Customer Reviews

Dressed to Slay (Silhouette Bombshell)

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

 

 

The oldest of triplets by a half hour Megan Crosse begins the walk down the aisle accompanied by her sisters Natashya and Katherine when her long lost thought dead grandfather interrupts the nuptials though she and her siblings agree their respective fiancés fail to get their motors humming. Darkheart accompanied by shapeshifter Mikhail Vosteroff claims his triplet offspring are part of a family of vampire-slayers and are needed right now. He insists one of them is a slayer, another will become a healer, and the third will convert into a vampire. He returned to them because they are in peril from the same creature that killed their mother.

The wedding is put off over the objections of the groom investment banker Dean as the triplets join their grandfather to fight a local nest of vampires. Meanwhile Megan finds Mikhail stirs her blood while he thinks she is his life mate. However, everyone fears that she is the one who will convert to a vampiress since as a child she was bit by one of the bloodsuckers.

Supernatural romance readers will appreciate this action-packed romantic thriller starring a strong lead couples and fully developed support players. Readers will believe in vampires, werewolves, and oh my an assortment of other ilk; much of that reality suspension comes from the non stop escapes of the heroes, but also because of the amusing dialogue between the triplets and the sensual discourse between Megan and Mikhail. With Tash and Kat to follow, sub-genre fans have plenty to look forward to as Harper Allen provides a terrific opening tale.

Harriet Klausner

I found this book almost impossible to read mostly due to the very poor editing and total lack of guidance given the author. The author came up with an interesting idea but got far to carried away in many scenes and used mostly 2 dimensional characters who really did change much over the 100 pages I managed to read, hence my comment about lack of guidance from the editor. As far as the editing itself is concerned, many scenes could have been cut by a half to three-quarters to improve the flow of the storyline which is choppy at best. I'll put this book back on the shelf until a time when I am bored to tears. Perhaps then I'll be able to finish it. Not recommened.

It took me a while to decide on buying this book due to mixed reviews but I'm very glad I did! In fact I would now say that I'm hooked on the Crosse sisters. In this first book of the new series triplets Megan, Kat, and Tash are trying to celebrate their upcoming marriages on the night before Megans' wedding. However, none of the girls is really happy. And that just gets worse when their fiances show up at the door as newly turned vampires and attempt to kill them.

The girls bumbelingly vanquish their men and the same night a strange prophecy, their long lost grandfather, and a werewolf show up. The girls find out that one of them is destined to be a vamp slayer ...and one of them is about to change into a vamp.

Now they must be trained as slayers though everyone assumes that Megan is the vamp to be. Even the vamp Queen whose been searching for them thinks that. And bound to the sexy werewolf, Michail, Megan is fighting for her life. Ironically, all isn't as it appears again for the sisters and their roles in life are about to change once more. Even those who are trusted turn out to be double crossers. And who will Megan choose Michail or the entirely human cop?

My only critisism with the entire book- that the love story doesn't seem to fully conclude with in this book and I know that the next book moves on to a different sister. I need to know if she loves him back darn it!

Watch for the newly released Vampaholic, already in my shopping cart, and the soon to be released Dead is the New Black.

I've got a theory. I think _Dressed to Slay_ is actually a long-lost episode of Buffy. The Scooby Gang has been hit by another demonic curse. This time, instead of falling silent or bursting into song, they've all been turned into Cordelia, and I mean first-season Cordelia. (All but Giles, that is. He miraculously escapes the Cordelia curse, but picks up a Russian accent.)

The comparison breaks down pretty quickly, though, because if Joss Whedon had written _Dressed to Slay_, I'd probably like it better. I'll say it right up front: _Dressed to Slay_ was not my cup of tea.

The first chapter consists of the three Crosse sisters infodumping their entire life histories to each other. These girls grew up together, so they're telling each other things they already know. There's so much fashion name-dropping that I hope Juicy Couture and Jimmy Choo paid Allen for the product placement. Then, as the plot thickens, our heroine gets into an argument about Mariah Carey in the middle of a fight for her life, and breaks the fourth wall to dispense fashion advice to the reader, also in the middle of a fight for her life:

"If any goth-types reading this are thinking, _God, how stupid can this chick be not to know vampires can't be killed with lead?_ I have two things to say to you. One: I hoped the books and movies were wrong on that; and two: a couple of black dresses are admittedly a good starting point for a wardrobe, but at a certain stage, why not consider adding a few pale neutrals?"

The plot consists, for the most part, of Megan and her sisters doing moronic things. Megan mocks herself often for behaving like a "Too Dumb to Live" horror movie heroine, but keeps doing it anyway. The heroines are saved by dumb luck more often than not. Along the way, they have catty arguments and exchange dialogue that's sometimes funny, but more often than not feels like it's trying too hard to be Hip And Zany.

Megan has two love interests. One is dull as dishwater. The other stands over her smirking while she goes into anaphylactic shock. Be still my heart. (Literally?)

But what I really couldn't get over was what felt like an enormous plot hole in the middle of the book. This is spoilery, so I'll try to be vague. Megan breaks into the office of the villain and finds a strange weapon there. She immediately decides to go kill vamps with it. I can almost ignore the fact that there's no foreshadowing that suggests this type of weapon would even work on the undead. Maybe Megan's super-special slayer heritage clued her in somehow. But ...the whole scene implies that Megan intentionally walked into the "lion's den" without _bringing a stake of her own_. Not to mention, why would the villain, who knew the weapon's provenance, _leave it out in the open_? I guess the heroine and villain are equally matched in the Too Dumb to Live department.

Overall, there's just too much character stupidity in this book. It's hard to empathize with the protagonists when you spend the whole book wanting to hit them with the Clue Bat.

If _Dressed to Slay_ has a saving grace, though, it's a complete lack of pretension. Allen clearly knows she's writing camp. If there's anything worse than a bad vampire novel, it's a bad vampire novel with delusions of grandeur. That's one flaw you won't find here.

After 30 years of avid reading, this will be the first book I return for content. It's that bad. The plot is dumb, the characters are immature, and story is choppy (like whole sections were edited out). The heroine and her sisters are spoiled brats, and the dialogue attempts to be fun and cutsie (it's not).

Prime example of why the Bombshell line is being discontinued.

Rarely do I stop reading a book by page 30. This book is horrible! Poorly written, poorly edited, and even the first ten pages make no sense. The female characters are all bumbling idiots; the male characters are all dark, evil, but still superior to the females in every way possible.

Do NOT! waste your money on this book, unless you need something for a dart board. One page at a time.

This book is one of the best. Ms.Allen is a rising star and I will buy more of her books.

Meg, Kat, and Tash Crosse were not thrilled about marrying their bland as dishwater fiances, but they were resigned to it. They certainly did not want an escape clause in the form of the three grooms-to-be becoming vampires who would try to kill them, but that's what they got. Instead of weddings and husbands, they find themselves with a legacy and a grandfather that they thought was dead re-entering their lives. As it turns out, one of the triplets is a Daughter of Lilith, the chosen vampire slayer of this generation. One is a healer. The third is destined to become a vampire. It looks to Grandfather like Meg is the vampire to be, so she finds herself excluded from the how to kill vampires 101 lessons and saddled with a shapeshifter named Mikhail who watches her like a hawk so that he can stop her from doing evil or protect her, as the case warrants. Meg can't decide if she's annoyed with him, attracted to him, or both, but there's really not time to figure all that out. There's a vampire queen on the loose who needs to be stopped, and it is up to the Crosse girls to do the job.

**** Reading the books out of order as I found myself doing, I knew how it would end, but that did not change how enjoyable the story was. Getting additional background information, especially how the slayer myth has been reinvented for this series, was helpful and interesting. If you enjoyed Buffy, then it's a sure bet you'll like this as well. ****