Customer Reviews

A Darker Crimson (Crimson City)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Crimson City continues to rock!
Claudia Donovan is a police officer with the LAPD. She has had a difficult life and now is a very cautious woman. This doesn't make her a difficult character though. She is cynical about the paranormal species she has to deal with but overall she is a down to earth likable character.
The book starts with her at the scene of a murder. It also introduces you to Tiber Korzha, a vampire. Not just any vampire though, he is the fabulously hot head of one of the vampire families in Crimson City. For some reason I kept seeing him as Eric Bana in my head, go figure! He had the bad luck to be at the scene of the crime. You can tell early on that these two are fascinated with each other but they don't think it really means anything at first.
Tiber has been working up an alliance with the Elismal demons. He doesn't realize that they are about to betray him. Both he and Claudia end up together in the world of the demons due to Claudia and her daughter being kidnapped.
Claudia has to depend on Tiber to help her in this book and they develop feelings for each other in the process. Then throw in the complication of her having the vishtau bond with Lath, a Bak-Faru demon. The vishtau bond makes Lath pretty irresistible to her, but only on a sexual level. He is pretty hot, although really evil. I must stress again, EVIL.
All in all good things and bad things happen in the book. I had to subtract one star based on a few inconsistencies, but overall this was a fantastic next book. Jade Lee's book will not come out fast enough. They should seriously rethink that release date. 4 months is too long to wait on a book that continues a series this hot!!!!

The demons of Orcus believe they have found the elixir to enable them to penetrate the barrier between their underground abyss and the human city above. They need to obtain the blood of Crimson City police officer Claudia Donovan. To lure Claudia into their realm is relatively easy; the demons arrange the kidnapping of Claudia's daughter Holly so that she can serve as bait.

Claudia soon realizes that she will probably die in Orcus and has little chance of rescuing her daughter who probably is dead. Her only hope to escape rests with the dangerously appealing vampire Tiberiu Korzha, who is in the underground on a quest. Surprisingly he agrees to help the single mother at the same time that Lath the demon claims Claudia as his life mate.

The Crimson City saga has produced three previous great tales with each enhancing the realm set forth from the previous tale. However, the fourth novel, A DARKER CRIMSON, is the best jewel yet as the problems between humans, demons, vampires, and werewolves, etc. explodes into the open. The key cast members insure vampires, demons, and those humans living along side these paranormal creatures seem real so that fans receive a terrific thriller that sets quite a high bar for the next story to achieve.

Harriet Klausner

Claudia Donovan is a tough cop in Crimson City, but she has a vulnerable spot, her daughter, Holly. When the girl is captured by demons, Claudia will break her own rules to join forces with a vampire, Korzha, to get her back from the demon realm. A secret Claudia never imagined knocks Claudia for a loop, and the young mother is forced to do things she finds horrible to save Holly, but do them she does. As an added complication,she finds herself caught in a nightmarish "love" triangle with a demon who loves and hates her as well as Korzha, whom she does love.

** This is an unusual story. Claudia's rape is portrayed in a very disturbing manner. How she falls for Korzha is never clearly defined, and there is a large gap in the background information. If you read this book, be warned, it is a very dark story, invoking a subtle form of horror. **

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore, Freelance Reviewer.

Claudia Donavan is a human woman just trying to survive in the Crimson City. Life is chaotic enough, but with demons infiltrating the police force, no one can be trusted. When her daughter is kidnapped, Claudia goes after her and finds herself thrust into the demon world of Orcus. Her only ally, Tiberiu Korzha cannot be trusted and isn't very popular amongst the vampire - his own kind.

Carolyn Jewel has written a very interesting novel built on the determination of what a mother would go through for the love of her child. Claudia, like the rest of the humans on the police force from Crimson City, is way out of her element; plus she is getting used by the demons and doesn't know it yet.

What surprised me the most about this story is that the pace was not as frantic as I expected. Claudia is very afraid of what is happening and what will happen to her daughter if she doesn't rescue her; but, even though she and Tiberiu are running for their lives and trying to escape the demons while on Orcus the pace of the book was very slow. Because the events transpiring and the pace of the book were at odds it was a struggle for me to continue reading the middle of the book.

What I did really like about A DARKER CRIMSON is that you do get to see the "enemy" - the demons from Orcus. I really liked this because while the humans are fighting to survive on Earth, they are doing the same on Orcus. You have innocent lives on both sides just like you have the extreme radicals that want to infiltrate the other world to destroy it. Reading this book is almost like getting to see the fight for survival from the eyes of the other camp, even though both Claudia and Tiberiu are from Earth.

Something else I think is note worthy about A DARKER CRIMSON that may be a deterrent for some readers: Carolyn is forcibly taken as a mate by one of the demons. While he seduces her, it is still against her will. I mention this only because I've heard so many readers not wanting to read this type of story. The demon is a main character in Claudia's life and serves as both a protagonist and an antagonist which I also found very interesting about this book.

All in all, this is a very unique addition to the multi-author Crimson series as it has plenty of its own merits to offer. I kind of look at A DARKER CRIMSON like a classic novel: a struggle to read but overall, a good book.

I enjoy the Crimson City series - some authors more than others. I'm not bagging on Carolyn Jewel's writing style - just her plot / character movement. I gave the book 2 stars because I felt the author was completely WRONG in her choice of "anti-hero". For the first time I completely felt that the so called "bad guy" should get the girl and the "anti-hero" should drop dead. I HATED that Claudia preferred Tiberius to her demon SOUL MATE, Lath. It ruined the book for me. I felt AWFUL over it.

I quickly became fascinated with Liz Maverick's Crimson City Series when I blundered into a copy of "A Taste of Crimson". So far I have not been let down. What many readers are not understanding, possibly because it is not being marketed as widely as it should - is that this is a collaborative effort between several authors who are working together, but yet are allowed to give their own characters their own voice. One thing I discovered late was that Crimson City does have it's own website, blogsite, etc. If you are new to reading this, go back and look at some of this stuff. I think you can find it at Crimsoncity.com. All kinds of "interesting" stuff that would make it all clearer to you I believe. Perhaps that's my own bias because I do find Jewel's characters interesting, as well as most of the others in the series. I titled my review "Darker Crimson for a Reason". In my opinion, this is the darkest of the novels yet and perhaps Ms. Jewel was chosen as the author for that reason. kinda of like a someone has to do it thing. Those who shy away from the issues of "possession sex", as it has been termed may be misunderstanding why it is even in there it the first place. This book deals with how the demons will get into Crimson City. As those who read "Through the Crimson Veil" now know, demons like sex. But then I got confused myself. There are two actual scenes that can be interpreted as such and one involves the hero, Tiber. I thought the scene in question was the scene with Lath. Either way, I know the whole "possession" thing is bothersome, but you are reading a book about demons here. Like some of you, I did feel somewhat sorry for Lath, however, remember he was manipulating Claudia's mind the entire time she was in Orcus, telling her he hated her and her species in one breath but then using a demon bond to basically rape her. Every novel has to have a bad guy and this one has several: Jaise and Lath were the main ones. You can make excuses for anyones' bad behavior but not for rape. Lath is not the hero. So why is Tiber the hero? What makes him better? He has issues...my question is whether the author wrote him with "issues" or if she is simply a bad author. I think many of you are quick to judge the author, when really..we have some complex characters. Tiber has wanted Claudia Donovan since before they were thrown together. He knows she's human, which is taboo. He's got as bad reputation, even though as the book develops he shows himself as a big softy and very protective of her. Pretty much the hero in my book. I think he's still got some issues though and that is what makes this series so great. Eventually, it will have to tie together somehow by the last book. I find it interesting to see how he and Claudia manage to integrate their lives. He proved by the end he is willing to come down to her strata level. It should be fascinating to see with the oncoming war how it plays out. My only issue is with the role of Claudia's daughter Holly. She played a pivitol role in the book, but it got overlooked and underplayed. It was almost like, you had to reread the book to go back and find it. The book was very busy. That probably did lead to a lot of people's annoyance. Lots of action, but I didn't get lost. It wasn't exactly like reading Tom Clancy or anything. Don't let a few bad reviews fool you. I totally love this book. The main problem I found was that if the author had been given about 200 or so extra pages she probably could have fleshed it all out so that the scenes were smoother not so jumpy action packed and a bit more emotionly oriented. Generally these things aren't given to them though. They have a story to tell and do the best they can.

I love this series. I just did Not like this storyline and plotline. I think it was lacking in just about everything!!!

A very disappointing book! I have loved the rest of the series, but could not get "into" this book. I found the action sequences disjointed, the jumping from one "nightmare" to another confusing. It is not until Chapter 8 that you understand where the heroine is and have an inkling of what is going on. Character introduction is particularly weak. I was also annoyed by hackneyed ploys in speech, ("har har", "that's need to know", and on and on). Though I will read the remainder of the series - I will not finish nor keep this book. Unless you are a real fan of Carolyn Jewel, this book is not recommended.

Did this author even read the previous book in this series, you know, the one written by Patti O'Shea? The one where the author emphatically and clearly states more than once that demons cannot reproduce except by their vishtau mates?!

Yet the human heroine of this story has a daughter by some unknown demon - Garath - yet has different vishatu mate - Lath. What a glaring and pathetic mistake that not only the author didn't catch but none of the proof-readers or publishers either.

Totally ruined the entire book for me. I can handle some inconsistencies - it is to be expected when different authors are expanding on a series but this is such a glaring, obvious mistake. It bothered me enough to actually write my first review.

Skip this book, please. Not only do I agree with all of the other two and lower star reviews but the unexplained conception of a half-demon without a vishtau mating is an amateurish mistake.

Let's just hope Jade Lee manages to salvage this series - and has read the previous books. Carolyn Jewel just mucked it up for me. Big time.

Seems to be where the series is taking a serious downturn. The first three books were relatively well written. This one, however, tries to go dark (think Book 4 of Harry Potter compared to the previous 3) and disturbing and achieved that with a healthy dose of confusing, mainly due to the fact that it wasn't very well written but also because the plot was just...weird.

And Carolyn Jewel apparently completely left out the fact that demons can only reproduce with their true mate (can't remember the term...). It really bugs me when people change recognized facts in a series simply to suit their (so-called) plot.

I'm still reading the series since each book is written by a different author, so I can't judge the entire series by this one bomb.