*Spoiler alert* i guess if I cared that much to write the review Id say that too.
I think what made this book so darn dissapointing is that it is NOTHING like what i had expected. Now I understand that it can be difficult to write something new for vampires but still this was a total let down. Because of the type of reader I am I will often wait til all three books in a three month series are released to read them. Oh how I wished I would not have waited. This book frustrated me more than any romance novel should... And here is why:
Despite trying to suspend or heighten the romance and create a connection between protagoninsts, I really didn't give a damn about either one. Luke/Lucious (a point to be brought up later) was yes a mercenary with a good heart but he murdered his ten year old daughter and that just never sat well. Sara was just so incredibly boring and though she was lauded for her conviction and ambition as a lawyer I didn't see it... at all.
The author spends alot of time introducing characters (Nick, Luke, Serge, Hasik, Tariq, Caris, Doyle, Severin, Bosch, Martella who were all in repeated scenes to name a few) and names (at which time you never knew which nickname or which of the characters first or last name the author was going to use) and situations (without a hell of a lot of introduction or background). All of which is confusing for a reader just starting out, I mean don't dumb it down but for craps sake calm it down a bit. I spent so much time having to pause and remember just who, what and where was going on, it was ridiculous.
This is not new for vampires, alot of terminonlogy is borrowed from other paranormal romance authors. There is a ton of poorly described trolls, ogres, poltergeists and pretty much all characters in general. It may not matter to some but I could not tell you the color of Sara Constantines hair or eyes. It's just somewhat ambiguous which isn't what I wanted to read.
I DID NOT like the fairly gruesome and slighly more descript scenes about the young girls getting killed.
And as for the sex? It was boring predictable and formulaic... alot of begging by the women and heart tripping creepy sex smiling being done by the men. Alot of obnoxious describing of being bitten as getting a "special kiss" by the vampire which cheezes me out.
So heres what happened; I dropped this book on page 317 of 388 and then skipped book two (When Pleasure Rules) because it was about two people and I hadn't the foggiest who they were with less than 70pgs left in the first book in the series. I began reading book three (when wicked craves) and then just gave up after skipping through a bit of it, just more of the same it felt like.
The final nail in the coffin to this series is it looks like the fourth installation to this series (when passion lies) is about a really HORRIBLE character in the first book named Caris who basically enables a child serial killer/rapist to keep killing... Now surely there is more to be explained about this if I had bothered to read the series but seriously I don't want to read an entire book about someone who had anything to do with that, regardless of the excuses or reasons the author gives for the behavior later.
Okay first of all I read ALOT of romance for a working Mom and I don't want to waste my time on crap. So let me just go ahead and relay the message to those of you out there like me; stick to the Black Dagger brothers and the Breed, hell even Showalters Alien Huntress & Atlantis series have far more interesting and original vampire situations going on. There is just too much and yet at the same time entirely too little going on in these books. I read romance so I can enjoy a few hours with some drama and then a happy ending. I don't want to feel this annoyed to read in my spare time. Second of all my husband is a lawyer and the whole premise that the author wanted to relay her love for the lawyering field through this series is crap. She may mean what she says about her love for that stuff but it is way poorly executed. For someone who is also inundated with the life a lawyer leads the legal side of it all seemed a bit trite in comparison.
Take my advise if you are unsure of these books but are fairly certain there are other titles you know you would like to read out there then just go ahead and read them. Put these in the "sell to Half price books bag" you keep in the corner of your room and I assure you, you won't even miss them.
Cheers- Gilly
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