different series. The book is basically a combination of a book about Roaring 20’s New York, a paranormal romance, and a Wild West story about Vampire Hunters. I love cross-genre stories, but none of the pieces quite meshed.

I’m grading this as a C+, but it’s one of those books that I think might find an adoring audience based on catnip appeal. If nothing else, it’s fascinating to read as an example of the author’s earlier work compared to her more polished novels The Summer Prince ( A | K | G | AB ) and Love is the Drug ( A | K | G | AB ).

On the other hand, Moonshine is a perfectly entertaining romp if you just want to read about vampires in New York. I haven’t read the sequel, Wicked City, but I snooped through it a bit and I doubt it was intended as the last book (more cliffhanger). So if you are into resolution, this is not going to work for you, but if you just want to hang out in New York City for a while with some very pretty people, go for it!