Customer Reviews

You're So Vein (The Others, Book 7)

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

 

 

I was really looking forward to this book. Ava had such a reputation from previous books of being very intelligent and very fiesty. Well she was fiesty in this book but alot of her decision making was not very smart. Dima is a vampire who is over 700 years old who rescues Ava after she is attacked by a vampire. I didn't think the romance between Ava and Dima was great at all. It was more like he loved her and she tolerated him. I must say that I was disappointed in this book. I guess I expected more.

I love Christine's work. I do. I have most everything she's done. I really wanted to like this book as I did Howl at the Moon and Wolf at the Door. I actually loved One Bite with a Stranger where many did not. But I couldn't like this book. I won't bore you with the book details since its already been done. For me, the booked dragged with no spark, none of Christine's usual sizzle. The plot was thin and the characters very vague and lifeless. No reason for me to become concerned with their wellbeing. This is the first time that I was hoping the heroine would get killed within the first two chapters and replaced with someone else.

In short, I hated Ava Markham with a passion! I love tough heroines, tougher the better, somebody that fights and scratches for their very survival, but I hate stupid ones with absolutely no reasoning other than sheer vanity and childish petulance. If a plausible reason had been given for those behaviors, other than "mommy and daddy didn't love me", then maybe she could have been more likeable. The hero, of course, ends up loving her and risking life and limb and you can't see why. Ava's character wasn't created with any redeeming features at all and Dima was just there - not really any better. You'd expect more from a guy who's been around 800 years to have a better developed personality. It was very difficult to even visualize these characters; they were vague, lifeless.

I'm not a writer, just a reader and this is only my opinion and you know what they say about those. I may not have liked this book, but I won't give up on Christine. I'll wait and see what else she has in store next.

I rarely submit reviews to Amazon. But, I really HATED this novel. Having read "Love at First Bite," I was really looking forward to reading Ava's story. However, the novel just seemed extremely sexist and contrived! Although the heroine is supposedly a strong-willed, successful and intelligent woman, the author makes it seem like any display of independence is a massive character flaw. The most egregious example, after Ava is assaulted on the street, almost killed, and forcibly turned into a vampire, Ava understandably wants to go home, but is forced to go to her friend for the spare set of keys to her apartment. In response to her attack and forced conversion to vampirism, her friends gloat and criticize her for not handling the situation properly. Clearly, in this universe, being assaulted in an alley, almost killed and forced to become a blood-sucking creature of the night is no reason to get rattled!!! Then, the heroine's so-called life-long best friend refuses to give the heroine the keys to her own apartment and criticizes the heroine for attempting to return to her own home and not obeying her new vampire master's orders not to leave his apartment!!!! Did I mention that the heroine's new vampire master is a virtual stranger to these characters and a man that these characters just met??? After that bit of sheer sexist stupidity, I was forced to drop this book in utter disgust. Wish I could return this book and get my money back.

So I just finished reading this book, and I have to say I wasn't really impressed. For starters, I thought this was the first book in "The Others" series. Turned out to be book 7. Oopsey. The funny thing is that I didn't really notice that it was at the tail end of a series until I was done and started doing a little research on the author's website christinewarren.net. So maybe my bad impression was mostly my fault. Should have done my homework.

It's set in contemporary New York, and Ava (our heroine) is a successful 30-something who is changed into a vampire as the result of a brutal attack. (Isn't that how it always goes? Your life is at it's peak and then WHAM, you're the walking undead.) Lucky for Ava, an avenging vampire happens upon the scene of her attack. He slaughters the rogue vamp who attacked her and whisks her back to his apartment to help ease her into her new existence.

Dima is an 800 year old Russian vampire who happens to be in the New York area chasing down a crazy lady (who is also a vampire; will the wonders never cease?) And not only does he take her back to his apartment, he strips her down and ties her up to prevent her from hurting herself. That is what she wakes up to almost 24 hours later. Tied up, half naked, in a strange place, and a vampire.

I don't know about anyone else, but a situation like that would really piss me off. No matter how hot the guy was or how good his intentions. Apparently for Ava, seething rage easily gives way to wanting a good boffing, because the next thing you know they are getting it on. Which is what most of us expect to happen when we read a vampire novel with the word 'erotic' anywhere on the cover. But man, there was no preamble, no rationale, nothing. One second she wants to kill him and literally the next second they are having sex. Whoa. It made no sense.

It pretty much goes on like that until the end. I guess there is something of a plot relating to the capture of the crazy Russian vampire lady that Dima was tracking when he found Ava. And of course, it is exposed the Ava was involved more than anyone knew. But the fight scenes are too easy and the climax is decidedly anti-climactic.

After I finished the book, I checked out some other reviews (this is when I discovered it was book 7 and not book 1). From what I gathered, "You're So Vein" is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to Christine Warren's work. I got the gist that even some of her most die-hard fans were let down by this one. So I don't feel like my faux pas of reading the series in the wrong order has really tainted my opinion. I mean, it read like it could have been a stand-alone book. There were other couples in the book, and apparently the other books in the series were written about them. But none of them were so integral to THIS book that you needed to have read them to follow what was going on.

I don't know, maybe I will go back and give the first six books in this series a gander so I can see what I missed. Maybe. As it stands, I have to give this book a fairly lowly 2 star rating for the plausibility factor alone. (I mean who in their right mind would be strolling through New York alone at 2AM to begin with???) It's the best I can muster.

I have read most of Warren's series with the exception of She's No Faeire Princess and The Demon You Know. My biggest complaint is the way she throws in back stories of other characters, but doesn't really develop them. I know that Bite With A Stranger was actually an e-book that was supposed to be first in the series, but subsequent books have not been about the characters in Bite With A Stranger. It would be nice to have Graham and Missy's story. Little snippets have been brought up in Howl At The Moon and now You're So Vein, but I always feel like I've missed something especially when Ava refers to mating ritual that Graham and Missy went through. I also can't understand why Ava feels so betrayed by her friends because I was only introduced to her in Bite with a Stranger. At the end of that book, Reggie was the only friend who was involved with an Other. Now, fast forward in time and all Ava's friends have hooked up with Others, but again we're given nothing more than little snippets. I also have a few issues with the story itself. In You're So Vein Ava is turned against her will and even knowing how Ava feels about the Others, her friends react to the news of her turning by gloating. Of course, Ava has no idea what to do as a newly turned vampire. Um, didn't her good friend Reggie just go through this a few years ago? It's not the worst book I've ever read, but I probably won't buy another in this series.

I prefer to read a series in order, and I didn't realize that I wasn't until the "Big Bad Wolf"
According to her web site, there are 4 books that in this series that haven't been published (they were written through Ellora's Cave and could have been downloaded, but they are no longer available).
The actual reading order of these books are:
1. One Bite with a Stranger (Regina & Dmitri... the first of the Fantasy Fix's)
2. Big Bad Wolf (Missy & Graham)
3. not yet published (Danice & Mac)
4. not yet published (Corinne & Luc)
5. not yet published (Tess & Rafe)
6. not yet published (Logan & Honor)
7. Wolf at the Door (Sullivan & Cassidy)
8. She's No Faerie Princess (Fiona & Tobias)
9. The Demon you Know (Abby & Rule)
10. Howl at the Moon (Noah & Samantha)
11. Walk on the Wild Side (Kitty & Marcus)
12. You're So Vein (Ava & Vladimir)
13. Born to be Wild (Eli & Josie)
According to the web site, these books can be read alone or in order, but after reading You're So Vein, where Missy & Graham are already together and then starting Big Bad Wolf, where Missy & Graham get together, was a little confusing at first.
I think I would have given this series a 5 star if it wasn't for that confusion.

I saw this book being sold and was excited; I like Warren's Other's series. But this was just boring, predictable, and (I'm so sorry, Christine) made very little sense. One minutes Ava is saying how much she hates Dima, then she's falling into bed with him. She's woken up in a strange room, with a strange man, tied up, and she sleeps with the man who is looming over her when she wakes. Um, strange anyone? The plot has no surprises. I am usually the one who can read a book in one sitting no matter what; I put this book down 3 or 4 times and it took me over a week to read. Snooze. The only reason I finished this book was because I want and hope that her next books bring more to the table and I believe in reading the whole series.

You're So Vein about Christine Warren is a paranormal romance starring almost eight hundred years old, Dima Rurikovich, and high society model turned agent, Ava Markham. First and foremost with You're So Vein is that Ava is a total snob and b*tch. The only redeeming thing about her is that so does have a few loyal and trustworthy friends who stick by her and love her no matter what. But none of their spouses (all of them are Others: vampires, lupines, changelings, etc.) like her and she is a total b*tch to them. She thinks that they are monsters.

One night on her way home from her friend's place, she is attacked and presumably left for dead by a vampire. Except she bit the vampire and is now going to become a vampire herself. She is rescued though by Dima who goes ahead and gives her his blood to help her through the transition, thus making him her sire. Dima, a Russian vampire, is on an undercover assignment from Europe looking for a female vampire who broke out of her prison and is now on a killing spree in New York.

When Ava completes the transition, she hits the roof. She has hated vampires and other monsters for a while now, so she doesn't take the news so well, when she finds out that she is a vampire herself. Dima is highly attracted to her and can't figure out why, what with her surly disposition and all. Ava is taken with Dima as well. It doesn't take but a few hours for the chemistry between them to reach explosion levels, and it takes an even shorter amount (ridiculously short amount) of time for Dima to fall in love with Ava. He still has to though find the rogue female vampire who now has set her sights on Ava.

While there were things I liked about this novel, the characters were too fleshed out. The chemistry between the hero and heroine could have been built up more before they fell in bed together. And I would have liked to see more sparks fly between the hero and heroine instead of her focusing all of her angst on the spouses of her friends. I give the book 4 stars with the hope that the next Others book is better.

Reading this book was a refund on my life that I can't get back. If the author had titled this book "You're so Vain and Annoying" it would've been better and more accurate. The female main character is soo closed mind and comes across as being emotionally challenged. I can't understand why any likes her, nor can I find any redeeming qualities in her personality. The only parts of this book that I did like was seeing how the vampiress that was wreaking havoc in the previous book came to an end.
I hope the next book in the series is better.

I like this series quite a bit... but the more I read, the more I realize it is a bit of hit or miss.

Now, I actually did enjoy this book. Dima was a great character. I thought he was well written- and well suited to Ava. Ava, on the other hand, was not so well written. It was helpful to have her background. I didn't like her from previous stories and I actually came to love her in this one... but for some reason, I think Christine Warren struggles with giving her heroines their identity.

It seems as though there seems to be a bit of a problem identifying when a character is being unfairly selfish and intolerably arrogant versus when she is being appropriately defensive and strong. Ava was developing quite well until we were suddenly faced with a case of self doubt. She was supposed to come to the realization that she was being unjustly selfish when she refused to submit to some strange man after knowing him only a handful of hours and tried to stand on her own two feet. She herself admitted to being CHILDISH. I wanted to stand up and scream at her at the top of my lungs:

"NO, AVA! STAY STRONG! THEY ARE FULL OF BULL HOOKEY! YOU WERE RIGHT! You may have made a mistake, but only BECAUSE THEY REFUSED TO TELL YOU THE WHOLE DAMN TRUTH AND DIDN'T GIVE YOU THE RESPECT YOU DESERVE!!! If this was important, they could have ACTED like it and made an effort to support you instead of just shaking their finger at you after you have had you whole life turned upside down!"

Please. If I wake up after being attacked and kidnapped and refuse to allow other people to lock me away in some strange apartment- you'll have to break my arms and legs to keep me from trying to get away. I dare you to tell me I'm being childish to my face. I just dare you. Consequences or no, Ava was right to take the steps she did. Maybe the 700 year old vampire and her purported friends who were supposed to be understanding could have made more of an effort to both educate and support her. They should have known better. How did it make sense to just leave her alone and tell her she wasn't allowed to go home as if she was 5 years old? Her life, responsibilities and desires alike, was dismissed as irrelevent! He couldn't have brought her somewhere or brought someone to stay with her or... better yet... stepped up to his own responsibility to deal with her and gotten more help with the other stuff??

Her "friends" also seemed to take more of a "ha-ha! Na-na-na-boo-boo" approach to the tradegy that Ava faced rather than even making an attempt to empathize. She hated vampires, justly or unjustly is irrelevent if they were truly her friends. There was little to no attempt to console or support her before they shook their heads and fingers at her. I'm sorry, but it seemed to me that in the end Ava had no true friends at all.

If Ava made any more than minor miscalculations in this story, based on the information she was given, then I'll eat my own tongue. And I like my tongue where it is. Too much of this story was based on the characters making stupid decisions and then trying to make me, as the reader, and Ava believe her response was somehow the result of her arrogant, selfish nature. Bullsh!*.

In the end, I'm giving this story 3 stars because I like Dima's character. I liked the ending and the way things wrapped up. The end was a great scene! Though once again, the men managed to be intolerably overbearing and get away with it, while the woman was forced to fight tooth and nail just to SEE what was going on. I felt that Ava COULD be a decent character if we stop trying to convince her that she is being selfish and childish.

Ms. Warren, if you read this- I LOVE your writing. I LOVE many of the books in this series. Please, please, please give your female characters a better chance of being well balanced, strong, independant women. I think a few of your plot devices have resulted in painting them as backwards modern woman.