Customer Reviews

A Taste of Crimson (Crimson City)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I realized about 20 pages in that this book is #2 in a series. After I shook off the confusion, I began to fall into the story which is a very kick-butt, action driven paranormal world ALA Buffy the Vampire Slayer except this time the slayer is male and a vampire to boot. He's called "The Punisher" because that's pretty much what he does; punishes the wayward vamps killing em when necessary too. Though werewolves and vampires despise each other in this altiverse they must form a tentative agreement in order to avoid extinction.

Keeli is a werewolf and reluctantly joins forces with Michael. She's dismayed and horrified once she realizes she's also attracted to him.

I enjoyed this one pretty much from beginning to end without ever experiencing an overwhelming urge to put it down to pick up something better. The author has a knack for creating an action packed book with equally well developed characters. The love story is believable but isn't the driving force of the novel. The two main characters both have a lot of crap to overcome and from the look of things a lot of crap to overcome in future books as well. I'm looking forward to the next in this series and may even search out book 1 even though it was written by another author.

Michael is the Vendix, the first vampire executioner of other vampires. He was created over 300 years ago and sentenced to his career for crimes he was forced to commit by his creator. Michaels very good at his job and enjoys being a feared outcast of his kind...until the night that Crimson City's vampires decide to negotiate a pact with the city's werewolves and Michael finds himself saving a small pink haired sprite...

Keeli is the only surviving relative of her grandmother, the Grand Dame Alpha werewolf of the entire city. She has fought for her independance and to live down her fathers brawling heritage only to be arrested for saving a woman from some drunken rapists. This could have ended very badly for Keeli, except a strange vampire who is working with the police comes to her aid. Together Michael & Keeli set out to grudgingly aid the negoitation, not to mention the police, in solving some curious murders where vamps are the victims & werewolves look to be the killers.

Can Michael & Keeli set aside their differences to better their respective species? And what happens if they set aside more than that? Say their clothes? Can you have bloodthirsty puppies?!

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

NOTE: I had the audio version of this book so cannot guarantee all of my spellings are correct.

Vampires and werewolves are bitter enemies until someone starts killing vampires in Crimson City (formerly known as Los Angeles), framing vamps and weres alike. Weres and Vamps are on the verge of signing a peace pact so these murders are adding to the stress already present between the species as they try to meld their different ways.

Keeli Maddox, grand daughter to the grand dame alpha werewolf and Michael, vampire vendix (punisher) team up to investigate the crimes in hopes of finding the killer. Their hopes are to find the killer before the accusations prevent the coming peace treaty from falling apart. Subterfuge is the name of the game with both species scheming to gain the upper hand.

Enemies not eager to work together, Keeli and Michael begin to discover many disturbing facts that bring them ever closer. Soon they begin to wonder... is it possible for a werewolf and a vampire to find love together with A Taste of Crimson?

One nice aspect of this story is that so many of the unfolding events are happening concurrently to the story in the first book, Crimson City. There are little bits here and there talking about events in the previous story while this one is happening in another part of town. Action is never ending in A Taste of Crimson, whether we are in the tunnels underground where the werewolves live, or on the streets mixing it up with the humans. Suspense levels are high as we follow along with Keeli and Michael as they investigate leads and try to find the killer before any more vampires die. The discovery of the killer is not quite as surprising as it could be however for savvy readers who follow the clues.

Keeli is an incredible heroine - spunky and tough with a soft underbelly she protects from all others. Michael is the strong silent, stoic type who's been scorned by his own kind for things beyond his control as a young vampire. These two make a great team and you'll be cheering them on to find the happy ending they both desire... together.

The Crimson City series is a compelling urban fantasy series and I can't wait to see what happens in book 3.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, January 2008. All rights reserved.

When you do a random library pick you often end up with complete rubbish - I picked "A Taste Of Crimson" from a shelf in the sci-fi category without expecting too much of it - the cover image had a wolf howling at the moon overlaid with a picture of a man in a big cloak running down a road. The blurb on the back seemed overblown and cheesy (as usual) so I expected another run-of-the-mill vampire-werewolf-romance-thriller-chiller story.

"A Taste Of Crimson" surprised me. Yes, it is a story whose main characters are werewolves and vampires. Yes, it's a romance with all the usual trimmings. Yes, there are heroes and heroines and magical vampirey/werewolfy things going on. But there is a very strong theme running through this book that is definitely not run-of-the-mill - it's the theme of acceptance or ostracism of those different to you.

In the Los Angeles of this book, the humans are aware of the vampires and werewolves but are afraid of them and are starting to discriminate against them; werewolves are the bottom of the pile as they aren't rich, well-dressed and sexy like the vampires, so our heroine Keeli Maddox, a werewolf, can barely hold down a waitressing job because of the suspicion with which she is faced. And it's not only the humans who dislike the werewolves, there is also huge mutual antagonism between the vampire and werewolf community. Thus when Keeli meets Michael, a vampire assassin (he kills vampires that have gone rogue and is therefore disliked by his own kind), they face huge difficulties from both her culture and his over their relationship. What is so good about this book is the way in which these problems are described. This may sound a bit trite but sometimes reading this made me think of Germany pre World War 2 when various minority groupings in society were demonised and discriminated against, and often those behaving the worst to these minorities were other minorities. The werewolves and the vampires can't get along but they have to learn to work together in order to deal with the expected future problems from the humans.

Keeli and Michael find themselves working together to find the murderer of vampires - and the evidence suggests that a werewolf is carrying out these killings. The human police don't care about deaths within the supernatural community and so Keeli and Michael are battling against indifference from all but one of the human police and obstructiveness from the werewolves and vampires. Plus Keeli is finding herself becoming stronger and having to avoid challenges to the Alpha of her clan as well as having to do physical battle against those who want to punish her because of her relationship with a vampire. Michael has his own demons - his past as an assassin as well as some less-than-savoury events in his distant past. The way in which two flawed people work together to try and help their ungrateful kin is well written.

...SMALL SPOILER IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH...
As in many books in the sci-fi genre there is a certain element of "Deus ex machine" to help the author out of tricky areas in the plot - in this case Grindla, a demon. What do you do when you need to rescue someone from a Fort Knox-type building? Well, you find your own handy demon who can magic you in and out just like that. And what about the short life span of werewolves compared to the almost-immortal vampires, when your hero and heroine have found each other? Well, perhaps your friendly demon Grindla can help with that too. Perhaps this is slightly lazy writing for an author but overall I didn't mind - the story has so many merits that one or two things like this are acceptable.

I found it an enjoyable book to read and apart from a slightly slow section in the middle it kept my interest and I enjoyed finding out about the characters as they learned about themselves and I learned about this new world that they inhabited.

Instead of angels residing in the city, humans, werewolves and vampires live in shaky peace together though both sides loathe the other. Still each species adheres to the truce by staying away from their adversary. No one dares cross the line to befriend the enemy as the friend of my foe is my enemy too even if they are our blood.

Though "sufferers" of lycanthropy are banned by law to work in restaurants, Keeli Maddox the werewolf does anyway. She hates the grease, but is thankful to have employment as the fur bearers cannot obtain work even when vacancies exist. She also fears the growing violence between her people and the vampires that have placed the third race the humans in the crosshairs. Thus Keeli Maddox is hiding during a food fur inspection when she gets involved with an incident that leads to her about to rip a man's throat open until shockingly a vampire intercedes. Keeli and Michael are attracted to one another, but she is a wolf and he is a fang.

Mindful of Romeo and Juliet starring in Angel, A TASTE OF CRIMSON makes the co-living of three distinct yet similar species (the colors of blood and money are the same) seem so genuine. The story line is action-packed, but clearly driven by the star-crossed protagonists who know they have found their soulmate, but to be with that person breaks society's biggest taboo. Neither Michael nor Keeli will find any supporters as they fall in love. Marjorie M. Liu writes a fabulous paranormal romantic thriller that will grip the audience from the moment the lead duo meet for the first time.

Harriet Klausner

This is one of the times that I am truly happy to work at a bookstore. I got this book the day it came out and read it overnight and it was fabulous. Keeli is a werewolf and Michael is a vampire assasin and the book unfolds like a crazy Romeo and Juliet story. The love between the two of them is so well written and perfectly paced. Buy the first book before you get this one. There are some details and story set ups that you need in order to fully appreciate this book.
Crimson City is fast becoming the best new paranormal series. I can't wait for book three!

I was so impressed with Liu's debut book (Tiger Eyes), I snatched this up at the book store to see if she would be faithful in her writing ability. She definately did not leave me disappointed.

A Taste of Crimson is actually the second novel in the Crimson City series. Apparently several different authors were hired to write for this series and each are putting out a different book. I normally do not care for this, because authors can be notorious for not getting their facts (worlds, characters, etc.) straight. Luckily, A Taste... does not revert back to characters that were developed by a different author. Also, the Los Angelos (Crimson City) stayed faithfully the same as in the first book.

For those of you who are more into the romance part of the paranomal romance, you will be more pleased with Liu's version. She pulls more from that genre. Yet, she is still strong in action and mystery. The crimson world she creates, which centers mostly around the werewolves in this addition to the series, is rich and intriguing. I read it in one sitting and am looking forward to trying more from this series. Hopefully, the other authors will not diappoint.

Keeli Maddox is a werewolf. She is the granddaughter of the Grand Alpha Dame of the werewolfs. Her clan is the oldest and has to fight for control of the wolf within, they are the strongest and craftiest. Keeli fears her wolf self, but only she can control her rage.

Michael is a vampire, he is the Vindex, the punisher, who enforces the decisions of the Vampire Assembly. He is hated and scorned by everyone, vampires and werewolfs alike. He is the liasion to the human police. While patroling at night he sees Keeli attack four humans who are trying to rape another human. Keeli saves the girl but is forced to obey human laws, which state she is not to attack any humans, even evil ones. Unable to understand his feelings, Michael interceeds for her and saves her from jail.

Keeli feels she owes this Vampire for his help. That does not mean she does not still hate vampires. Seeking to fulfill her debt to Michael, she joins him in his hunt for the murderer of six vampires. Keeli knows she will be shunned by her own people for helping a Vampire. The hate and distrust between the two races is legend. She joins Michael Only to find she is led to love of her enemy, betrayal by her most trusted family, and finally to the salvation of all the races of Crimson City.

Werewolfs are One of three kinds of races to inhabit Crimson City. Vampires, werewolfs, and humans all live in this place, and all hate and fear each other. Now the humans have reached a place where they fear the growth of the other races. Already an initiative against the Vampires has been discovered and defeated.

This is an exciting fast paced adventure, the characters are real and the climax is stunning. I loved it. I hope all the rest of the Crimson City stories are as good. Don't miss this one.

I read the 1st book in this series, "Crimson City" and was familiar with the set up of future Los Angeles. This particularly installment deals with the underground world of the werewolves. Liu's description of the tunnels were good - I almost felt the walls closing in on me at times.

The book takes place over a span of a few days - The plot began to get just a bit mired down when the two main characters, Keeli & Michael, hung out in the tunnels just a bit too long. Lots of jockeying for power and dominance within the werewolf community.

One thing I noticed, the characters had lots of "thoughts" in italics. Though I don't read many historical romances, this style reminded me of that genre. I thought those types of thoughts for Michael were just a bit too girly. He is this big, bad loner and, yeah, he immediately likes Keeli. I just didn't picture his character thinking these types of thoughts as much as he did. A few here and there would have been fine.

As I mentioned in my review of the 1st installment, "Crimson City", I would have like to read a bit of background on how LA became residence to three species - humans, vamps and werewolves. Understanding the history of how they got there would have enhanced the storyline. It would have revealed why the werewolves are so poor and looked down upon. That type of message would also explain in more detail their distrust of the vampires and humans.

Overall, a good read. I will get to the 3rd installment soon.

I loved the mixture of Werewolf and Vampire--and a love story that was just to good to put down!