Rating: 2 stars

Lieutenant Sasha Trudeau is having trouble adjusting to some major changes in her life. A career soldier operating on the dark side of the government, she’s always been in charge; of her situation, her choices and her reactions. Now, Sasha is learning that there’s something out there that’s much worse than PMS and menstrual cramps: she’s going into heat.

Being a bitchis a bitch, no lie that, as Sasha copes with discovering more of her new found Shadow Wolf nature. Learning that her genes had been tinkered with before birth was bad enough, but now she’s possessed by uncontrollable urges and inclinations that put her quite literally out of control of her actions for periods of time, overcome by her libido.

Her would-be mate, Max Hunter, would be more than happy to help ease her troubles but life has other plans. Demon-infected werewolf blood is poisoning the were community, and creating cannibalistic monsters. Those monsters, and those who created them, are bent upon causing as much chaos, havoc and death as possible, traveling great distances using mystical means.

And now Max is showing signs of being infected with the virus as well.

Although the storyline was gripping enough to catch and hold my interest, there were some issues that nagged at me throughout the novel and diminished my enjoyment.

There are two mystical means of travel or concealment (one is definitely travel, the other possibly so) that are referenced repeatedly throughout the novel: demon doors, and moving through shadows. I’m still not sure whether or not demon doors are a means of transport or more of concealment (like hidden caves), and I’m unsure whether moving through shadows is a means of accelerated travel or more of a species-specific camouflage skill, despite reading portions of the novel repeatedly. As these terms are used with a good deal of frequency, not understanding the basic terminology does jolt the reader out of the flow of the storyline whenever confusion occurs.

The tempo of the novel also reads as irregular, which jolted my mind out of the book on several occasions. Think running at high speed on a treadmill, then without warning slowing to a crawl, then at random repeating the cycle with no gradual build up or cool down.

Some judicious editing for flow and a couple of skillfully inserted paragraphs to inform readers that hadn’t read book one what the terminology meant would have greatly improved this read.

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ISBN 10: 0-312-94912-X
ISBN 13: 978-0-312-94912-9
October 2008, by St. Martin’s

This is the second in the Crimson Moon series, and will be followed by Undead on Arrival in winter of 2009.