Book 107, 2024
Kiss of a Dark Moon by Sharie Kohler
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
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Once the house was cleaned, I finished reading Kiss of a Dark Moon by Sharie Kohler. It's the second in her "Moon Chasers" series of paranormal misogyny romance. Main characters are rogue lycan hunter Kit March and European hunter Rafe Santiago.
Kit became a hunter after her parents were killed in a lycan attack. Her very existence flies in the face of all the rules, as women are not allowed to be hunters. For some asinine reason. Whatever. Hunting doesn't lend itself to any kind of a personal life, so Kit has resigned herself to life alone. When she encounters hunter Rafe, she begins to question a life of hunting and loneliness.
Rafe has been called in from Europe to help eradicate not just lycans in the US, but rogue hunters as well. For some asinine reason. Whatever. On top of his list are Gideon March and his sister, Kit. When he encounters Kit, however, Rafe is struck by her alluring combination of toughness and vulnerability. He finds it difficult to focus on his mission while fighting his attraction to the feisty rogue hunter.
This was 352 pages of garbage disguised as romance. So when Kit and Rafe first encounter one another, he has to step in and save her from a lycan attack. Never mind she's been doing just fine by herself until that exact moment. From there, Rafe threatens to kill Kit, abducts her, roughs her up, sexually assaults her and, when she's nearly killed by another hunter, he changes her into the same sort of half-breed lycan that he is. Yes, the author waited until over halfway through this hot mess to reveal that Rafe was a dovenatu and that his true goal all along was to save Kit. Um, what? Gee, dumbass, just think of how things might have gone if you'd told her that UP FRONT instead of letting her believe you were the enemy. Kit, of course, tries to escape at every opportunity, which really just pisses Rafe off, leading him to force himself on her to impress upon her the error of her ways. Be still my heart. And my stomach, because I nearly lost my lunch on more than one occasion reading this. Anyway, the book was basically a series of Kit making a run for it, Rafe tracking her down just in time to save her from the nasties so he could sex her up...lather, rinse, repeat. When Rafe finally decides that maybe, just maybe, he should let her go, Kit leaves and immediately misses him. Because he's handsome. And the nookie was good. Apparently the woman lets her cooter do the thinking for her. You know what? It's the 21st century. Can we PLEASE stop writing male leads as horrid and abusive while the female lead swoons over the abuse because he's so handsome? Blech.
To top off this manure pile, so many things were never explained. Why was Rafe's unit, EFLA, so hell-bent on killing off rogue hunters? Maybe they get lucky and kill a few lycans before getting killed themselves. Who cares? Just how prevalent are lycans? It seemed like the entire world is teeming with them, but if that was the case, wouldn't the mere mortals have noticed by now how many people are disappearing? What do lycans do when they're not out raping and murdering? One would presume they'd have to hold down jobs and maintain some sort of civility, but the author would have us believe they're nothing but ravening monsters. Things need to make sense.
Favorite line: "I'm a monster, right? A soulless demon. You've said as much."
She forgot all about that quickly enough, didn't she? Stupid slut.
This wasn't a romance, it was Stockholm Syndrome. And it was awful. One star, given with the utmost reluctance.