Night Fires [Mass Market Paperback]

Karen Harbaugh (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books (2003)
• ISBN-10: 0440334667
• ISBN-13: 978-0440334668
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More Like a Flicker Than a Blaze, June 15, 2004

By 

L. J Lewis "Miss Amii" (Collierville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Night Fires (Mass Market Paperback)

I completely agree with the reviewer that said there is absolutely no reason to make Simone a vampire. The only purpose it serves is to turn this character into an unpleasant, humorless walking pity party. Night Fires would have worked better as a straigh forward historical for all the impact the vampire gimmick made on the story.
As others have said, this takes place during the choas and terror of the French Revolution. Simone returns to her family estate to find the family that turned their backs on her murdered. She slays the killers, and then runs off to church to beg forgiveness. The priest instructs her to dedicate her life to help other flee from the agents of the revolution. Hence, Simone becomes La Flamme, a Scarlet Pimpernel minus the brains clone, dedicated to rescuing imprisoned aristocrats. At the same time, the English government sends over a spy named ..er... I'm drawing a blank... let me check... (I just finished the book an hour ago) yes... Micheal Corday to seek out and assasinate the one financing a revolutionary movement in England.
As a historical spy romance, the book is also a dud. Simone is again the problem. For someone who risks danger at every turn, she sure is stupid and ineffective as a spy. I can't see why a seasoned expert like Corday is so adament that he must enlist the help of La Flamme when he isn't sure can trust a third party and Simone is more of a help than a hinderance. In fact, if Corday just went to Paris without her, the book would have been finished in a third of the time and we'd all be spared Simone's endless self-flagellation. She's cursed, she's evil, she's wicked, she must suffer, she must wear a hairsuit, and she must give us every detail of her pain and agony because we must suffer along with her.
But honestly, in particularly silly scene Simone is vowing to herself not to sleep with Corday and reveal her true name and other information. Not three pages later, Simone has succomed to his charms and answers every one of his questions, spilling all her secrets as they do it! A few pages later, the government spy keeping an eye on them mentions how inept women are at keeping secrets. I laughed. I sure hope the author meant for the irony to be there. There is also a another part were Corday wants Simone to pretend to be his wife, but she can't because lying is bad and marriage is scacred or some other nonsense. She nearly gives them both away in front of hostile French agents! Simone, even though her life's misson is to decieve and ellude the revolution's agents, isn't even flexiable enough to act outside the Moral Code of Virtuous Romance Historical Womyn That Make Them Pure and Likeable to Ye Puritanical Readers to save her own life!
In the end, they finally make it to Paris and do what they need to and everything is hunky dory even though the plot elements just come together out of Serendipity rather than actual spy work. Corday and Simone live happily ever after. The End.
This book is readable but not much else. A more complex story, lack of vampire gimmick, tigher pacing, and characters not determined to wallow in misery would have improved this spy novel. It's head over heels better than all those idiotic vampire comedies that have been flooding the market in the last few months, but that's a back-handed compliment.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, December 31, 2003

By 

Wm19 (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Night Fires (Mass Market Paperback)

This was a great book. Usually I don't read books about French Revolutionary times, but I liked Karen Harbaugh's previous Regency romances, and this plot turned out to be engaging and cool. Unlike other vampire books, in this novel, the heroine is the vampire, and vampirism isn't glorified the way it is in other books. Instead, becoming human again is something possible and sought for. If you only want to read about sexy/scary immortal male vampires, then this isn't the book for you. If you want to read about a strong woman who made a mistake when she was young and now uses her vampiric powers to save people from the Revolution and how her good deeds allow her to win back her humanity, find true love, and live happily ever after, then this is the book for you. The heroine is smart, determined and has a nifty disguise. The hero is more than a match for the vampiress and as an assassin, he's very cool under pressure. They had great chemistry. The plot was very realistic, in the way they interacted, travelled, etc., and author's description of that period. What I enjoyed the most was the surprise twist in the ending involving the children. I highly recommend this. I don't read historical romance anymore, but this book is definitely a keeper. I will buy the sequel as soon as it comes out.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sensual, May 22, 2008

By 

BellaDonna "Moon Gazer" (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Night Fires (Mass Market Paperback)

I am almost finished reading this book and don't want it to end. Ms. Harbaugh draws you in to her world like the trademark trance of the vampire. Her descriptions are vivid, and Corday is as sensual as they come. Both characters are flawed, Simone is a Vampire and Corday an assasin, both deal in death. Together they find comfort. There is humor and lust, along with raw emotions.
I was very pleasantly surprised by this book, and admire the author's writing style.