Aden by D. B. Reynolds

Aden, the moody, not-quite misogynistic vampire we have met in the last pages of the previous book, Lucas gets his own story - and the only thing I can say is, it is missable. It is a well written book, I do not doubt that. It has a lot of potential, but there are some issues. The overall plot idea is fun, but carried out half-heartedly. The male character is flat, almost common place and pales against the female. The internal conflict barely developed. Though, one has to say, the author does a very good job at using the “past experiences” hook for Aden’s distrust of women - contrary to many books out there his bad past with women does not lead him to hate them (an insult to the intelligence of the male character, I always think) but simply disregard them. Instead there is an insult to the intelligence of the female character. She goes from hating him to letting him tie her up and use a flogger on her over night, literally. A rule should be: If you do not trust and know the man - don’t play with painful implements. Actually, don’t play at all.

The Story

It is the challenge for the leadership of the territory around Chicago is underway, and all our favourites are there: Raphael, Cyn, Lucas and all the others. Sidonie is an investigative journalist who is looking for the slave ring which murdered her best friend. The evidence leads her to Aden, or rather to the former leader of the vampires in the region, the one Aden is trying to replace. So far so good.

Therefore, there are two plot lines, and though they are interlinked, because of the space neither can come out to play properly.

Slavery plot line: It seems as if the reader should doubt, in some way, in the beginning if Aden is involved or not, leading to some tension when Sidonie approached him. The problem is, she clearly never doubts him and therefore the reader feels barely involved. Also, it is hard to relate to her emotional attachment to her friend as we simply cannot feel it after the first scene. Jancey, the friend, merely becomes a footnote.

Challenge plot line: An afterthought, at best, at least in the beginning. This would not be such a problem if it would not detract from the development of the slavery plot line.

The Characters

Sidonie is an interesting character, though she lacks some of the depth the other females in the series have had. I like her practicality, her matter-of-fact approach to what has to be done. Though in part it feels a little as if that down to earth attitude might be a result of the lack of developmental space given to the internal conflict.

Aden, sadly, is barely a presence as an adult. It is sad, for the child Aden we meet in the flash-backs steals the show. The adult, we can see standing there, hot and overwhelming - but we can’t feel him, we definitely cannot step into his character.


The Sex

The book would be better without it - which is more than sad as the author is normally very sensual. But this time reality, and for that matter basic safety precautions, went out of the window. There is the hot sensuality we expect - but then the author felt she needs to throw in some bondage, pain, anal play and dominance in order to either give the male character more depth or simply appeal to those desires in readers. But the addition is half-hearted, at best. There is no preparation or even reality in the actual sexual play. Worst of all there is no true reaction to it from Sidonie, or in all reality, Aden.

Overall

It’s a good series of books, in places it is great, but this book is an addition to it which really could be missed. The story lacks in development, mainly because the two plot lines are good and in their competition with each, space to come a reality in the reader’s mind is taken from both. The sex is sensual - then all that is destroyed with the half-hearted, and unrealistic, addition of bondage and dominance elements. The characters have potential, but feel flat and underdeveloped.

In all fairness, in some ways the book suffered for me especially as I had just reread my favourites from the series, excited there would be another instalment - but even without the comparison, I still think this is the worse of the books.

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Created Dec 02, 2013 at 7:46am • Submit your own review...