Showing posts with label Paranormal Romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paranormal Romance. Show all posts

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Blood Rights: By Kristen Painter

BLOOD RIGHTS

SUMMARY

Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle's body bears the telltale marks of a comarré -- a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the mortal world...and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks.

Now, Chrysabelle and Malkolm must work together to stop a plot to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. If they fail, a chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen will threaten to reign.

REVIEW

I know that vampires have been done a lot. Doesn’t matter.

I know sex in vampire novels has been done a lot. Doesn’t matter.

I also know balancing that line between romance and urban fantasy is an incredibly hard position to be put in. Doesn’t matter.

All of this doesn’t matter because Painter does such a fantastic job crafting Blood Rights. The characters are interesting, the plot engaging, and the writing fast paced. But even more than that Painter does such a great job balancing that line between romance and urban fantasy that she is sure to engage and entertain both sets of readers.

Of course besides balancing that line, I truly enjoyed the side characters. I mean what’s not to like about a cursed werecat, who can only turn into a house cat. Or a ghost who is supposed to haunt a vampire for all eternity, who instead makes pleasant conversation and dates said werecat. I liked both of these characters and wished they could have been involved in the story more.

I was also shocked by some of the decisions Painter makes in this first installment in the series. While trying not to get into the thick of details Painter makes some decisions that will shock readers as well as keep them glued to their seats. It’s because of theses decisions, the characters, both major and minor, and the engaging speed of the plot that I’d fully recommend this book to someone wanting to try an urban fantasy/romance combo.


RATING
8 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: Orbit

Published: September 27, 2011

Price: $7.99

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Always the Vampire: By Nancy Haddock

ALWAYS THE VAMPIRE

SUMMARY

Cesca Marinelli has been slacking on her duties as a vampire princess, but she will be the best maid of honor ever for Maggie's Victorian wedding. However, when her mostly-human honey, Saber, falls ill due to a magical construct called the Void, she knows she'll have to go beyond the call of bridesmaid duty...

The Void is affecting every supernatural being in Cesca's afterlife, including her shapeshifter ex, Triton. To counter the Void's reign of terror, Cesca must fully summon her vampire powers-which may lead to her own doom.

REVIEW

When dealing with paranormal romance novels authors have to walk a very fine line. If the author gets to overzealous with the sex and details or they cut to much of the action out then the book becomes a weak interpretation of a romance novel and doesn’t have a spark, if they don’t give enough details then the key demographic they’re trying to engage will walk away unhappy.

Luckily Always the Vampire seems to walk the tightrope just fine.

Haddock does a fantastic job keeping the action going and the details blush worthy. But for me what was most compelling were the characters and the humorous tone they had about them. Cesca is a smart kick-ass heroine who will be sure to engage readers. Her dialog and the storyline are light hearted enough to relax the reader, yet quick paced enough to keep them fully glued to their seats. Besides that Haddock’s other characters, such as Maggie and Saber, bring enough fullness to the story that readers can’t help but fall in love with this book.

Always the Vampire is exciting, zany, and full of fun characters. While not for everyone, fan’s of Cat Adams’ Song series and Jaye Wells’ Sabina Kane series will find a great read in the entertaining book. That said I would greatly encourage readers to read the first two books in the series, Last Vampire Standing and La Vida Vampire, before starting Always the Vampire.

RATING
8 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: Berkley Trade

Published: May 3, 2011

Price: $15.00