Customer Reviews

Vampire Sunrise: Delilah Street: Paranormal Investigator

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

 

 

OK, this is book three in the series, and it has yet to gel into something coherent. I thought the first book was promising, that Delilah was a congenial character to spend time with and her voice was appealing. Sure the plot was meandering and didn't make a lot of sense, but the potential was there. The second book was frankly just more of the same. Delilah went places and the plot meandered about until a totally unconvincing conclusion. Delilah was still fun, but the trappings were not improving with authorial practice.

Finally we have this book, and not only does the plot meander more aimlessly than ever, but Delilah herself is starting to become irritating. Delilah roams around Vegas sort of at random, and does stupid things like going back to the hotel where she was held prisioner more or less of her own free will and getting into trouble again. There are tons of non-sequiters such as Delilah being emotionally and physicaly exhausted and only thinking about getting to sleep but then throwing it all over to spar meaninglessly with Nightwine. The author apparently feels that Delilah works better alone, so despite being passionately in love, the plot keeps her from working with her boyfriend so often that he's something of an afterthought in the book. Even worse is how his mother is litterally flown-in and out in a few pages. Even when Ric & Delilah *do* work together, the result is a spectacularly ill-thought-out two-man-one-dog assult on the villians of the last book. Given that victory then depending on having boatloads of allies, this is just *stupid*! Also rather stupid (and unexplained) is the whole bit about Ric's eye, and how Delilah puts a contact lens into it which he totatlly fails to notice over the course of several days..

Frankly I had to force myself to slog thorough to the end of this one. If I do read the next one, it will be through some lingering and unhealthy need to see how things came out, not through any anticipation of a good read.

This story is mediocre. Not as good as the first two. The first three chapters are a recap of the first two books, which is okay, but went on far too long. The conclusion of the story was abrute.

Delilah Street is a paranormal investigator in Sin City: Las Vegas. Her life is complicated by many circumstances, most particularly that she's ticked off several of the mob bosses in town and the last one's agenda seems mixed at best. Her silver medium abilities include the ability to see ghosts in mirrors and travel via mirror, and her ex-FBI lover, Ric, is able to raise zombies. And then there's the mysterious 'twin' who may be a real sister or some kind of doppleganger...

This story starts with boyfriend Ric still hospitalized from being vein-drained (and possibly killed!) by vampires in the last novel. Delilah spends much of her time in this book thinking about Ric or feeling guilty that she had to give Cocaine/Snow a kiss (the Brimstone Kiss) in order to get his help saving Ric, particularly at the beginning when the mystery is unfolding.

As soon as Ric seems to be on the mend, Delilah's pulled into dealing with both the underground Egyptian vampires who tried to kill Ric as well as some ungodly monster killing the werewolves. Failure equals dead Delilah, so she's instantly juggling far too many issues and is scrambling to keep everybody happy while she tries to figure out what's going on. That's some nice tension, and it only gets worse for Delilah the more things go on. But her new found silver medium abilities come in handy and she manages to extricate herself from danger and get the werewolf Mafia don off her back.

Overall, this is a good read and I enjoyed it very much. I think it suffers a bit from the middle novel syndrome, though, as there's a lot of stuff that is wrappign up loose ends and relationship thoughts that frequently had my eyes glazing over. These do serve to develop the relationship with the out-of-it Ric while he's recovering--sort of keeping him on screen; so I understand why the author chose to put them in the book. I didn't hate them, but they were too much for me. Just a bit too much, though.

What I felt the need for, and frankly think the novel is less for lacking, is a true reappearance of Snow. We see very little of him, and I would have liked more of a role for him in this story's development. In this book, Snow is more like the knitter's yarn that she isn't using at the moment: attached and jumping across the stiches behind the scenes, but essentially doing nothing except being there until needed in some future book.

If you haven't read this series and you like urban fantasy, you will probably like this one. Delilah Street and teh world she lives in are really cool. I am looking forward to the next book in the series and to learning who and what Delilah is.

It has been years since the Millennium Revelation when all the creatures of myth and legend rose up from the shadows to reveal themselves to humanity. Delilah Street comes to Las Vegas from Wichita to work as a paranormal investigator. Deep below the Karnak Hotel lives a vast Egyptian vampire sect ruled by two Pharaohs; humans are bred and brought to them as food. Delilah rescued her lover Rick Montoya by giving him the Resurrection Kiss to restore his life.

After Rick was in a coma, Delilah finds she has the ability to kiss away from his back the scars he received while he was a slave for a master criminal.. He wakes up and remembers what happened to him and is determined to free the other humans held by the Egyptian vampires. Before they leave on their quest, the werewolf Cesar Cicerau summons Delilah to remove the ghost of the daughter he killed who haunts his hotel. A supernatural creature is stalking the hotel killing anyone who gets in the way. Delilah is clueless how to rid the hotel of this deadly fiend and the ghost while below ground the vampires are dining on humans.

The latest Street Paranormal Investigator thriller combines horror, mystery, romance, and sex into an exhilarating urban fantasy that puts the sin in Sin City. With plenty of twists, VAMPIRE SUNRISE is a roller coaster doing loops with each spin accelerating the ride. Readers will enjoy following the clues, surreal and mundane, as Carole Nelson Douglas lets Midnight Louie catch a cat nap while Delilah does the sleuthing above and under the streets of Las Vegas.

Harriet Klausner

I'm probably not the best audience for this book, but I enjoyed Ms. Douglas' series on Irene Adler Good Night, Mr. Holmes: An Irene Adler Novel, so I thought I try it. This is the second book in this series, but it's easy enough to pick up the back story, and as for the unresolved plot lines at the end -- well, it's a ~series~. The story resembles a cocktail, with lots of great action scenes -- like a zombie-werewolf battle in an underground cavern with the water rising -- several shots of paranormal sexiness, shaken with witty cinematic references (plus 7 pages of web sites in case you didn't see *that* movie). The characters are a bit over-the-top, as befits dashing heroes and cold-hearted villains in a supernatural Las Vegas.

Overall, I found this a fun read, well-written, but a bit too fast-moving unless I'm on vacation; like an Indiana Jones movie Indiana Jones - The Complete Adventure Collection, Delilah Street faces a new peril or revisits an old one about every ten pages, and I was worn out by page 362. If you like the paranormal romance genre, if you like ass-kicking yet vulnerable heroines, if you like pop culture humor, this may be the book for you. And if you want, you can fix yourself a cocktail from one of the recipes in the back of the book -- Vampire Sunrise Cocktail, anyone?

Delilah Street is a paranormal investigator in post-Millennium Revelation Las Vegas. After the twenty-first century, all of the bogeymen of myth and legend came out of the dark and blended into human society. Delilah makes sure the werewolves, vampires, zombies and other monsters leave the innocent alone.

Ricardo "Ric" Montoya is a sexy ex-FBI agent and Delilah's lover and partner. However, in a recent battle, Ric was the victim of an ancient Egyptian Vampire's empire suckfest. They wanted to know Ric's secret for raising the dead. Delilah finds a way to heal Ric, who ended up alive but comatose, but at someone else's expense.

Now, Delilah and Ric are back investigating even more paranormal secrets. But Delilah and Ric have a few secrets of their own. With Delilah accepting a Brimstone Kiss and Ric's attack, they have been given new abilities. They will need to learn how to use them quickly if they hope to defeat evil ancient gods.

VAMPIRE SUNRISE is a fun paranormal romp of epic proportions. Delilah and Ric's love for one another leaps from the pages, as well as, all sorts of scary creatures. Ms. Douglas does an impeccable job of world-building and balancing mystery, romance and humor. Fascinating and scary, paranormal and urban fantasy lovers alike will love Delilah Street.

*Courtesy of Romance Junkies

Ouch. The first two books were ok if you squinted, but this was just... eye-rollingly bad. When all you can think is "oh come on" and "nobody is that stupid" it's time to say goodbye.

I mean - who would whip person A to remove an old scar from person B? Yes, dumb and cruel - that's my hero!
The sillyness goes downhill from there. Rick wears a contact for several days and doesn't notice it? 2 people and a dog with no weapons or plan to tackle all the vampires? Brilliant. Let's throw in some Wikepedia-researched Egyptian history and call it done.

Let's just say I won't be buying other books by this author.

I have read all the delilah street books and love them all keep up the good work, I look forward to the next installment.

OK, I came late to the Delilah Street series after having read Carole Nelson Douglas' Midnight Louie and Irene Adler series. I picked up Book 1 from the library, somewhat hesitantly, and ended up reading it straight through! I found Delilah to be very likeable, and her world just enough on the UF side to be edgy without being totally over-the-top and into a full-fledged fantasy world. I immediately headed back to the library for Book 2, and that one was devoured in one sitting as well. Now, it's time for Book 3, and Ms. Douglas did not disappoint here, either. I do agree with other reviewers that this book wasn't QUITE up to par with the first two, but not by much, and it was definitely an enjoyable read, if for no other reason than to see what cocktail concoction Delilah comes up with this time! Fortunately, I had Book 4 ready and waiting to go when I finished Book 3!

Would recommend this book (and series) highly for an edgy, fun read with a strong female main character. One caveat - this is much more into adult themes and scenes than her other series are, so it's probably not appropriate for the under-18 crowd.

Note on Kindle formatting: Perfect, or nearly so.

Book arrived in perfect condition (of course) and it got to me in record speed due to technology. I'd buy like this again.