Customer Reviews

Devour (Vivian Roussel, No 1)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The Montfort legacy is a deadly one, filled with the horror and death by werewolves. Paul DuJardin hopes to reveal their dark secrets in his upcoming book and Julie Buchanan is the ideal translator. However, the publishing of Paul's book awakens a deep anger in Pierre de Montfort, an anger that only further incites his acts of violence. Will Paul and his werewolf hunting partner, Catherine Marais, be able to stop this werewolf in time? And what will happen with Catherine's attraction to yet another supernatural being, the vampire Ian Morgan?

I had high hopes for DEVOUR. After all, it is billed as a story with both a vampire and a werewolf. Unfortunately, that is exactly where the excitement ended for me with this one. Perhaps part of the problem is the sheer ambitiousness of the novel. Instead of focusing solely on Catherine's issues about having a romantic affair with a vampire or whether Paul could keep Julie safe from Pierre, Melina Morel tried to do both. What follows is a tale completely lacking any passion or emotion, leaving no opportunity for either subplot to shine. In fact, it was difficult for me to truly ascertain which couple was supposed to be the main hero and heroine!

DEVOUR is a book with a great deal of unrealized potential. With a little more focus and more showing rather than telling, DEVOUR could have some true potential as Melina Morel has some clever ideas. Unfortunately, DEVOUR barely held my attention.

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

i do not know if the author was determined to prove the sophistication of her work, but all she provided me with was a passionless and emotionless "romance." By passionless I am not talking about sex, there have been inspirationals and other PG to PG13 romances I have read that had emotion and passion shimmering off the pages. This novel did not even give off a faint glimmer and there was sex or at least the impression of it. The hero and the secondary characters are the only people who I identified with and I have never wanted a hero to leave a heroine alone so much in my life. I truly did not get the feeling that the heroine wanted the hero as any more than a "boy toy." The two professed to love each other, but unlike other romances the reader could not feel it at all. Catherine was perhaps too sophisticated (words I thought I would never write). She belonged in a book about a jaded wife not a romance. Perhaps this book is part of a larger series. If it is the author would be well served by injecting some emotion into Catherine's cold sophistication (one of the victims of the werewolf is dealt with the same way taking away all identification and empathy). I ended up feeling for the werewolf (the bad guy) because at least he and Ian had feelings.

First off let me say I set out hoping to enjoy this book. It has a lovely cover and I was lured in by the words werewolf and vampire on the back. As soon as I curled up in bed and cracked it open I knew it was going to be a struggle.

This is Morel's first paranormal and it shows. From what I was able to find she has written two historical romances under another name, perhaps they were better. What I found disconcerting is that this book not only lacked any passion or intensity when it clearly should have, it started off with one character as if she were the central heroine and then threw the supposedly central heroine in a little later. Even now, just hours after completing the book I couldn't tell you who this book was intended to center on.

The story introduces us to Julie, an American professor, and Paul, a French werewolf hunter moonlighting as author to a book which Julie must translate to English to provoke the last of the Montfort werewolves. What I don't understand is why the werewolf needed to be provoked with a book, or why, if Paul is so fluent in English, he didn't translate it himself. Enter Paul's partner in werewolf hunting, the aristocratic Catherine and her vampire lover, Ian. Now here is where it really gets confusing... Ian is really the main character in Paul's book who supposedly killed his wife when instead it was his jealous cousin who killed his wife and is the father of the Montfort werewolves. Oh yeah, and Ian's also Julie's great-great-grandpa.

Throw in absolutely no world building, no character development beyond a bunch of discussion regarding aristocratic tastes and really badly written plans to catch the werewolf and this book is the stinker of the year. If you like paranormals, stay away from this one. If you like romance, you won't find any here. I try not to be too critical of anyone's writing but when I've seen teenagers write more passionate and well sculpted stories it pains me that a publisher would put this on the shelves and charge money for it. If you really must read it, borrow it from the library or buy it at a garage sale, all you'll lose is the time you waste reading it.

And I only finished it because I spent money on it. I finished in one day because I skipped through the boring parts, which was most of the book.
There was no character development. Can we stay static? I should of read the reviews on this page before buying this waste of money. The people who wrote good reviews must be the authors friends.
The four main characters wait around for something to happen and have boring sex. They don't know where the bad guy is at all times? Wait for him to leave his jewelry store that he is at everyday! Duh. When the necklace was not going to be picked up for another day. Urg!
One main female character has no issues about having [boring] sex with her vampire lover. That's great in real life, no problem, but it's boring on paper. The other female falls hook, line, and sinker for her boyfriend's warnings that she is in danger. She completely believes he is a werewolf hunter, with no real proof! The vampire is a good undead creature. Who cares!
The author wrote this book under a different name than two other books she has written. I realy want to know who she is because I never want to waste my money on another one of her books.

This book had flat characters and a flat plot. Nothing new here other than they were French or had lived in France. There wasn't anything exciting about the characters, nothing new as far as vampires and werewolves. Save your money.

The premis of this book makes it sounds interesting, a female werewolf hunter and her partner are hunting the last in the line of devious, cunning French werewolves. The female hunter is also involved with a vampire who happens to be her lover. The characters are flat, lacking emotions. The story does not draw you in and make you want to curl up with this book. I will have to agree with the previous two reviewers who stated how passionless this book is.

In case you haven't read all the other reviews yet, Devour has all the makings of a great urban fantasy or paranormal romantic suspense read - vampires, evil werewolves, werecats and a paranormal agency of werewolf hunters. Unfortunately, it just doesn't deliver.

The biggest problem I had with Devour, and I had many, was that there was a lack of focus. Who was the main character in this? The back cover blurb - which was pretty much the best part of the book - suggested that it was the werehuntress Catherine, but she absolutely did not stand out from the background at all in the scenes that she was in. Her vampire lover Ian had a stronger presence, but there were threads following two other potential leads and the werewolf too and I was unable to decide whose story this was supposed to be. And all those many characters were lifeless and lacking in motivation so that there really was a sense that they were all just going through the motions. The werewolf Pierre, was a perfect example, he was able to control his wolf enough to drive somewhere to hunt and fold his clothes before shifting but this hoity-toity jeweler just decided to go out and eat a few people. Why? I haven't the faintest idea but what really drove me crazy was that the werehunters knew the identity of the wolf, deliberately stirred him up to flush him out, and then didn't move in to take him out - they just let Pierre keep killing people without seeming to care about the body count.

Add to all that, dialog that was so stilted that I - and I am not at all a technical reader, comma placement bothers me not at all - stopped a few times and tried to figure out how to reword the dialog to make the characters sound less wooden. Combine this with the lack of characters to care about - and I won't even mention the tepid sex and lackluster romance - with the desperate need for an editor to clean up the dialog (and plot) and I had a really hard time finishing Devour. In fact I gave up actually reading halfway through, gritted my teeth and skimmed to finish the book - and I only toughed it out because I didn't check the reviews before reading this and I actually already purchased the sequel, arrgghh.

I hate to be so negative but I don't recommend Devour, unless you find it used - and even then, I am sorry to say, you'd be better off rereading something you already have.

The storyline was a great idea. It's what made me buy the book. However, I have to agree with one of the other reviews regarding the characters as "flat and lacking emotions." It was almost like reading someone's boring day-by-day blog. I love paranormal thriller books but this one was not a "thriller" at all! Took me days to read and usually I go through these books in a day or two. This is the first time I felt like doing a review but I think they can be helpful when deciding to buy a book. I bought this in a book store and I should have read the reviews first.

Overall, Devour was a really good read. I mean, I couldn't put it down, but it wasn't what I was expecting. After being told the books could stand on their own, I'm kind of left feeling like that isn't the case. The more I think about it, it's kind of like the Bourne series, where there is a lot of strategy going on, and there is a romance in the background, but it's more about all the fun locales and the little play by play events that a take-down generally has. Like I said, Devour is good, just don't pick it up based on what the blurb says, you might end up feeling like I did.

For my complete review, check out Literary Escapism.

With a little editorial guidance this could have been a good story. The premise was great but I have to say that I was confused from the very beginning. The cover blurb features Catherine Marais and her vampire hero, but the story starts with Julie Buchanan and Catherine's partner in the werewolf killing business, Paul DuJardin. This pulled me out of the story from the start as I kept referring to the back cover trying to figure out if I was reading the same book. For a better summary refer to Ms. Morel's website, not the cover blurb.

The story begins at Chateau Montfort in Touraine, France. This is the ancestral home of the Montfort Werewolves. This is where Paul DuJardin, werewolf killer meets Julie Buchanan, NYC college professor. The Chateau interests her for a different reason as her ancestry traces back to the family who once lived there. Coincidence? Not at all.
This is where the vampire comes in.

At the time of the French Revolution Chateau Montfort was the scene of a great love and a great tragedy. It is said that in 1789 Count Jean de Montfort turned werewolf and killed his beautiful and beloved young countess Marie-Jeanne. Julie is descended from Marie-Jeanne's sister Manon who with the rest of the family fled to England to avoid the Revolution. Manon had married a Buchanan and her eldest son immigrated to America founding Julie's branch of the family. At least this is what she believes to be true.

[We later discover that Ian Morgan is in fact the poor maligned count. Falsely accused and not caring what happened to him after such a great loss he allowed himself to be turned by a vampire in order to seek his revenge. His immortality gives him the opportunity to watch over what remains of his family, appearing to aid the female members in times of need, and endowing the eldest daughter of each generation with a unique dowry.]

Paul has just written a book about the Montfort Werewolves. Julie is fluent in French and Paul commissions her to translate the book, L'Affaire Montfort into English for the American Market. It appears that the last remaining werewolf of the Montfort line is alive and well and killing in NYC, were Julie makes her home. The plan is to use the book release to sniff out the werewolf and so we move ahead two years.

The Monfort werewolf has reached maturity. All the players are in place in NYC. The publicity for the book has done its job to provoke Pierre de Montfort, a highly respected jeweler, into showing his true nature which he revels in.

Julie has a crush on Paul although nothing serious has developed between them as yet. Paul is concerned for Julie, hoping her role as translator doesn't draw the beast's attention to her. Catherine is having an affair with Ian. Paul isn't sure if he approves.

Paul and Catherine must await the results of a DNA sample from the Institut in Geneva before going in for the kill. The DNA is confirmed, Pierre is the last Monfort werewolf. But in a shocking turn of events, the Institut wants him brought back alive! Paul refuses to consider the idea, but Catherine is intrigued. And that takes us to the middle of the book.

Sounds interesting, right? Unfortunately a plethora of superfluous details and stilted conversation really get in the way of the story here. With so many relationships, Paul and Catherine, Paul and Julie, Ian and Catherine, Ian and Julie, Pierre and his girlfriend Marianne, Marianne and her coworker Jim, Pierre and Jim - the story is all over the place. It is difficult to get to know any of the characters well enough to care what happens to them. Yes, the right people get together, and yes the villain gets what's coming to him, but I feel that the story would be better classified as urban romantic fantasy rather than paranormal romance as the spine indicates.

Overall the entire cover is misleading. The focus of the story is Paul and Catherine's quest to bring down the werewolf. Paul, Catherine and Pierre are the main characters; the vampire and Julie play very secondary roles in this plot. Besides their familial connection to each other and their role as romantic interests of the lead characters, these two are left on the sidelines as the action takes place.

If you enjoy urban fantasy in which the paranormal entity plays the villain you may enjoy Devour, if you are looking for paranormal romance you may want to look elsewhere. ~ Reviewed for PNR Reviews