When I first read the blurb and saw the cover of Viper Moon, I was stoked. A red-head, wearing leather (Rachel Morgan, anyone?), carrying a gun, with a snake over her shoulder? What's not to love?! Sign me up! 
 Viper Moon failed to live up to my expectations though and I have put it down in favor of other books several times since I started reading it. 
 Then, yesterday I thought to myself: I'll give it one last shot. So I picked it up and started reading it again. And, believe it or not, it got better. Good enough in fact, that I was reading along at a pretty good clip. I finished the last 3/4 of the book in one night. 
 As a friend told me before she loaned me the book, there is a lot of telling at the beginning of the story and not a whole lot of showing. I agree with her. It was bad enough that it was laughable at times. 
 I think, because of all that telling, I didn't really connect with Cassandra in any significant way; I was just continually annoyed at the writing and I didn't feel like Cass had a distinct voice or personality. She's a Huntress for the Earth Mother. She has 2 snakes and a cat. She's poor and has to scrape by to make her living. I should have liked her. I wanted to like her but, I didn't really like her. 
 I think some of my dislike also stemmed from the fact that that I would never have termed her a Huntress. Her job basically turns out to be rescuing runaway or kidnapped children, which while admirable, doesn't really make her a Hunter. She never stalks prey, not in the traditional sense, though I suppose she does track children. I don't know, Huntress just puts me in mind of something totally different than what this book portrayed. 
 Also, the series that this book debuts, is called "Earth Witches". Cass isn't a witch. She doesn't have traditional magical powers (view spoiler)[ though she can "talk" with animals, however this is not used often in the novel and never really felt significant to me (hide spoiler)]. It is very clear that the Earth Mother blessed her with some extra strength and healing ablities, but that's it. 
 Viper Moon is told in first person, I expected an Urban Fantasy. The premise of the novel basically sets Cassandra up to be the ring leader and main character of her own UF series where she gets to kick ass and take names for 3-5+ novels. 
 Except... that's not what happens. 
 We find out at the end that Cass is really only staring in book 1 of a Paranormal Romance series. Which as any PNR fan (or non-fan) knows follows a specific formula: The story is told in 3rd person POV. A paranormal backdrop world has a girl in it and she has problems, girl meets boy (boy 1). Boy 1 has problems too. Girl meets (or already knows) another boy (boy 2) that she lusts after. After some back and forth between girl and boy 1 & 2, girl and boy 1 fight/disagree but end up solving the problem. Girl and boy 1 realize they love each other sometime after they meet and finally admit it to themselves. Girl and boy 1 admit they love each other to each other, finally. Girl and boy 1 live HEA. PNR series book 2 takes place in the same world, but with different characters. 
 But, Viper Moon doesn't exactly follow that formula. It is Paranormal Romance. There won't be a book 2 starring Cass. But, since its told from first person, you never really get inside boy 1's head, or even really like him past the surface stage that the author set. Therefore, you kind of lack the reason why they love each other (view spoiler)[ aside from the fact that they have "Matching Auras" and are "meant" for one another *sigh* (hide spoiler)]. Had we seen Cass from Boy 1's POV, we might have understood a bit more about his motivations and how Cass appeared from a POV not her own. 
 All in all, the mystery of why the kids were kidnapped kept me reading. The mystery of who Michael was kept me reading too. The writing quality picks up quite a bit in the middle. 
 The end of this book is a bit infuriating, fair warning. For those of you that want to know ahead of time here is my rant: (view spoiler)[ Boy 1 and Cass save the kids and all the problems are solved. They decide they are gonna get married and that they love one another, etc. They have sex and fall asleep. The Cass wakes up stares out the window thinking about the future or whatever, then she turns to go back to bed and notices blood on the sheets. She's started her period; something she hasn't had to deal with since she became the Huntress. She thinks to herself: "The Mother had given me my retirement notice." Then she goes on about the new Huntress having to deal with the consequences of blah blah blah. She's not even mad. She just smiles to herself a bit and wonders if her Boy Toy will want her to go on birth control. :| Here's why this pisses me off so bad: Losing her period/reproductive abilities didn't need to be a side effect of becoming the Huntress. The author made it that way. She didn't have to lose being the Huntress once she decided to settle down with a man either. The author made it that way. It leaves you wondering what all she lost, when she lost being the Huntress. I understand why the author had it turn out this way, that way, Cass can have her HEA and book 2 can show the mantle of the Huntress being passed to another fool. But again, I'm not sure why the Mother can't have a gaggle of women .. all of them Huntresses. Meh... Anyway, rant over. (hide spoiler)] 
 I think Viper Moon is a decent attempt at a debut novel/series. There are some flaws. I hope Lee Roland manages to iron those out in book 2. 
 On a related note: the excerpt included in the back of book 1, that introduces book 2, looked to be of far better quality than the beginning of book 1. Those few pages sucked me in enough that I was curious about the Main character, where she came from, and why she'd been sentenced to life in prison. I will be reading it.