Review | Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

Frost Burned
Patricia Briggs
Mercy Thompson #7
Published 5 March 2013 by Ace (Penguin)
Urban fantasy
3 stars

Mercy Thompson’s life has undergone a seismic change. Becoming the mate of Adam Hauptman—the charismatic Alpha of the local werewolf pack—has made her a stepmother to his daughter Jesse, a relationship that brings moments of blissful normalcy to Mercy’s life. But on the edges of humanity, what passes for a minor mishap on an ordinary day can turn into so much more…

After an accident in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Mercy and Jesse can’t reach Adam—or anyone else in the pack for that matter. They’ve all been abducted.

Through their mating bond, all Mercy knows is that Adam is angry and in pain. With the werewolves fighting a political battle to gain acceptance from the public, Mercy fears Adam’s disappearance may be related—and that he and the pack are in serious danger. Outclassed and on her own, Mercy may be forced to seek assistance from any ally she can get, no matter how unlikely.

Bite-Sized Review
While any fan of the Mercy Thompson books will probably enjoy Frost Burned, it doesn't really add much to the series. There's nothing here that we haven't seen before, and more than once.

Chocolate (things I liked)
-Frost Burned is not a bad book. On the contrary, there's a lot that's good about it. Mercy has now really accepted her role in Adam's pack, as well as the mate bond and all that comes with it, and the pack has, for the most part, accepted her as well. It's great to see how much she's grown throughout the series.

-My favorite character is the book is definitely Kyle. He's one of my favorites in the series, but in Frost Burned, he really shines. I seriously wish we could have seen some more of Warren as well, but I guess you can't have everything.

Brussels Sprouts (things I disliked)
-Although I certainly enjoy the series, which is why I'm still reading at book seven, I've never really been a fan of Mercy herself. She has always struck me as a bit on the annoying side of self-righteous, even (read: especially) when she has no reason to be. That's the main reason I prefer Briggs' spinoff Alpha & Omega series -- I'm pretty sure it's impossible not to love Anna.

WARNING: the next couple bullets are a bit spoilery. No actual plot details, but there are things you might not want to know if you really hate spoilers.

-I don't want to say too much about the plot of the book, but it really seems like every aspect of it has already happened in a way that's quite similar to what occurs here. The characters even reference those past events explicitly. Now I've heard that there's nothing new under the sun, but there really can't be that small of a range of options that it doesn't even last seven books.

-The pacing of the book is...odd. At the point where it seemed to be wrapping up, I looked at the progress bar on my Kindle and it informed me that I was less than halfway through, and unfortunately the entire second half turns out to be mainly tying up loose ends. Not to mention the fact that the conclusion sort of jumps out of nowhere and isn't even that clear in retrospect, which always leaves me a bit disappointed.

-I really expected there to be more fallout from the end of Fair Game. I guess it's technically a different series, so maybe more will happen in the next Alpha & Omega book, but it honestly barely affected the plot at all.

Recommended for
Anyone who enjoys the series.

Quality: Fair
Enjoyability: Good

Review | The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

The Indigo Spell
Richelle Mead
Bloodlines #3
Published 12 Feb 2013
YA urban fantasy
4.5 stars

In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she finds herself struggling to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. Then she meets alluring, rebellious Marcus Finch--a former Alchemist who escaped against all odds, and is now on the run. Marcus wants to teach Sydney the secrets he claims the Alchemists are hiding from her. But as he pushes her to rebel against the people who raised her, Sydney finds that breaking free is harder than she thought. There is an old and mysterious magic rooted deeply within her. And as she searches for an evil magic user targeting powerful young witches, she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her magical blood--or else she might be next.

Bite-Sized Review
The Indigo Spell is a spectacular continuation of Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy spinoff, with enough suspense, action, and romance to make any reader happy.

Chocolate (things I liked)
-The balance and pacing in this book are just about perfect. There are several different stories going on at the same time, and all of them are both important and interesting. Because the plotlines cover the Alchemists, magic, and Sydney and Adrian's relationship, there's really an excellent balance of suspense and romance.

-Sydney and Adrian are a brilliant couple. At the beginning of this series, I actually wasn't sure about their relationship, but they are astonishingly good for one another. Richelle Mead has done a great job building their relationship.

-Let's not forget about the secondary characters. Jill, Eddie, Angeline, Trey, Ms. Terwelliger, and all the others have interesting, complementary personalities. The Amberwood "family" has grown so much over the series. Of course they can be annoying sometimes, but then, so can any family.

Brussels Sprouts (things I didn't like)
-Having to wait until November for The Fiery Heart!

Review | Ever After by Kim Harrison

Ever After
Kim Harrison
The Hollows #11
Published 22 Jan 2013 by Harper Voyager
Urban fantasy
4 stars

The ever after, the demonic realm that parallels the human world, is shrinking. If it disappears completely, so does all magic. It's up to witch-turned-daywalking-demon Rachel Morgan to avert catastrophe and keep life from changing... for the worse.

While saving the world is important, it isn't Rachel's only motivation. There's also the small fact that she caused the ley line to rip in the first place, setting off a chain reaction of unfortunate events. That little mistake has made her life forfeit unless she can fix it. It's also made her more than a few enemies, including the most powerful demon in the ever after—a terrifying entity who eats souls and now has an insatiable appetite for her. He's already kidnapped her friend and goddaughter to lure her out, and if Rachel doesn't give herself up soon, they'll die.

But Rachel has more than a few impressive and frightening skills of her own, and she isn't going to hand over her soul and her life without one hell of a fight. She's also got a surprise: elven tycoon Trent Kalamack. With this unlikely ally beside her—a prospect both thrilling and unnerving—she's going to return to the ever after, kick some demon butt, rescue her loved ones... and prevent an apocalypse before it's too late. Or, at least that's the plan...

Contains some inevitable spoilers for previous books in the series. Spoilers for Ever After are hidden and can be seen by highlighting the indicated text.

Bite-Sized Review
Although it had a few issues, Ever After was a highly enjoyable read and a good continuation of the series.

Chocolate (things I liked)
-They finally had to deal with the leaking ever after. That's been going on for about three books and it's about time they did something about it.

-Relationships in this series are always changing. I love that as the characters change, they don't just stay in the same roles; sometimes they grow apart, sometimes they grow closer, sometimes their opinions of people change. That's really one of the best things about this series.

-The pacing of this book was, for the most part, excellent. There was always something happening, some new escalation of the crisis, but it was all related, with virtually nothing extraneous or irrelevant. Even if I didn't know there were only two more books, it would be clear from the way things are starting to wrap up, which is good.

Brussels Sprouts (things I didn't like)
-Rachel has this incredibly annoying habit in the last couple books of thinking that she has to do something important, never actually doing it, and then thinking the same thing again 50 pages later, not as a reminder, but as if she hadn't already had the same thought 50 pages ago. I don't know if this is just sloppy editing or what, but it's getting increasingly irritating.

-Rachel also spends far too much time making her head Drama Central, thinking constantly about her feelings for Trent, her relationship with her friends, her relationship with her enemies, and so on. It's just too much. [highlight to view spoiler] I thought it was strange that, amidst all that, she spent surprisingly little time worried about Ceri and Lucy. Of course, she was concerned, but she seemed more worried about Bis than about her infant goddaughter. And she seems slightly confused as to which disasters are her fault and which aren't. It's like she gets them backwards.

-[highlight to view spoiler] I was not a fan of the very end of the book. If you can only declare your attraction for someone after drinking half a bottle of wine (and we've all heard "no really, I'm not drunk!" too many times in our lives to believe you), then you're clearly not ready for any kind of romantic relationship. That was not the way to have Trent and Rachel kiss for the first time in uncontested reality.

Recommended for
Fans of the series.

Quality: Acceptable
Enjoyability: Excellent

Review | The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules 
Julie Kagawa
Blood of Eden #1
Published April 24, 2012 by Harlequin Teen
YA paranormal/post-apocalyptic
Review copy from NetGalley
4 stars

Bite-Sized Review
The Immortal Rules is filled with action and interesting characters, just the way I like it. A definite must-read for fans of Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires series.


King-Sized Review
The Immortal Rules begins with an execution.

I think this is supposed to be shocking, but it's very difficult to shock my fiction-reading brain. It's seen a lot. So instead of going, "Oh my God, they're executing teenagers!" I was using my years of reading political fantasy to think, "that's really not the most effective way to achieve long-term control over a population." That wasn't a great start.

Fortunately, it got much better. The story was enjoyable despite the occasional "how could you possibly think this might end even sort of well?" choice. Allie, an Unregistered living in a city ruled by vampires and surrounded by zombies (Rabids), struggles each day to survive. She hates the vampires with a passion. But when she has to choose between dying and being changed into a vampire herself, she chooses survival and begins a whole new life - or the vampire equivalent, anyway.

Especially at the beginning of the book, Allie reminded me of Katniss: focused on her own survival, but willing to do whatever it takes to protect her "family." She claims to be selfish and willing to let her friends die so she can live, but that's obviously not the case.

After Allie is forced to leave her city, she joins a group of people seeking a human city, a place with no vampires. While the time in the wilderness was certainly interesting, I wanted to know more about vampire society. Hopefully this will happen in book two.

Quality: Good
Enjoyability: Good

In the same aisle
Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Review | Last Breath by Rachel Caine

Last Breath
Rachel Caine
Morganville Vampires #11
Published 2011 by NAL (Penguin)
YA urban fantasy
4 stars

Bite-Sized Review
I keep expecting this series to disappoint me; it's been going on for a while, and at this point series often lose momentum. But Morganville Vampires is still absolutely brilliant: fast-paced, exciting, emotional, and generally excellent.

King-Sized Review
**A warning from Captain Obvious: Last Breath is book 11 of the series! If you don't want to see spoilers for the previous books, don't read this review.**

After the traumatic events of Bite Club, Claire just wants a chance to relax with Shane and help plan Eve and Michael's wedding in peace. Unfortunately for her, in Morganville, peace doesn't really happen. Both humans and vampires are strongly opposed to the inter-species wedding, and they're willing to go to great lengths to stop it. And as if that weren't enough, an ancient enemy of the vampires is back – and it might be more dangerous than they are.

Morganville is a wonderfully original concept. Instead of having vampires exist all over the place individually, all the vampires live in Morganville, brainchild of the Founder, Amelie. I love that the vampires aren't just misunderstood or angsty centuries-old teenagers. They're clearly predators and don't, as a rule, care much for humans as anything other than a food source. The complexity this world adds to the story is spectacular; the vampires aren't always the bad guys, and the humans aren't always the good guys. Instead, everyone has their own goals, which sometimes align with other people's. It makes the story seem much more real (despite the supernatural creatures).

Claire and Shane's relationship is also amazingly refreshing. It's important, certainly, but they have so much else going on that, while it develops most satisfactorily, it generally remains in the background without a great deal of drama.

Last Breath in particular was a little different from the rest of the series in that, though most of the book is in third-person from Claire's perspective, in this book, there were also chapters in first person from Amelie, Shane, Michael, and Eve. I was wary of this change when I started the book, but it really did convey necessary information that would otherwise have been really awkward to impart. The different voices were distinct and fairly natural, and while I prefer Claire's perspective, I liked the changing points of view much better in Last Breath than in Bite Club, where Shane's narratives mostly just annoyed me.

As usual, Last Breath is full of insane, emotional surprises. The addition of an unfamiliar supernatural creature (at least to me) was interesting and didn't seem nearly as contrived as it could have, probably because they were actually kind of scary. While certain aspects of the plot seemed rather...odd, for the most part the story was suspenseful and intense.

Overall, Last Breath was an excellent read, and I can't wait for Black Dawn!

Quality: Good
Enjoyability: Excellent

In the same aisle
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Jessica's Guide to Dating of the Dark Side
Beth Fantaskey
Jessica #1
Published 2011 by Harcourt
YA paranormal romance

Bite-Sized Review
Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side is corny, clichéd, and occasionally idiotic, but enjoyable. It doesn't look like much at first, but it improves a lot and makes for a nice light read.

King-Sized Review
Dating on the Dark Side follows high school student Jessica Packwood. Jessica does not believe in the supernatural. She believes in science, and things that can be proven. So when the new boy in school introduces himself as her fiancé and informs her that they're both vampires, she scoffs. But eventually she realizes that something doesn't add up about her worldview. And while she may not believe in vampires, the rest of the town isn't so sure.

At first the characters annoyed me so much that I almost put the book down. The plot and the world seemed incredibly cheesy. The book contained every YA PNR stereotype known to man. So when I started to enjoy the book, I almost resented it for drawing me in. But it actually turned into more than I would have expected from the first half.

Early in the book, Lucius was an unbelievably obnoxious snob who thought power was merely privilege. Now many love interests in these kinds of books can be jerks sometimes, but Lucius was a repellent jerk all the time.  I couldn't imagine, from the first half of the book, anyone ever finding him attractive. But then Lucius underwent a rare and mysterious process known as "character development." He became someone who was, if not exactly "good" then at least sympathetic. While some of that process did involve rather over-the-top American "we're so awesome" undertones, it was impressive to see him change from a character I hated to someone I actually respected.

Although I would have appreciated a little more growth from Jessica as well, she did change throughout the book, though less than Lucius did. She was a bit on the boring and desperate side and made some seriously questionable decisions, but by the end of the book she started to grow into her heritage. With luck, in the next book she'll be more interesting.

As someone who appreciates grand worldbuilding, I was underwhelmed by Dating on the Dark Side. The book mainly follows basic vampire legend – except for the sunlight thing, because no one does the sunlight thing anymore. Vampires were the extent of the supernatural, and they lived in rival clans, mainly in Romania. It works for the book, though, so this isn't really a complaint, just an observation. However, some of the cheesiness in the story was a bit on the wrong side of ridiculousness.

Overall, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side was a light, enjoyable read that would be great for a rainy day. Despite its flaws and first impressions, it's actually a pretty decent little book and worth a try for any vampire fan out there.

Quality: Fair
Enjoyability: Good

In the same aisle
Insatiable by Meg Cabot
Bite Me by Parker Blue

DNF: Evernight by Claudia Gray

A couple of weeks ago, I started reading Evernight by Claudia Gray, and at a certain point, I just couldn't finish it. That's how annoyed I was with this book. I'm not saying I never stop reading in the middle of a book, because it happens, but it's very rare, especially when I've already gotten through half of it. Unfortunately, even though I have no problem reading other people's DNF reviews, when I think about writing one, it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable, like that sticky residue feeling on your hand when you lean on that stain on the counter from where you spilled the lemonade three weeks ago and didn't really clean it properly. Okay, now I feel like I need to clean my kitchen.

Anyway, luckily for me, my friend Alison over at Winged Reviews read Evernight as well and had almost exactly the same reaction, and she actually did finish the book, so I feel no guilt whatsoever about sending you over to her review to give you an idea of what we both thought of the book. Plus now we can feel justified because our opinion is supported. Hooray self-congratulations!

Have you read Evernight? What did you think?

Blood Warrior by H.D. Gordon

Blood Warrior
H.D. Gordon
The Alexa Montgomery Saga #1
Published September 5, 2011 by H.D. Gordon

Bite-sized Review
I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't get into it. A combination of antipathy toward the characters, inconsistencies, and the lack of a discernable plot made it difficult for me to finish this book. However, a lot of people really enjoyed it, so just keep that in mind when you're reading what I have to say.

King-sized Review
I picked up Blood Warrior from the R2R program on one of my Goodreads groups. I had already heard a lot of people rave about how amazing it was, so I was excited to read it. It sounded like a great story: mystery, danger, inner conflict, magic – all the things I love.

Unfortunately, I didn't find it nearly as thrilling as most of my friends. Every time I picked it up, I read a few pages and then found myself doing something else. I'd switch to another book on my Kindle, go online, watch TV. I just couldn't focus on this book. Obviously I did finish it, or I wouldn't be writing this review, but it took me a week and a half, which for me is the approximate equivalent of forever.

There were a couple of reasons for my disinterest that I immediately recognized. First, the love triangle. This may have just been bad timing. At this point I am incredibly sick of love triangles. They are now a hurdle that a book has to overcome to get a good rating from me. That's something that happens occasionally, but in this case not only was there a love triangle, but I didn't find either of the love interests...interesting. In the scenes when Alexa was with Kayden or Jackson, I felt nothing at all. I don't even care who she ends up with.

Which leads me to my next problem. Alexa went through a lot of strong emotions in this book, and I should have felt something for her. The only thing I really felt was exasperation. I wasn't emotionally invested in any of the characters, and the closest I got to caring was wondering why everyone was so tolerant of Alexa's homicidal tendencies, because it just didn't seem reasonable that everyone would think it was perfectly normal for her to snap and try to kill people whenever they annoyed her. This is where "show, don't tell" really comes in; actions can sometimes be told, but emotions must be shown, or I don't believe them.

Inconsistencies and incredibilities cropped up with unfortunate frequency in this story. Why did Alexa's mom prepare her physically for her heritage, but not mentally? Wouldn't the training Alexa hated so much have been more palatable if she actually knew what it was for? And how can an obviously rather small society sustain the weekly death or severe injury of its elite? Either I don't understand how the competition in the Arena works, or there are way more warriors than it looks like. Why did Nelly, the younger sister, always seem to be older than Alexa? Individually, none of these are all that important (except for the first one, which really bothered me), but once they start stacking up, it becomes a problem.

Finally, the plot lacked direction. Mostly it was just Alexa barreling from one overdramatized crisis to another. There were a couple of good plot points, but they didn't really go anywhere. I really felt like this book was just painting the background for an actual story. I don't think I can stress how important this is. Stories need a point. The entire plot of this book was literally just Alexa learning various disturbing things about her new home, and then seeing something else weird but unrelated, and then doing something impulsive, and also unrelated. The ending had no resolution because there was nothing to resolve, although it did suggest to me that the plot in the next book will be rather better.

Okay. Having said all that, a number of friends have really liked this book, so it's entirely possible you will as well. I did find the world fairly interesting, with good twists on traditional legend. Alexa is a strong heroine who obviously cares about people, even though some aspects of her personality are rather off-putting. So if the basic idea here sounds like something you would enjoy, you should probably just ignore me and give it a try. Let me know how it goes.

Quality: Fair
Enjoyability: Poor

Stars of...Vampires

The "Stars of..." series is a new feature I'm doing here at Epic (Chocolate) Fantasy to highlight the best books in different areas of the fantasy genre. Say you want a book about shapeshifters or wizards or mythology, or maybe you want to read some political fantasy or sword and sorcery. Stop by here every Thursday for the foreseeable future, and I'll have recommendations for you! Click on the book covers for links to the first book in the series and on the series name for a list of the books in it on Goodreads.

If you think there's something I missed in this category, feel free to leave your own suggestions in the comments! I haven't read everything out there, obviously, and I'd love some recommendations myself.

Series are alphabetical by author.

Stars of...Vampires

Vampire. The very word might conjure anything from unbridled lust to outright contempt to visceral fear. There are many varieties of vampire legend, but the one thing they all agree on is that vampires drink human blood. We have a fascination with that concept that surges every few years, so there are plenty of vampire books out there, good and bad. I've done my best to find the stars for you.

Adult

Keri Arthur
Riley Jenson, Guardian
9 books, completed

Riley and her twin, Rhoan, are half-vampire, half-werewolf, and working for the Directorate of Other Races keeps both halves plenty busy. I was hesitant to pick up this series at first, because it sounded like a constant sex-fest, but it's actually much more; Riley gets involved in some very dangerous and exciting situations, and I've actually really enjoyed what I've read of this series so far.

Karen Chance
Dorina Basarab
2 books, ongoing

Dorina controls her dhampir bloodlust by killing the vampires who break the Senate's rules. When her father asks for her help recapturing her escaped uncle Dracula, she reluctantly agrees. But working with master vampire Louis-Cesare may be even tougher than catcher Dracula. Dorina is a great character, and this series, which is set in the same world as the Cassie Palmer books, is fun, sexy, and action-packed.

Jeaniene Frost

Night Huntress and Night Huntress World
6 and 2 books, respectively, ongoing

Night Huntress is a very fun series. It's definitely light reading, but it's very enjoyable. Cat is a half-vampire who hunts down the creatures of the night in order to make up for her existence, until she meets Master vampire Bones, who inducts her into the vampire world and shows her what she's really fighting for.

Laurell K. Hamilton
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
20 books, ongoing

While there are a lot of books in this series, really only the first eight or nine are worth reading, in my opinion. But those are pretty good. Anita is a vampire executioner and a necromancer who finds all her assumptions about vampires turned upside down when she's forced to work for them. Anita isn't one of my favorite characters, but the books, at least from 2 or 3 to 8 or 9, have some good stories and are generally quite fast-paced.

Charlaine Harris
Sookie Stackhouse
11 books, ongoing

From the popularity of this series and True Blood (which I must confess I never could watch), I'm guessing you already at least recognize these books. Sookie Stackhouse is a pretty good series that incorporates all sorts of legends. While it's not a favorite of mine and the last couple books haven't been very good, I definitely think it's worth a read or two!

Robin McKinley

Sunshine
Standalone

If you've been around here a while, you probably already know that Sunshine is one of my favorite books, since I mention it in every other meme. It's very different from most vampire books, mostly because the vampires in it are not misunderstood heroes. And Sunshine's not trained in any martial arts or combat magic – mostly just baking. I really, really love this world, and all the characters have great depth. As a huge fan of McKinley's writing style, I'd have to say this is one of her best books. I only wish there were more to go with it.

Chloe Neill

Chicagoland Vampires

5 books, ongoing

Chicagoland Vampires is another one that, while it shouldn't be taken too seriously, is quite fun and a great read. Merit, turned into a vampire to save her life, isn't exactly pleased about her new life. But when she realizes that someone is trying to harm the people she's starting to care about, she'll do whatever she can to stop it. Merit is a kickass heroine with definite sarcastic impulses.

Kalayna Price
Haven
2 books, ongoing


This one could go in either vampires or shapeshifters. It's fairly different, but I quite like it. On the run from her home world of Firth, cat-shifter Kita Nekai hides in our world, where she's attacked and changed into a vampire. Suspected as the origin of rogue shifter attacks, she must find the culprit or her own life is forfeit.

Anne Rice
The Vampire Chronicles
10 books, completed

I'm going to assume you've heard of this one as well. While it's in a rather different style from most of the current urban fantasy out there, and the first book is a bit slow, it's certainly worth checking out, if only for some background on the subject.

Dianne Sylvan
Shadow World
2 books, ongoing

Miranda Grey, slowly losing her mind to the emotions of those around her, finally finds help with her gift – from vampire Prime David Solomon. With a dark, emotional story, the Shadow World books are captivating. Sylvan imagines a complex, regimented vampire society and vivid characters.

YA

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Den of Shadows
5 books

I first read these books a long time ago. As in, I was probably eleven. But as much as I enjoyed them then, I still think they're pretty good. They're very short and quick, but the stories and characters are quite interesting. They revolve around a rather depraved vampire society, telling the tales of those who get caught up in it for one reason or another.




Rachel Caine
Morganville Vampires
11 books, ongoing

MVV is a dark and exciting series about a sixteen-year-old who goes off to college and winds up in a town full of vampires. It's a really great series with a lot of suspense and action. And don't worry, romance fans, there's plenty of that as well.

Richelle Mead

Vampire Academy and Bloodlines

6 books, completed and 1 book, ongoing, respectively

Rose is a dhampir, a mix of human and vampire. Her duty is to guard Lissa, the last of the Dragomir family, from the evil Strigoi and anyone else who wants to harm her. And there are plenty of those. VA is definitely one of my favorite vampire series. The spinoff, Bloodlines, features a lesser know part of Moroi (vampire) society, the Alchemists, and it's an excellent read as well. Richelle Mead can tell a great story, filled with action, love, and friendship. If you haven't read these yet, put them on your TBR list!


Books that have vampires in them, just not as the main characters
Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews (Adult)
Women of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong (Adult)
Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs (Adult)
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Adult)
Cassie Palmer by Karen Chance (Adult)
The Mortal Instruments/The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare (YA)
Elemental Assassin by Jennifer Estep (Adult)
The Hollows by Kim Harrison (Adult)
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins (YA)
The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne (Adult)
Johannes Cabal by Jonathan L. Howard (Adult)
Jolie Wilkins by HP Mallory (Adult)
Georgina Kincaid by Richelle Mead (Adult)
Guild Hunter by Nalini Singh (Adult)
Victoria Nelson by Tanya Huff (Adult)
Kitty Norville by Carrie Vaughn (Adult)
Jazz Tremaine by Linda Wisdom (Adult)


Put your own favorites in the comments! 

Drink Deep by Chloe Neill

Drink Deep
Chloe Neill
Chicagoland Vampires #5

**Warning: do not read this review if you have not read the rest of the Chicagoland Vampires series. For those of you who have read Hard Bitten but not Drink Deep, I'll let you know when we get to those spoilers.**

From Goodreads: Clouds are brewing over Cadogan House, and recently turned vampire Merit can't tell if this is the darkness before the dawn or the calm before the storm. With the city itself in turmoil over paranormals and the state threatening to pass a paranormal registration act, times haven't been this precarious for vampires since they came out of the closet. If only they could lay low for a bit, and let the mortals calm down. 
That's when the waters of Lake Michigan suddenly turn pitch black-and things really start getting ugly. 
Chicago's mayor insists it's nothing to worry about, but Merit knows only the darkest magic could have woven a spell powerful enough to change the very fabric of nature. She'll have to turn to friends old and new to find out who's behind this, and stop them before it's too late for vampires and humans alike.

I really enjoyed the first four books of the Chicagoland Vampires series. Merit and Ethan had one of the better literary relationships, there was always plenty of action and suspense, and I got to read about delicious Chicago food. In Drink Deep, as you (hopefully) know, we're missing a key element: Ethan Sullivan. Without that wacky, drama-filled, frustrating, and altogether lovable relationship, this book just wasn't what the others were.

It didn't help that Drink Deep was also missing the villain of the rest of the series. Yes, in one fell swoop Chloe Neill managed to kill off public enemy number one and the major love interest. So it's no wonder Drink Deep felt like it was lacking something.

The plot of the book was actually fairly good. There was plenty of mystery and the culprit came as a big surprise to me at the end, though I didn't entirely find that part believable. However, I think there may be more to the story than meets the eye, and the ending certainly gives a solid direction for the books to follow.

One thing that does bother me increasingly about this series is the voice, or lack thereof. While it seems that Merit has a fairly unique voice in general, when you pay attention, all the other characters sound the same as she does. It's a little jarring to hear the same catch-phrases repeated from several very different characters, especially when those who are supposed to be hundreds of years old talk like college undergrads.

**And now I'm going to talk about the actual events of Drink Deep, so if you haven't read it yet, you should probably head somewhere else for now.**

...

So Ethan. His death kind of seems utterly pointless now that he's back. I'm not a fan of authors killing off and then resurrecting characters on a whim, and I'm honestly not sure why he had to die in the first place. So Merit would know he loved her? The jumping-in-front-of-a-stake act showed that one pretty well; he didn't actually have to die from it. So they could be apart for another book? Seems kind of silly. My current theory is that being dead (for real, not undead) gave Ethan some kind of weird powers in addition to the weird powers he already had. But it's a little frustrating to have death so wantonly disregarded, even in a vampire book.

I was also a bit bewildered by Mallory's sudden switch from best friend to villain - I got the impression, at the very end, that dark magic was somehow seductive, but that would have been a more effective argument if it had been made before she decided to become some crazy evil witch. Certainly I don't remember any signs of impending bad-guy-dom at the time Mallory was supposed to have stolen the Maleficium.

Does this book feel like a season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to anyone else? I love Buffy, but I feel like Cordelia should suddenly pop in to Cadogan House and say something nasty before making out with Xander in a closet. Buffy was great because it occasionally paused to acknowledge its ridiculousness while still being fun and exciting. Drink Deep is often an amusing adventure in Silliness, but the population of Silliness thinks they live in Chicago.

Drink Deep is still fun and an enjoyable read, but not as good or entertaining as the previous installments. Hopefully now that the series has a solid direction again, the next book will be an improvement.

Quality: Fair
Enjoyability: Acceptable

GARS Score: 1 (1/3/2/2)
What's a GARS score?

If you liked Drink Deep, try:
Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones
Once Bitten by Kalayna Price

Archangel's Blade by Nalini Singh

Archangel's Blade
Nalini Singh
Guild Hunter #4

From Goodreads: The severed head marked by a distinctive tattoo on its cheek should have been a Guild case, but dark instincts honed over hundreds of years of life compel the vampire Dmitri to take control. There is something twisted about this death, something that whispers of centuries long past...but Dmitri's need to discover the truth is nothing to the vicious strength of his response to the hunter assigned to decipher the tattoo. 

Savaged in a brutal attack that almost killed her, Honor is nowhere near ready to come face to face with the seductive vampire who is an archangel's right hand, and who wears his cruelty as boldly as his lethal sensuality...the same vampire who has been her secret obsession since the day she was old enough to understand the inexplicable, violent emotions he aroused in her.

As desire turns into a dangerous compulsion that might destroy them both, it becomes clear the past will not stay buried. Something is hunting...and it will not stop until it brings a blood-soaked nightmare to life once more...

I miss Raphael and Elena. Their stories of angelic maneuvering mixed with the slowly unfolding mystery of Elena's past were fascinating, and the effort of balancing their relationship kept things interesting even in the third book after they got together. 

That's not to say that I didn't like Honor and Dmitri. Dmitri is sexy and a little disturbing (which in real life would mean a whole lot disturbing, but that's beside the point). Honor is more a scholar than a warrior, but it's clear she knows how to kick butt too. The problem I had with this story was that everything in it was about sex.

There were two separate threads to the hunting plot. The first relates to a body found with a symbolic tattoo, the reason Honor and Dmitri meet in the first place. That one comes from Dmitri's insanely screwed up past, which we learn about during the course of the story. The second is tracking down the vampires who kidnapped and assaulted Honor. And then, of course, there was the growing desire between them and blah blah blah.

I promise, I have no objection to sex in books. I just think there should be something else there as well, and there was virtually nothing in this book that didn't relate, somehow, to sex. Honor and Dmitri were interesting characters, but the total amount of trauma that happens to people in this series is a little unbelievable.

I'm sure I'll pick up the next book in this series. But I hope it'll be more like the first three than this one.

Plot: 2 cupcakes

Characters: 3 cupcakes

Style: 3 cupcakes

Overall: 3 cupcakes

GARS Score: 0.6 (4/2/5/5) (What's a GARS Score?)
Score for the rest of the series: 1 (4/4/4/4)

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian
Elizabeth Kostova

When an American diplomat's daughter finds an old book and a series of letters in her father's library, she's drawn into the quest that brought her parents together, then took her mother away from her--the search for Vlad the Impaler.


I'm honestly not sure how to rate this book. Parts of it were absolutely thrilling. When things were actually happening, I couldn't put the book down, desperate to know what would happen next. And then I got to one of the expository parts and every time I looked at my Kindle I'd come up with something else I had to do rather than continuing on.

The problem, I think, is right there in the title: all the main characters are historians (even Dracula, apparently. Go figure). What that means for the story is that there was a lot of research. And talking about research. And looking at old books. And while I'm sure that's very nice for historians and did occasionally produce some interesting information, I didn't really need to hear all that much about it. I felt like I was slogging through the Forest of Tedium, hacking through impossibly thick Boredom Brambles along the way. I think this would have been a much better story if Kostova had extremely condensed all that and focused on the actual events, only presenting the reader with the results of the research if necessary. There was also a great deal of description of Eastern Europe that, while moderately interesting, wasn't really important to the story itself. Oddly, the characters, despite being scholars, failed to ask some key questions (like how did Dracula become a vampire or were there others that weren't working for him) which were answered rather hastily at the end.

I found the style of the book to be confusing at times. The story is told in no less than three layers of first-person narrative: the daughter is listening to her father's stories and reading his letters, in which he shares the stories and letters of his former advisor. This made for some confusion at times when I was surprised to find myself, without warning, back in the father's story after only a couple pages of the daughter's. My confusion says something about the voices of the characters (or lack thereof)--a reader should be able to tell, most of the time, who's talking simply by the way they talk. I shouldn't have to wait to get to someone's name to figure out whose story I'm reading, particularly in first person.

There were things I really enjoyed about this novel (or I wouldn't be having trouble rating it). As I said before, when the characters were doing something other than research, it was actually quite exciting. I thought the ending was very well done. (The ending ending, not the climax. That was a little abrupt.) I also liked that the vampires in this story were definitely not in any way good--it gets a little tiring reading about misunderstood vampires all the time. It was a nice change.

If I could give the bits of the book where they actually did something four stars and the rest of it one star, I'd do that, but that's not how ratings work. So we're stuck with this. I would hesitantly recommend this book if you don't mind sitting through a lot of dullness to get to the interesting parts.

Plot: 3 cupcakes
Characters: 2 cupcakes
Style: 2 cupcakes
Overall: 2 cupcakes

Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake

Nightwalker
Jocelynn Drake
Dark Days, Book 1

Half a millenium ago, the naturi tried to use Mira to help them open a gate to their world so their queen could return.  The nightwalkers succeeded in stopping them then, but now they're back, and they're after Mira again.  Only with the help of the vampire hunter Danaus can Mira prevent the naturi from destroying the world as she know it, and she'll have to leave the comfort of the home she's finally managed to establish to do it.

I really did not enjoy the first half of this book.  The second half was decent, but more because I got used to the issues I had with the first half than because it was actually that much better.

The premise of the story sounds original, but replace naturi with fae and nightwalkers with vampires, and it's not particularly.  The plot was actually reasonably interesting, but my interest in it was overwhelmed by other things annoying me.

First, Mira acted very young, which would be fine if she were not supposed to be (a) a 600-year-old firestarting vampire and especially (b) the leader of nightwalkers in her domain.  I did not find the latter at all credible based on her behavior.  She was uncertain, uncontrolled, and occasionally timid, none of which are traits traditionally valued in vampire leaders.  I get that the naturi tortured her, but it was five hundred years ago.  If I'm supposed to believe she's a successful leader, she'd better act the part, and she doesn't.

Her early actions made no sense to me.  She decides to let Danaus kill however many nightwalkers in her territory without doing a single thing about it until she finally follows him, but she still doesn't kill him because, what, she's bored?  If Mira thinks some of the vamps in her domain are too weak, fine, but the hunter murdering in her territory with impunity is more a testament to her weakness than theirs.  I didn't buy Mira as powerful or a leader in the slightest.

Now that that's out of the way, it wasn't all bad.  Once they left the US, I was able to enjoy the book a little more.  There was the requisite action and intrigue and ill-advised sexual tension.  But it wasn't nearly enough to make up for the disastrous characterization.

I apologize for the rant.  If the issues I mentioned with the characters don't bother you, it's probably a decent book.  But for me, characters are crucial, and Drake's were simply not believable.

Plot: 3 cupcakes
Characters: 1 cupcake
Style: 2 cupcakes
Overall: 2 cupcakes (1 for the first half, 3 for the second)

p.s. For your reference, this is what power means.

Insatiable

Insatiable
Meg Cabot
Insatiable, Book 1

Meena Harper, writer for the soap opera "Insatiable," isn't exactly pleased when she gets passed over for the job of head writer.  To add insult to injury, the executives of the show have decided to jump on the vampire bandwagon.  Everyone knows vampires don't exist, and Meena is sick of hearing about them.  Not that she doesn't believe in the supernatural--Meena can tell when people are going to die.

Lucien Antonescu was content to teach history in Romania until word of human bodies found drained of blood reached him.  Now the Prince of Darkness must find the culprit before humans can discover the vampires' existence.

The plot here is nothing terribly exciting.  Meena's ability is pretty unique, as far as I know, but other than that it's mostly vampire scheming and jostling for position.  I like the addition of a vampire-hunting corps, though that wasn't really new either, and I think Cabot could have done a lot more with it.  Who know, maybe in future books...

The characters, again, weren't really terrible or great.  Meena was basically your typical heroine with a quirk.  Lucien was an acceptable vamp leader.  Alaric was interesting but I found it a little hard to believe that he liked Meena so much despite the fact that she was sleeping with the Prince of Darkness.  You'd think that would be a turnoff for someone who hates vampires as much as he does.

Despite all that, I really enjoyed this book.  It was funny and entertaining, one of those light reads that you don't really have to think or worry about.  I recommend it if you're looking for something quick, easy, and fun.

Plot: 3 cupcakes
Characters: 3 cupcakes
Style: 4 cupcakes
Overall: 3 cupcakes

Bloodlines

Bloodlines

Richelle Mead
Bloodlines, Book 1


Richelle Mead's return to the world of Vampire Academy gives us a new perspective: Sydney Sage, Alchemist. After aiding Rose's escape when Rose was accused of murdering Queen Tatiana, Sydney is in disgrace with her fellow Alchemists. So when an assignment comes along, she's willing to take it - even if it means spending all her time with unnatural vampires. Sydney is assigned to protect the new queen's sister Jill, who was recently attacked. But her colleague Keith is more of a hinderance than a help in this task, and when Moroi vampires start turning up with their throats slit, Sydney and the vampires wonder if there's more going on in Palm Springs than meets the eye.


Despite having a very similar cast with only a few new characters, Bloodlines really does feel like a new series. Sydney's voice and decisions are very different from Rose's, and the story is set entirely away from Court and St. Vladimir's. Learning about the Alchemists was interesting, and another difference from VA. On the other hand, if you read this book without reading Vampire Academy first, I imagine you'd be pretty confused.


I was happy to see Adrian, Jill, and Eddie again, with cameos from Rose and Dimitri. Mead's characters are always a joy to read, which is why she's one of my favorite authors. Although it would have been nice to have a few more new non-peripheral characters in the story, Sydney's evolving attitude toward the vampires was more than interesting enough to bring a new perspective to the story.


The plot focused more on the Alchemists' issues than the vampires', though it's obvious there will be more of those to come. The story is full of surprises, so I don't want to reveal much here, but there was plenty of excitement and drama.


All in all, I really enjoyed Bloodlines, and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.


Characters: 4 cupcakes
Plot: 5 cupcakes
Style: 4 cupcakes
Overall: 4 cupcakes