This latest entry in Susan Sizemore’s seemingly endless series of vampire romances has about as much bite as a bowl of Count Chocula.
I had hopes for this one, quite frankly, because the first few chapters featuring a wedding reception quickie between cop Phillipa Elliot and vampire Matt Bridger got the book off to a lively start. Sadly, though, that promising beginning was quickly forgotten once the author launched into a confused (at least to anyone who hasn’t kept up with series) story featuring vampires and vampire hunters and a hero caught up in the full throes of the dreaded I-Love-You-Too-Much-To-Sully-You-Syndrome.
So what’s the story here? Something about Matt, one of the author’s “prime” vampires, meeting his bondmate Phillipa who he, of course, won’t, er, bond with because of these really nasty vampire hunters who bear far more resemblance to the evangelical-type of Laurell K. Hamilton vampire hunters than they do to Buffy – and, hey, I prefer Buffy. And that is pretty much it.
Phillipa and Matt meet several years prior to the beginning of the book’s story. They do it. They meet several years later at the christening of Phillipa’s sister’s baby. They still want to do it.
The sister, wouldn’t you know it, just so happens to be married to yet another one of the author’s prime vampires though Phillipa just thinks the family is kind of ethnically dramatic in an East Coast kind of way.
Action ensures. Sex ensues. And sooner or later everybody gets their HEA.
Everything here felt…well, a bit generic. To make matters even more challenging, the author also makes the very big assumption that readers are familiar with her mythology because I never lost that jumping-into-midstream feeling. On the other hand, I don’t know if familiarity would have made the book any better since the characters themselves felt generic, too. Nobody here – not even the dead people – ever came to life.
What you ultimately have here is a screamingly average vampire entry in a genre that is already overcrowded with the same. If you’re looking something with a bit of a bite, I think you’re better off going with the Count Chocula.
Grade: C
Book Type: Vampire Romance
Sensuality: Hot
Publication Date: 2006
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