Kiss of a Dark Moon is the second book of The Moon Chasers series. Kit March is a lycan huntress, but since the national organization of lycan hunters doesn’t allow women, she is also considered a rogue hunter. The European group of hunters sends Rafe Santiago to terminate Kit, but there is much more to Rafe and his assignment than meets the eye. I actually enjoyed this book quite a bit until the increasingly awful heroine started sucking the pleasure from most scenes. Luckily, the hero was great and the action fun, or the reading experience could have been much more painful.

The national organization, NODEAL, is being taken over by EFLA, the more hardline European contingent. As a result, Kit is concerned for her and her brother’s welfare when some EFLA agents show up looking for them. Fortunately, Gideon is out of town with his wife, but that also leaves Kit by herself in a battle for her life. However, help comes from the most unlikely person. The EFLA agent meant to take her out actually helps her, saving her life right and left, even though his agency is so determined to kill her that they have given out her identity to the lycan community. What Kit doesn’t know is that the agency isn’t primarily concerned about her status as rogue hunter and the person helping her isn’t exactly normal. This book is basically one long battle. Kit and Rafe fight the lycans, the agencies, and occasionally each other.

The reason this book doesn’t get a higher grade is because I couldn’t stand the heroine. At first, I thought Kit seemed simply too sassy for her own good – one of those people who can’t keep their mouth closed and end up in more trouble for it. But as the book went on and I got to know her more, I began to truly hate her. She’s an incredibly toxic person. She finds fault with absolutely everything Rafe does, even if she has something to do with the cause of his actions.

An example of Kit’s attitude: After having sex for the first time, Rafe tries to talk to her sensitively about it, but she just brushes him off, telling him that it was only sex and he shouldn’t make anything more of it. When he does as she asks and moves on to the next issue, she gets mad that he’s acting like a typical male, completely disconnecting himself from emotion after the passion they just shared. Another time after sex, she comes out of the bathroom to find Rafe lying down and once again thinks that’s just like a man, falling asleep after sex. However, she does not express it in a neutral way, but in an angry, griping way. She is actually the one asking for sex during every single love scene, yet she implies that he forces himself on her (it really bothers me when heroines do that). Rafe also saves her life many times, but she won’t believe that he doesn’t want her dead. It would seem only logical that if she despises him so much, maybe she should stop jumping him.

The list of Kit’s aggravating thoughts and actions could go on and on. By the end, I really wanted the lycans to catch and kill her, and while she was dying, I wanted her to realize what a vicious person she was and that she should have listened to Rafe all along. Unfortunately, she gets her HEA with a man who deserves much, much better. She thought “…she was nothing like him. On any level. She never would be.” Surprisingly, she was still having thoughts like this near the end of the book, after they’d had sex a lot, he’d saved her life a lot, and he’d shown a whole lot of character. I couldn’t help thinking that she was so right; Rafe is in a class of his own and she will never be as good as him. Every time I thought things were getting better and I was starting to enjoy the story again, she would do or think something else that would make me grit my teeth.

There were some small issues that detracted from the book’s total success (some repetition, some inconsistencies, etc.), but Kit is the real reason it doesn’t get a recommendation. Rafe was the ultimate hero – sexy, courageous, sensitive, strong, and more. Had his better half actually been better, I would quickly recommend this book to all paranormal lovers. In fact, I want to read the next book, because I enjoyed the premise and the action, and with new characters I can see the next book being a hit. I just wish I could say that I could enjoy Kiss of a Dark Moon more.