Customer Reviews

Bring On the Night (WVMP, Book 3)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am not one for putting spoilers in my reviews. But what to do when a book is almost one giant spoiler? This was one of hardest reviews I've written. I loved the book and want to tell you why...but how to tell you that without ruining anything. Hmmmm......So here's my attempt at a non spoilery - yet interesting book review.

Bring on the Night is about Faith.

Ciara's lack of it.

Shane's complete, blind belief in it.

How many pieces of your soul will you sell to protect those you love?

And oh yeah - there are zombies!

Bring on the Night reminded me of a three act play.

Act 1: The set up to the story. Things are better than they have ever been.

Act 2: Then they are not.

Act 3: The aftermath.

Ciara's finally finishing up her college degree and has just completed her training with "The Control" - a secret government agency whose mission is "to balance the safety and well-being of humans AND vampires." Yeah right. They aren't named The Control for nothing....they blackmailed her into service and they are exerting an ever increasing amount of control over Ciara & Shane's lives.

Despite the Control looming over them, Ciara and Shane have never been happier - they're living together, she's helping to plan best friend Lori and David's wedding. That is until dead bodies start popping up. They have reason to suspect it may be one their own. Jim, one of the vampires that works as a DJ at the WVMP radio station has been acting more and more reckless.

But what they uncover is something much more sinister. A plague is spreading, the dead are rising and the events that unfold change their lives forever.

The tone is very different for Bring on the Night than in the previous two books in the series. It's more introspective. I loved it. I really like when people get pushed to their breaking points and see how they handle it. Everything changes and no one will be the same. Relationships are different, the dynamics have shifted.

That's not to say there isn't plenty of Jeri's trademark witty dialogue, musical influences and vampy goodness at every turn. While it is a darker book it's still action packed!

OK - that's it for non-spoiler intel! So instead, I'm going to wrap up my review by giving you my top 5 reasons that you should go buy this book (and the first two - Wicked Game & Bad to the Bone if you haven't read those yet).

Number 5 - The Control. Government secrecy, manipulation and intrigue at its finest. I love me some secret government conspiracies!

Number 4 - Zombies! Seriously....who doesn't love zombies??

Number 3 - More vampires! The other vampire DJ's are starting to play a much larger role in the series, which I think is a good thing. Lots more Regina - there can never be enough Regina in my opinion!! And even more of elusive vampire Monroe.

Number 2 - Sexy, sexy Shane. I have a somewhat unhealthy (or so my husband tells me) obsession with this particular vampire. And oh -yea ..that David guy is still there for those of you who are David fans......lol.

The Number 1 reason you should go buy this book??- Here's the deal. Jeri has this planned as a five book series. She is signed through book 4 (which is tentatively titled "Let it Bleed" - due out 7/2011 - AWESOME title!). I NEED book 5 (tentatively titled "Lust for Life")! So we need lots of people to buy Bring on the Night and show their love. Consider it a personal favor. You'll have my undying gratitude - my undying devotion and ....ok sorry that's all I got but it would make me very very happy!

Nitpick: The solution to the plague storyline felt overly complicated to me. There were a lot of loose ends to wrap up (which she did) but there were several explanations when one would have been fine.

Loved: I love these characters so much and I was thrilled to see them all back. The series is really taking a big leap forward with this book and I like it.

Ciara Griffin is an ex-con artist, but now she is spending her time differently. Trying to finish up her bachelors degree, enjoying living with her vampire/DJ boyfriend Shane McAllister and their vampire dog Dexter, and training for the paranormal paramilitary agency, the Control. Life is busy for Ciara and it is about to get crazy on top of that. A strange and fatal virus starts spreading all over her city of Sherwood leaving no human safe, and someone is causing corpses to rise from their graves leaving no one, not even vampires safe.

This is probably one of the hardest book reviews I have had to write in a really long time. I have literally sat here staring at my monitor for an hour and just thinking about what I just read. The problem is, the teeniest of details could totally spoil the whole book for readers. My goal here is to tell you how wonderful this book is without spoiling you, and convincing you to run out and buy it right now! How about I just tell you, RUN OUT AND BUY THIS NOW! Did it work? Hm, fine, here is my review.

Bring on the Night is the third installment in the WVMP Vampires series. The absolutely best part about these books are the characters. Jeri Smith-Ready writes them in a realistic way making their personalities shine through, and as a reader you get to know all their quirks and what makes them special. They feel like friends and you end up caring about what happens to each one of them. In Bring on the Night readers get to see a deeper side of the DJs and gain a better understanding of what they go through daily.

One of the most important parts, for me, was that the characters have to dive in and face their fears. The fear of losing someone, whether it be to death or from growing apart. The fear of their faith or lack of faith shaping their lives and making them into people they don't really want to be. And the fear of not living up to the expectations put in place for them by their elders. In Bring on the Night we really get into Ciara's head and see what she is feeling about her lack of faith, her relationship with Shane, and what scares her most.

The plot has many twists and turns but these unfolding events never seem forced, but like the natural progression the characters and the story should take. I really respect this part of the books, because I never feel like the author is a dummy (or thinks I, as a reader, am the dummy) and didn't think fully about what she was writing or find other ways to move the plot forward.

Overall this series is still one of my favorites. I love that each chapter is a song title, and it's relevant to what is going on in that chapter. I can't wait to see what unfolds for Ciara in the future, because things are sure to get more hectic for her after events in Bring on the Night. :)

If you're looking for spoilers, Jeri Smith-Ready is going to have a discussion, probably on her Facebook, that will have spoilers. For now, they are supposed to stay under wraps! I will let everyone know when the spoiler discussion is up, no worries.

For fans of this series it is a good continuation of Ciara's story. You need to have read the others first, as it doesn't stand alone in story or background, but a very fun read. I would recommend this series to others.

Disclosure: I have met the author in other settings and have read nearly everything she's written. I like her voice a lot.

Smith-Ready doesn't just gently let you back into the world of her vampires. She dumps you wholesale into it. You either get the WVMP world or you don't. When I read the first book Wicked Game, I was intrigued by her idea that vampires got stuck in the time they were turned. So her grunge rocker boyfriend is truly a child of the 80's. Also her vampires start losing their hold on sanity because they can't take change. That's a really simple explanation, but there you are.

In book three, Ciara has to battle zombies. Why is it always zombies? But these zombies bring a plague with them that threatens not just the people Ciara is finally admitting that she loves but also own life. Her decision is a huge twist in the character's hero's journey. I found it a bit difficulty to swallow because I had bought into Ciara on so many levels.

But Smith-Ready is an excellent story-teller. She doesn't just twist things up for no reason. I appreciate her ability to keep me up reading until I get to the end. With her books, I know I need to just block out the time so I can read in peace.

I don't recommend reading these books out of order. Read them as they are meant to be read. Wicked Game, followed by Bring On the Night and then this one, Bring On The Night.

Hard to review this without spoilers but I loathe spoilers. I think this book was a rock-solid entry in the WVMP world.

Bring On The Night by Jeri Smith Ready was fantastic! From page one I felt as if I was returning to my family. I love the way all of the characters seem to come alive like, when I'm reading about Shane I can imagine what he looks like and if I close my eyes I see him. Ciara is such a strong heroine and the choices she has to make in this book are gut wrenching. Regina is exactly the vampy big sis I would want to have and best friends like David and Lori are hard to find. Not to mention we get zombies too!

I've been waiting for Bring on the Night since I read the last page of Bad to the Bone. This is a great series and Bring on the Night did not disappoint. As a matter of fact, I think it' my favorite of the three books in the series so far. If you haven't read this series before, the (very) basic premise is that the radio DJs at this station are all vampires. Each is from a different era, and in this world vampires are "stuck" in the era they died in, they have a lot of trouble with change (and OCD). Ciara is an employee of the radio station, and dates one of the DJs, sexy Shane (he's stuck in the 80s). Needless to say, each book has a great soundtrack!

There is a lot going on in this book but Ms. Smith-Ready makes it flow smoothly:

* Ciara's started her service with the Control, and she's been assigned to the super-secret division, which she's not happy about.

* There is a mysterious illness spreading around the town that is killing residents, including some who are very close to Ciara.

* There are zombies - I'm not gonna lie, there is one particular scene were the zombies cracked me up, I could just imagine the looks on the faces of the characters in the book while they watched what was going on!

* One of the vampire DJs goes missing.

* Shane and Ciara's relationship takes some pretty major turns, and they are both forced into serious soul searching.

You know how sometimes you read a book and you really like it but there are parts you kinda skim *cough~lessers~cough*? I didn't do that here at all. Ms. Smith-Ready weaves such a good story I had no need nor want to skim. Now, honestly, I kind of guessed some of the plot, but I didn't know how Ms. Smith-Ready was going to take me there; the journey was completely enjoyable. (I can't go into specifics without giving away spoilers, but her attention to the nuances of the vampire OCD habits is always fascinating.) I read this book everywhere: at work, at home, the grocery store, waiting at the shuttle stop near my job... I had four pages until the end of the book when I got off the shuttle and had to wait about three hours until I could pick the book backup again and finish. It was totally worth the wait; I loved the ending!!!

The first thing that put me off the series was the passing of time between book 2 and 3. As another reader said, they thought they'd missed a book since so much time had passed. I quite agree.

The continued unresolved sexual tension between David and Ciara is tiresome. I think it's been drawn out too long. I felt that Ciara's time at Control was too short and I would have liked to have seen more of her training. To jump into the world 2.5 years after book 2 and right into her training and then right back out of training within a chapter is disorienting.

Again, with the passing of time it was a way for the author to write what she thought should happen with the characters and make it seem realistic/plausible. It seems that it was expected that weddings, school, training, etc should happen and they really didn't add anything to the story at all. It was all this hype to push the story forward in time and it was a waste.

I believe this book was longer than the first two in words but it had no more actual content.

That said, the mysterious and fatal virus was an interesting take. It worked in the story but it was a stretch at times. The new characters we met were stereotypical and too obvious for my tastes.

This book was my least favorite of the series (so far). I still like the author and hope that future books have the kinks worked out. I just felt this book was a bit of a flop.

This book is the third installment in the WVMP series and in my opinion it is the best one. That summary up there is good, but it does not even come close to summing up everything that happens in this book. There is also one EVENT (I put in all caps because it is a big deal) that I am not even going to attempt to talk about because I would not want this surprise ruined for me, so I am not going to do that to you. Let me just say, it is big and you will definitely know it when it happens.

I will not talk about aforementioned event, but I will talk about other things in the book that I liked. I did like that this book fast forwards to two and a half years after the last book, because Ciara has established a routine in her life and her con-artist past has not made her run yet. She is doing the one thing that that scares every ex con artist, establishing roots. She and Shane are still living together and his post-it notes have not managed to drive her insane, but the time has come for her to start training to be a member of Control. Ciara manages to get a reduced training time and only has to be there for a month, but she is miserable for every second of it. Once she finally does get to go home, she is met with strange behavior in her home town. People keep dying from some mysterious mutation of chicken pox and some of those deaths hit a little close to home. I was actually surprised by some of the deaths in this book, which makes me sad because I, of course, don't like seeing people die. I do however, like the fact that Jeri does not let everyone have happy endings. I know that sounds sick, but things in life are not always happy and it makes the story more real for me when there are low points.

There are issues that have been building since book one and they are starting to cause major problems. While they do play some part in this story I have a feeling they will continue to gain speed and snowball in future books. Jim has definitely been one of those issues. His anger and bullying habits have been there from the beginning, but I think his age is starting to show and he is turning into something different than he once was. I have a feeling this is going to blow up big time in the next book, but I guess time will tell on that one.

I have also loved watching Shane and Ciara grow together. Shane helps Ciara get over her trust issues and Ciara is working on teaching Shane things from this century. They compliment each other very well and are learning how to be in a relationship together. However, their relationship is put to the test in this book because "the event" has them both questioning what they believe in and how they are going to get through it as a couple. I am not going to say more then that, so you will have to read and see what I mean.

I don't really think I can talk about this much more, because I want to talk about what happens and that will just ruin it. So just know that after chapter 16, Ciara's world gets rocked! I was almost flipping pages too fast to see what was going to happen. So, here is my advise:

1. Go read the first two books, Wicked Game and Bad to the Bone

2. Then go read Bring on the Night

You will be so happy you did it. Jeri has put a new spin on the whole vampire myth, that is refreshing and addictive. Plus, you will not have to read all these reviews and go "what is the event" because you will know and be happy

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

BRING ON THE NIGHT picks up 2 1/2 years after Bad to the Bone and initially the giant leap forward feels a little disorienting. Honestly, I'm not sure why there is such a big gap between books 2 and 3. Several times during the first few chapters I checked to make sure I hadn't missed an entire book (I hadn't) or maybe a bridging novella somewhere (nope). There easily could have been another book, or two, before this one, but it feels almost like when a TV show gets cancelled and the writers throw all the major plot developments that they'd been saving into the last few episodes. That's not the case with BRING ON THE NIGHT since there are already two more books planned for this series, but it feels like it.

So here we are, 2 1/2 years down the road, Ciara is finishing up her mandatory orientation/boot camp for the Control, Shane has been rebuilding his relationship with his human family, and he and Ciara are living together in domestic bliss with their vamp dog Dexter. Life couldn't be better until the dead start rising, and the living start succumbing to lethal virus of mysterious origins.

BRING ON THE NIGHT is a game changer for the series in a lot of ways (several I which I can't even begin to talk about with out spoiling the entire book). Characters evolve and reveal themselves in surprising yet satisfying ways, decisions are made that will irrevocably change the lives of everyone at WVMP Radio, lives are lost, new love is found, and nothing will ever be the same.

As vague as I'm forced to be in this review, I can say that BRING ON THE NIGHT is the best in the series to date, and I really love how Jeri fearlessly made some tough, bold changes this time out that have paid off in the most exciting installment yet. I still question the big time gap between books, and the "bad guy" was little more than a convenient prop for a different plot element, but for me, a new and much needed energy has been injected into this series. Book 4, tentatively titled LET IT BLEED, will be released Summer 2011, and after BRING ON THE NIGHT it's anyone's guess what will happen next.

Sexual Content: References to homosexuality. A scene where two women make out while a man masturbates. Several sex scenes in varying graphic detail.

This book is set about three years after the last book with Ciara training for her position in the control. Much to her chagrin, she is stationed with the Immanence Corps, a group filled of vampires and humans with special abilities. However, before she can get officially "signed" in, a insanely virus starts sweeping her campus. At first the doctors think its chicken pox, but when it starts killing people within hours of the onset of symptoms they quickly realize this virus is something more. Long story short, Ciara is one of the few at a major risk. Some major events happen that start a tailspin that will leave everyone forever change.

I'm having a hard time talking about this book without spoiling anything, it just really was that eventful. The book at its core is really mostly about belief and faith. As we know from the previous books, Shane has it and Ciara has the absolute opposite. It is her utter lack of faith that allows her blood to heal vampires from holy wounds. Due to the events in this book, her lack of faith is challenged, and for the first time in her life she finds herself wanting to believe in something.

The characters in this series will just grip you and make you care so much for them. Each one's personality is completely unique and I found myself loving each and every one of them despite their quirks. In this book, we get a closer look at the DJs and who they really are. I also loved the progression in Shane and Ciara's relationship. It took leaps forward, and well, backwards as well. Everything between them feels so real, and I really enjoyed seeing them together. The road between them will still be long and I'm sure filled with potholes, but I think it will be a journey worth spending.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read it in just one setting, I just couldn't put it down. After the events of this book, I can only imagine where the next book will lead. I really love the new direction things are taking, and I cannot recommend this series any more highly.