From Goodreads:

Cassandra Palmer can see the future and communicate with spirits-talents that make her attractive to the dead and the undead. The ghosts of the dead aren't usually dangerous; they just like to talk...a lot.

The undead are another matter.

Like any sensible girl, Cassie tries to avoid vampires. But when the bloodsucking Mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with vengeance on his mind, she's forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection.

The undead senators won't help her for nothing, and Cassie finds herself working with one of their most powerful members, a dangerously seductive master vampire-and the price he demands may be more than Cassie is willing to pay...

I wanted a guilty pleasure vampire read with a hint of romance to settle into and just enjoy. Instead what I got was a novel littered with info-dumps, possessive characters and creepiness, and not the good sort of creepy. I don’t know how to write about the issues without spoilers so this review will have them!

The Plot

Suffers from info-dump, majorly. I’d be in the middle of an intense action scene, whether that’s a physical fight, or an argument building up to a physical fight, and even during a sex scene, and then suddenly, we’d get a lesson in something. Perhaps in vampires feeding, perhaps in how wards work or the history of the world. Whatever it was, it pulled me straight out of the story and into boredom. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading about how something in a fantasy world works, but it’s got to be at the right time. By the end of the novel, the author still hadn’t figured out the right time. Oh, and don’t get me started on the time-travelling. Just no.

Onto the creepiness, Mircea is a serious love interest that’s “owned” the main character since she was 11. Where they then end up some 10+ years later is a little creepy. Mircea is a relative of Dracula’s (I think), so he’s pretty darn old and so this falls into the definitely creepy category. And the reason the characters in this novel are desperate for her to have sex aren’t great either. I wouldn’t say they’re forcing her, but they’re encouraging her quite forcibly and for a completely mythologically bullshit reason.

The Characters

Almost every character in this novel was a name from history. It’s like there were no non-famous people in previous times, and only the famous were turned. Considering in this novel, it doesn’t seem that risky or dangerous to turn a vampire, I’m surprised there weren’t more normal vampires. Instead, we’ve got Rasputin, Raphael, Jack (the Ripper) and others. The characters themselves were ok. Not overly good, not overly bad, just kind-of there, but with nothing to make me really root for them.

Cassandra

I’m just done with female main characters being someone’s possession. Whether that was Tony, Mircea, Tomas or who knows who else, Cassandra was never her own person. I’m not sure if this is a character fault that was deliberate or something that was convenient for the plot, but I wasn’t a fan. I just wanted her to stand up and tell everyone where to shove it. This whole novel reminded me of Anita Blake, but this main character didn’t have the same personality that I could enjoy, which meant this did fall flat for me on the character front too.

Mircea

Creepy love interest. He’s related to Dracula, and an important, powerful, master vampire. He’s supposed to come across as sexy and swoon-worthy, but because of his link to the character from a young age, it just came across as creepy. Cassandra used to call him uncle, and now she's sleeping with him? Just no.

Billy-Joe

The one redeeming character for me. The only one that seemed remotely sane, who occasionally even said that someone was a bad idea. Billy-Joe was the one character I rooted for. He was funny, for one. Something this book sorely needed. I felt like the life and story of Billy-Joe really shaped who he was as a character, and he brought me more than a few chuckles with his cowboy-ish ways.

Tomas

Somewhat psychopathic love interest, or at least in his eyes. A predictable character. From the moment we meet him until the very end. I saw what happened coming a mile off and I wish I hadn’t, or I wish Tomas had surprised me. I’d have liked him a lot more if he did. As a character, he’s not all that special. He’s possessive of Cassandra, as I said above, and just an all round douche.

The World

Vampires sit on councils known as “Senates” and different parts of the world have them. This was something I’d seen before, but nonetheless, it was interesting enough. As well as vampires, we’ve also got weres, pixies, fae, mages, witches, seers and other beings I’ve probably got. Needless to say, 99% of your standard paranormal creatures exist in some way in this world and I don’t think this book does that in a way that makes sense or does them justice. We meet a pixie for about 2 pages and her existence just confused me until she disappeared and was never mentioned again. Perhaps this improves in later novels, where there’s more opportunity to explore the world outside the room where at least half of the novel took place.

Would I read it again? No.

Will I be picking up the next in the series? No.

Would I recommend it? ‘Fraid not.

Is it going on my favourites shelf? I think you can already guess the answer to this one! Nope.

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Created Mar 26, 2019 at 3:52am • Submit your own review...