Customer Reviews

Night's Touch

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

 

 

I am a long time fan of A.A., and have read some excellent work in her other books. That is why this is so difficult for me... I absolutely did not enjoy this latest effort! It was so cliched and unexciting, that I give myself a huge pat on the back for finishing it (simply because I wanted to write this review). Cara, the 22-yr old adopted daughter of Brenna & Roshan DeLongpre, vampire/witch & vampire, acted & sounded more like a willful 12-yr old, than an adult. The dialogue was juvenile and so predictable that I found myself wondering why this book ever went to print, and if there was a way to get my money back! The characters, with the exception of Mara, Vince's mysterious maker, were uninteresting, underdeveloped, and just plain boring. In fact, the book itself was boring. I could not warm up to Cara or Vince. And HOW in the name of all that's un-holy, could there even be a remote possibility of Vince being able to father a child, and twins, no less! Further, I think Frank, the faithful bodyguard, was disposed of in a most callous & ungrateful manner. Further, the issue of Cara and the twins being human, and Vince being vampire, and the whole aging thing, was not addressed completely, and the reader was left hanging to draw her/his own conclusion(s). A very unsatisfactory & frustrating read. I found myself skipping parts of it. No exciting love scenes to spice it up, either. Flat, all the way! Miss Ashley is much more capable than this book suggests.

In Amanda Ashley's second book in her DeLongpre Vampires series, we are introduced to the next generation. This book takes place 22 years after the finale of Night's Kiss, the first book in this series. As in the first book, we meet some vampires, some good witches, some worse witches, a couple crazy witches, and a damsel frequently in distress. The exposition is straight forward and early in this story, so if you have not read the first book, you will not be left in the cemetery dust.

Meet Vince Cordova. He's tall, dark, sexy, dangerous and a polite southern gentleman. Oh, and he's a vampire. He's new to the vampiric night life. He's new to town. He falls for the daughter of the only other vampires in town, Roshan and Brenna DeLongpre. He's overly protective; he seduces the leading lady, Cara DeLongpre, and he helps her face the demons of her father's past. Like Roshan, in the first book, he mutters vile oaths and he grunts under his breath frequently. Also like Roshan, he is the best realized character in this book. Ms. Ashley's love of her dark and mysterious vampires comes through quite clearly in her writing. Her love for her men is contagious, and you find yourself rooting for them, regardless of the situation. They are very easy to fall for, again and again.

Our damsel, Cara DeLongpre, however, is not nearly as alive on the pages. She is often presented as overly naive, vacillating between desires to be her own, grown up woman, or Vince's beloved. I find myself wishing for more depth in the females in this series, mostly because they have the potential to be just as likable as their male counterparts. Cara goes through many of the same issues and emotions as Brenna, in the first book. This repetition of emotion, confusion, motivation and resolution is somewhat disappointing.

In this second outing, Cara and Vince face the offspring of Roshan's enemy from Night's Kiss, Anthony Loken. While Anthony lays dead, his son, Anton, and lover, Serafina, live on, bent on achieving magical and maniacal revenge against Roshan and Brenna. The villains of the piece use many of the same plot devices against Cara and Vince, as Anthony used against Roshan. Malevolent magic is afoot, again and it is up to the vampires to put a stop to it, once and for all. After a couple repetitive attempts, this book does take a slightly different course than the first one.

It seems to me that the most interesting female Ms. Ashley has created is her Queen, Mara. Mara is the oldest living vampire, and is rumored to be the Queen of the vampires, born in Darkness during Cleopatra's reign. Mara is mysterious, moody, has quite an extensive past, and is definitely a pragmatic "shades of gray" character. I would enjoy reading her story some day. Mara meeting a man worthy of her age, beauty, and depth should make for an interesting, provocative tale.

All in all, while I cannot say that I was overwhelmed with this second venture into the world of the DeLongpre family, I am still enjoying the men and Mara enough to keep turning the pages, looking for them in the shadows in book three, Night's Master, which will be released in October, 2008.

Reviewed at Bitten by Books Paranormal Fiction Review Site by Justine
The Bitten by Books review score for this book was 2.5 Tombstones

This is the third Amanda Ashley book I've read and while I still enjoyed it, I found it to be less well written. The dialog was a bit undeveloped (seemed sort of forced at times) and the plot left a bit to be desired. Overall it was okay, but nothing special.

I like to keep my favorite authors in paper and computers, but trying to shove too many people from previous books makes the story choppy and makes it drag. This is the problem with Chritine Feehan. Don't try to keep track of all of your previous characters from book to book, let them go or only make mention. I understand that our previous characters in this book are the parents and so must have some part, but it made the book very hard to read. I didn't get the soft loving glow from the two main characters because not enough time was spent on their relationship, although I did like the love/hate relationship between our vampire hero and his sire. That was cute. Amanda is one of my favories and I know that she's a very good writer, so I will continue to buy her books.

Twenty-two years ago, vampires Roshan and Brenna DeLongpre delivered a baby girl born to a teen mother who did not want her, so they took Cara in and raised her as their own, never telling her that her parents were Undead. They also killed a madman who would have destroyed them both, and now, the consequences of those two actions are coming to fruition. Anthony Loken's lover and son have decided to take revenge on his killers, the DeLongpres, and use their daughter to do so. Cara has also attracted the attention of a new vampire, Vince Cordova. Though he has fallen in love with the mortal, his secret stands between them. Yet, when danger threatens, it will take all good vampires to stand against the true evil. Cara is about to discover the miracles that are possible when truth and love combine.

**** This is an excellent sequel to Night's Kiss. The new twists to the vampire mythos are intriguing and make you want to know even more about the future of this world. I was particularly fascinated by Mara, the oldest vampire. Dare I hope that she will ever get her own tale? The ending is somewhat of a surprise, but a good one. Don't miss this book. ****

Amanda Killgore

This was the first time I read a book by this author. The characters seemed quite flat and undeveloped for my taste. I have to really get to know the characters in any book before I care about them. The writing just didn't grab me like other vampire romance books I have read.

Night's Kiss was one of my favorite book of Amanda Ashley and I was looking forward to read the sequel. Although I bought this book the day it came out I did not get a chance to read it til now. Before reading this, I did check the rating here but did not read the reviews for I did not want anything to spoil my reading. Well that didn't really matter cus my opinion of this story was really low. It was good up to the point where Cara found out her parents are vampires. After that it just went down hill. It started to drag, especially the reluctant of Vince's honesty and even after he admit things, it still dragged. I truly thought Anton and his mother died way too quickly, especially after harboring such extreme hatred for Cara's family. Mara's character is really interesting and like the the reviewers, I too hope she get her own book and that it's not so blah. I also wonder if the twins will get their own book, that would be interesting to see how they fare and mutate. Speaking of that, I was quite disappointed with the ending. Although a typical ending can be considered boring but in these type of books, typical make sense.

This book is about Cara DeLongpre, the twenty-two year old adopted daughter of two vampires. There are plot twists a-plenty, action, romance-- so what went wrong?

First off, the characters are woefully underdeveloped. All of their interactions are shallow and full of predictable, cliched behaviour and words. Cara is a wealthy, sheltered heiress, and her innocence begins to grate on one's nerves rather quickly. Her parents have hidden their vampiric ways from her all her life, and when they finally come to light, Cara forgives them for lying to her practically instantly, because, well, she's that vapid. And Brenna, Cara's mother, just plain pisses me off. She spends far too much time deferring to men-- whether it's Roshan, her husband, or Vince, Cara's beau-- and too little time being a strong woman. Is that really what we need to read about? Nobody does anything unpredictable, except maybe Mara, the vampire who created Vince. I expected her to be an antagonist early on, and she proved otherwise.

The plot line could've been so outstanding had it been well developed. Unfortunately, it ended up being as predictable as the characters. Vince saves Cara's butt too many times for me to count. The antagonists do the usual kidnap-and-try-to-kill routine. Even the romantic scenes fell short-- there's definitely no vampire erotica here, if that's your bag.

My final complaint is one that most people wouldn't notice, but drives me *INSANE*. Anton, one of the antagonists, is constantly referred to as a "warlock." Clearly, the author did not do her research, or she would've known that "warlock" means "traitor," and not "male magic practicioner," or even "male DARK magic practicioner."

All in all, I found the book to be a cliche-ridden, predictable, boring read, and I only finished the book because I have no other new books to read. I do not recommend this book at all.

I love vampire books, and this is definitely at the top of my list! There are interesting twists and turns everywhere. Just when you think the book should be over, new problems arise. Absolutely wonderful read!

I am a long time fan of Amanda Ashley but have to warn you of Night's Trilogy. When I picked up the three books together I didn't know that the DeLongpre vampire tale was three book story and accidently read them in total reverse order starting with Night Master and ending with Night Kiss. Night's touch is my favorite. Especially With Cara's vampire parents concern about how she'll react to the idea her adopted parents are vampire and that her new boyfriend is also a vampire. Night Touch has many surprises for the vampire universe one of the very least is Clara's vampire boyfriend being able to go out in the sun light making it more difficult for her to believe he's a blood drinking creature of the night. One spend the majority of the book wondering who or what Clara has a body guard protecting her from. It isn't until she goes off to live on her own that we learn how needed the body guard was.