The Lost Lycan Luna by Jessica Hall

I started reading The Lost Lycan Luna by Jessica Hall on iReader at a friend’s recommendation. I didn’t even know about it because the story is not on Goodnovel, which is where I primarily read pay-per-chapter books.

This is a story of an abused rogue orphan girl, Ivy, who we later discover is the lost princess of a Lycan kingdom. On the day of her execution, her life was spared when the Lycan King, Kyson, intervened and decided to take her and her best friend Abbie with him back to his castle. Kyson realized she was his mate but since she hadn’t turned 18 yet, she was unable to sense the mate bond.

The story is compelling. It possibly falls under the “dark romance” genre because of all the scenes depicting violence but not between the main characters. It is a love story where Kyson and Ivy struggle with each other and try to overcome prejudice, miscommunication, and mistrust.

I was amazed at how strong Ivy is. Her ability to withstand pain for the people she loves is awe-inspiring. Her relationship with Abbie is incomparable, it is greater even than her affection for the king. As Ivy and Abbie always say … “more than my life”.

If this is a story you would like to read, too, you will find it on iReader. Be warned, though, that the story is actually 3 stories, which is why there are so many chapters. I’m looking forward to The Lost Lycan Luna by Jessica Hall on Amazon soon.

Was this plagiarized?

As I was reading, I noticed that there were some similarities to another story I’ve read/am reading by another author. Continuing to read, however, I realized that the similarities are superficial.

• main characters are the Lycan King and the lost Lycan princess
• the main female character was thought to be a rogue orphan
• the main character has a best friend who came with her to the Lycan King’s castle
• the main female character did not know that she was a Lycan

As the story progresses the differences between the two become very apparent as the way the story develops is different. Let’s face it, if we look hard enough we will find many similarities between stories A through Z. I’ve honestly lost count of how many stories I’ve read of a man who is married to a woman for three years divorces her so that he could be with her cousin/stepsister only for him to later find out that his wife was secretly a rich and powerful woman.

My point is, we shouldn’t be too quick to accuse another author of plagiarism without actually reading further into the story. While there could be strong similarities at the start it doesn’t mean that the story is exactly the same.

There is an exercise we do in one of the classes I used to teach where I would give the entire class the same information to write their own versions of the story.  This is a similar situation to that. And, let’s be honest, nothing is truly original anymore. We all take inspiration from many things, and it would not be inconceivable for many authors to get inspired by a story written by someone else. It does not make them a plagiarizer.