My cup runneth over. This whole series is staggeringly good. Hunt the Moon is just as action packed, emotionally compelling, and densely imaginative as the earlier books in the series. It develops our understanding of both Mircea and Pritkin, giving them both about equal time (and you know I think I'm starting to develop a crush on Marco, too). Cassie is just as fearless and crazy and adorable as ever, and the possession scene that starts the book is laugh-out-loud hilarious. It also has some gob-smacking revelations about Cassie's parents that I won't give away here! The one thing I was really hoping for but didn't get in this book was an appearance by the "mistress" that Cassie has been jealous of ever since she found the photo album in Mircea's suite at MAGIC (if anyone is curious about that mystery, the Midnight's Daughter series will solve it, but I was still hoping to see Cassie figure it out). 
 I've always been Team Mircea, but in this book, I was almost converted to Team Pritkin. This is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing love triangles in all of UF, and yet it's not one of those frustrating triangles that appears to be little more than a standard plot device. In this book, there ar love scenes with both Mircea and Pritkin, and Karen Chance has always written some of the hottest, most explicit, yet least cliched sex scenes in this genre -- and considering the volume of UF and historical romance that I read, it's really something when I find a sex scene that feels new ("his arousal" = yawn, "manroot" = giggle). 
 But beyond the sex, the emotional content is there. There was one scene where Mircea was such a jerk (under the guise of protecting Cassie, as usual) that I was consumed with vicarious anger and frustration and depression on Cassie's behalf. I couldn't put the book down. I had an errand to run and I kept pulling over to the side of the road to read a bit more because I was so anxious to see how Cassie would put him in his place. I was all ready to abandon him for Team Pritkin. I seriously wanted Cassie to give him the boot. But then Chance redeemed Mircea by showing why he does what he does, how his love for Cassie and his fear for her safety drives him to irrational behaviour. While we see glimpses of his past that show why he is overprotective of Cassie, his actions resonate even more deeply if you've read the Midnight's Daughter series, which reveals a lot about Mircea's past and the woman he loved when he was turned into a vampire 500 years ago. Meanwhile, the contrast between Mircea and Pritkin keeps growing. While Mircea tries to hide Cassie away to protect her because he loves her and is terrified by her fragility, Pritkin's idea of protecting Cassie is to train her up so that she can protect herself. Mircea keeps Cassie prisoner painting her toenails in a hotel room surrounded by bodyguards, while Pritkin literally throw her off cliffs. I still love Mircea for his charm, his kindness, his generosity and his sexiness, but I'm coming to adore Pritkin almost more than Mircea for treating Cassie as an equal partner while ruthlessly suppressing his own attraction to her. Above all, I adore Cassie because she never gives into any of the men who try to dominate her, yet she always understands why they act the way they do and she has this amazing capacity to love the people around her (which is a relief after the latest Sookie Stackhouse book, where Sookie seems to just spiral deeper and deeper into a well of bitter, angry self-absorption). 
 For the past 6 months, I've had this book pre-ordered and for the past 2 I've been counting down the weeks until it's release. No kidding, actually counting down. Then I won a copy of Hunt the Moon through a prize draw on Karen Chance's website*. I actually squealed when I found out. I think one of the secret rules they told me when I got my PhD was "don't squeal," but I can't help it when it comes to Karen Chance's books. I was going to read the book before everyone else! I couldn't wait! I usually ignore the mailbox (bills!) but I started checked the mail every day. 
 But then doubt set in. When Karen sent me the book, she asked me to not include any spoilers if I reviewed the book before the general release date. "You'll see why," she said. Curious about this spoiler, I started checking reviews on Goodreads and there were already a few reviews up that said there was a cliffhanger ending. And that's when I got seriously scared. Ever since the third and fourth books of the Karen Marie Moning's Fever series, I've developed this terror of cliffhangers. I do not like them, Sam I Am. And so I started imagining all the horrible spoilers that might happen in Hunt the Moon. Mircea could die. Pritkin could die. Cassie could leave Mircea for Pritkin. Mircea could leave Cassie. Mircea could betray Cassie. Pritkin could betray Cassie. Cassie and Pritkin could get stuck in each others' bodies and Mircea makes out with Pritkin because he's really Cassie. (Oh wait, that actually happened in one of the earlier books.) Etc. After all that counting down (and squealing), now I was afraid to read the book. I got more and more nervous as the end approached. 
 Well, I'm not going to spoil the ending, but I will say this: phew. For those of you who are as cliffhanger-averse as I am, let me reassure you: the ending isn't really a cliffhanger. Yes, it ends right in the middle of some action, and there are plenty of loose ends waiting to be taken up in the next book(s), but that's par for the course with this series. The ending here is no more of a cliffhanger than the ending of the first book, when Cassie runs away from Mircea and he promises to chase her down. Overall, the ending is satisfying and there's a feeling of resolution. Yes, there's a doozy of a revelation about Cassie's parents, but it's exciting, not a god-awful depressing cliffhanger. 
 I first picked up Touch the Dark (the first in Karen Chance's Cassie Palmer series) a couple of years ago on a whim. I look back on that day with extreme nostalgia. The book turned out to be the start of my favourite urban fantasy series of all time -- one of those books that gets you hooked on an entire genre. And yet of all the other vampire / UF books I've picked up since then -- always looking for the next Karen Chance -- few even come close to living up to this one. These books are at once genre-defining and genre-defying. They are so complex and action-packed that they're almost a parody of this genre. Yet these books (and the Midnight's Daughter tie-in series that follows Mircea's half-human, half-vampire daughter Dorina Basarab) are also incredibly emotionally rich -- even though the word "love" hardly ever even appears. (By the end of the 2 Midnight's Daughter books, the love between Louis-Cesar and Dory is palpable, yet I don't think either of them once says the word.) I'm impressed by the way Chance can balance an enormous cast of multidimensional characters and make you care about so many of them, but more than that, I am in awe of the way she keeps the time-travel theme logical and consistent. I keep longing for the day that I'll pick up another book on a whim that will impress me as much as this series, but I appreciate now how rare that was and what a treasure I found that day in the bookstore. 
 * Chance's website is worth checking out as there are several free short stories that flesh out some intriguing minor characters, including Kit Marlowe and Tomas: http://www.karenchance.com/ -- but whassup with that bloody 3-fingered alien in the flash intro to her website?!?