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.
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ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, although All Together Dead answered a few questions, it left a lot more hanging. For the Sookie faithful, I guess that’s a wonderful thing. The series is guaranteed to go on for a few more installments. Maybe it will keep getting better. One can hope. As it stands, I have to give All Together Dead three stars. It was better than the rest. But not that much better.
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