Customer Reviews

Moonlight, Wine & Stakes

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

 

 

I was disappointed. I do like the characters and I can see that if allowed to develop on their own and not follow the buffy outline something interesting can grow with this.

The heroine is a vampire slayer that finds herself alone at a young age and is found by her "guardian" (not her watcher) who by the way is also British like anyone watcher some may know...He raises her, teaches all the skills she needs to be the best slayer. He has his own secrets he is not ready to tell her because he isn't sure she would understand. She's all grown up now but...

But as smart as she is supposed to be she takes a "friend" who may know about vampires but doesn't deal with them to a rave party out in the middle of the no where that is sure to be filled with vampires. Lets not forget a Master Vampire is throwing this party. Not just any Master the one that has been called to get rid of her. She is a slayer so it makes perfect sense to go to this party loaded with vampires where she will be clearly outnumbered. But she just wants to go anyway, figures take out a few vamps, have some drinks, dance a little, just blow off some steam, typical girls night out......

And of course the drinks are being made by demon bartenders, and yet still doesnt send any red flags up. She is so buzzed she has no idea the Master vampire is the guy with the great kisses along with "other" things, has almost made her his personal slave. He has her but how she got out of that I am not even sure. One minute she there with the Master and the next just being groped by some fledgling vampires, her guardian shows up "blinks" her out of there and she comes out with not much more then a bad hangover.

But got to tell you this Master, the lights may be on but no bodys home. He not such a tough ememy, and his gang of vampires and no smarter about staying out of the wrong place wrong time then the fledgling vampires in this story they reminded me more of a bunch of "stooges" vampires

There is no real structure or time taken to really develop the characters. It felt rushed. Still I have hope that if we are to see more of this vampire slayer she will let the characters deveop on their own and may get some winning stories in the future.

This is one of the most poorly edited books I have come across in a long time. While I understand that it's almost impossible to eliminate every single typo, the myriad of spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors on virtually every page distracts from what may be an otherwise entertaining, if rather predictable, story.

The sex scenes are extremely disappointing, relying on foul language and little else to set the mood. While I am not a big advocate of using phrases like "his throbbing manhood", and agree that a few well-placed naughty words here and there can titillate the reader, the author goes way too far and just leaves you feeling crass.

Overall, I was extremely disappointed in the book. It seemed like a very rough first draft of what could have been a decent novel.

Eden Camden is a Slayer. She hunts vampires and destroys them. Orphaned at the age of 16, Eden was placed under the Guardianship of Elliot Warwick. However, Elliot has secrets he isn't sharing with her, secrets about magic that could destroy them both.

Carlos Venturi is a Master vampire and he has entered Eden and Elliott's hunting ground of Las Vegas at the request of vampire Seraphina and her Renegades. Eden has been too successful as a Slayer and Seraphina wants her stopped. Elliot will have to reveal secrets to Eden that could change the way she feels about him. Will Eden and Elliot use the power of the Prophecy before Carlos can destroy them? And will they be willing to acknowledge the desire blooming between them?

MOONLIGHT, WINE AND STAKES is one book that vampire fans should not miss! It has a bit of everything- magic, vampires, shapeshifting, romance, and some very exciting action scenes! Eden is the ultimate female action hero and readers will love her snappy repartee with Elliot. Lynn Warren paints a very clear picture of Eden's character from the very first page as her sassy comments to the vampires she finds lurking in a cemetary demonstrate her fiery character. Her sense of humor about her job as a Slayer keeps her grounded, however, and will definitely put a smile on readers' faces as she deals with the stench of the Undead.

Lynn Warren also presents a fabulous cast of secondary characters, including Maya Wright and Titan. Maya is Eden's best friend and works for the crime scene unit. She helps bring out the feminine side of Eden which is important to make the romance work between Eden and Elliot. Eden has never focused on romance or men and put all of her energy into slaying the demons. Maya helps balance Eden and makes her transition into a sexy lover for Elliot more believable. Titan is a vampire who has a love/hate relationship with Eden and provides her with some seemingly useful information on occasion.

Fans of vampire romances will be intrigued by several of the twists Lynn Warren provides in MOONLIGHT, WINE AND STAKES. The entire concept of the vampire slayer has been vastly overdone with tv shows such as BUFFY but Ms. Warren doesn't allow Eden to become yet another BUFFY clone. Her combination of the plot elements will keep readers enthralled as to how all of the various aspects will tie together. MOONLIGHT, WINE AND STAKES is definitely recommended to all fans of the paranormal, but particularly to vampire fans!

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

Eden is a kick arse heroine that I could easily relate to the witty retorts from her had me laughing and being British I always like seeing British characters written by American's I liked Elliot and unlike the previous reviewer he hardly resembles the British character from Buffy. For one he has his own specialities and not just clever at research nor is he bookish or spends his time in a library. I rather liked that Lynn Warren's vampires are not all serious and vicious as so often used (a stereotype vampire villain). They have human flaws and are often stupid just like several chaps I know....how refreshing.. and this story is suppose to have comedy elements.

If you looking for a fun, enjoyable entertainment this is the book for you...oh and it's hot.

This story is about a Slayer and her Watcher Guardian (think Watcher). They are connected together through a prophecy and also have to deal with a Master Vampire who is attempting to bind Eden the Slayer to him. The book is reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eden was orphaned by a vampire in an attempt to get her out of the way and her guardian Elliot reads like a poorly written Giles (right down to being a `Stuffy Brit'). Eden does not have a spidey sense but she does have the ability to smell evil which had a couple of amusing scenes when she came across some good vampires. Some of the descriptions of the sexual encounters were similar to LK Hamilton's in the fact that they were ludicrous ie `it raged through her like a lioness during a hunt.' I kind of found the fact that vampire blood + Absinthe = zombie like slave (aka a Reinfield) amusing.

The story itself was good but there were way too many typos, plus I don't think the word p...y needed to be used as much as it was. The plot and characters could have carried the story without the excessive use of that word.

All I can say about this book is mix Buffy with Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series (or at least the first six books before those turned to porn as well!!) and you've got this. Is the author even trying???

The writing in this book is horrible. There was no flow to a lot of the paragraphs; everything was very choppy and seemed unedited. There were so many mispelled words and grammatical errors that I had a hard time reading it. If someone can't distinguish between "their" and "there" then they should go back to elemetry school. The story is almost a replica of the first season of BTVS. Save your money people; it is really not worth it.

I bought this book after reading the first 2-3 pages and thought it would be pretty good romance/ urban fantasy. I was incredibly wrong. I finished the book out of pure perversity but I couldn't enjoy it. It was a basic rip-off of the Buffy universe -- only a pathetic attempt at creating such an interesting world. There was little tension: romantic or other wise. The characters were basically flat. AND there were so many misspelled words and poorly written sentences that I found myself re-reading passages slowly to be sure I knew who was speaking and what was going on. I hate writing bad reviews, but this one merited it. Save your money for a good urban fantasy.

...it could be a lot better. The characters are of some interest, but the premise and plot are highly derivative.

Reading the book was made fairly unpleasant for me by the incredibly bad proofreading, which I suspect was done with a spellchecker. If an actual human being did the proofreading, he or she does not have English as a first language.

While I did not count the actual number of proofreading errors, it exceeded one per page. In a 306 page book, that's a hell of a lot of errors. Another annoying aspect of reading the book was the amateurish use of the justification option in what looks like an MS Word document. It results in very uneven letter spacing and in the completely unsatisfactory result of several chapters which end with only one or two words on a page.

I would be embarassed to be associated with the production of this book.