Cassandra Palmer recently defeated a god, which you'd think would buy a girl a little time off. But it doesn't work that way when your new job description is Pythia — the world's chief clairvoyant. Cassie is busier than ever, trying to learn about her power, preparing for her upcoming coronation, and figuring out her relationship with the enigmatic sexy master vampire, Mircea.
But someone doesn't want Cassie to become Pythia, and is willing to go to any lengths to make sure the coronation ceremony never happens—including attacking her mother before Cassie is even born.
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First let me get my happy dancing out of the way because this book was so good! It's been a while since Curse the Dawn came out and rereading that and getting through Hunt the Moon just reminded me why I like Karen Chance so much. Her books are a lot of fun and I think a wonderful example of the paranormal romance genre.
Everyone, Cassie, Mircea, and Pritkin, are still wrapped up in the politics of establishing the Pythia outside of Apollo's influence and where Cassie is going to fit in relation to the Senate (sorry book references that only sort of make sense to those who haven't read these). It's not going to be easy because Cassie, as a strong kick-ass character, is not going to be just a figure head. She'll either do it and succeed or mess up on her own merits or not do it all - no puppet Pythia-ing here. Combining that with Cassie's determination to 'date' Mircea and keep things platonic with Pritkin in the midst of all this, and it's a complicated novel that you've got here.
I love Chance for the strength of her characters and the intricacies of the world she's built. I know she's only 5 books in but I feel like she's really taking the time to create a series that makes sense and doesn't just have bad guys and other randomness thrown in to extend it. I'm not sure who I'm voting for relationship wise, she's definitely got me on the fence. Being deliberately vague, what I liked and was rooting for in the beginning isn't quite how things might end up, and so for a lot of this book I found myself cringing at what was happening while being completely unable to look away. Highly recommended :)
Overall Feeling - Thumbs up.
Series - 1) Touch the Dark 2) Claimed by Shadow 3) Embrace the Night 4) Curse the Dawn 5) Hunt the Moon
