How do you disappear when you come from a family of predators?

A wereleopard, Kess is forced to flee her home and family in Miami once her brother's obsession with her turns violent. She runs from city to city, trying to stay one step ahead of the investigators her family has dispatched to bring her home. Kess ends up in the mountains of North Carolina and attracts the attention of Cormac, a young man with a secret of his own. As she attempts to live as normal a life as her were-nature allows, her brother Sek continues to hunt for her. He believes she is the key to revitalizing their weakened clan and is driven to extreme measures to ensure their continued existence. As Kess' relationship with Cormac deepens, Sek closes in, threatening Cormac's life and Kess' freedom.

When the moon rises, the hunt is on….

This was an okay and moderately satisfying read. The pacing was erratic and the character development was spotty at best however. I'm not sure where Battista is taking the series as a whole and it reflected in the flow of events. The scenes with Mac and Kess were, while tense because of her fear, languid almost. Then there were chapters focusing on her brother and those were utterly disturbing pages. Then more languid courtship. Then more disturbing. I think the book would have benefited by having the confrontation between Kess and Sek occur in the second book.

For much of the book I wasn't sure how I felt about Kess.  Skittish and paranoid, I couldn't understand why Cormac found her so fascinating.  A few glimpses of a clever girl with a sweet personality don't make up for genuine connection.  Of course this is a shifter book, so that undoubtedly counts for quite a bit.  Cormac was pretty basic as far as personality goes.  He goes from interested to possessive in a hot second over Kess, even before he knows she's a wereleopard.

The scenes with Sek were disturbing, though his inferences that the Clan as a whole is unsavory icked me a bit.  It also seemed at odds with the kind of person their father was.  Sek references debauchery happening left, right and center during their childhood plus condoning of (what I assume to be) drugs being smuggled through their territory.  This is completely different then how their Father was presented.  Or any of them actually.  None of the other wereleopards seemed particularly...creepy.  Just Sek.  Truthfully we saw very few other wereleopards--a couple of henchmen really and no one seemed overly concerned with interceding when Sek got out of hand.  

Truthfully, other then the vague hints at the end that Kess doesn't get to live the happy peaceful life she wants after all this book wrapped up things well.  I'm not entirely sure I want to see the hardships Kess is going to have to deal with in the next couple of books.  I want her to have that happy ending.  No reason to make it complicated.