Brooklyn Ann

Yeah i deducted a half star because my favorite character dies. I won't say who, its a spoiler, but its the char at the end who dies.

That said enjoyable paranormal romp!

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There was something slightly unsettling about this book and the way that Cassandra nonchalantly discussed rooting around in a cadaver's body to see what made what muscle link where properly. Fascinating, but much like certain other characters I found it to be very off putting when I'm contemplating eating steak. And Cassandra loves to go on at length about such things (is it a good thing if you can put a vampire off his meal? I'm not sure).

However the sparkling banter between Rafe and Cassandra makes up for the unsettling moments of honest discourse about peeling back a man's skin. Some of you may remember my complaints about Angelica in the first book (Bite Me Your Grace), and how annoying she was as a main character. I can't speak to the second couple (Lydia and Vincent from One Bite Per a Night), since I haven't read that book yet unfortunately (they are lots of fun here though), but neither Cassandra nor Rafe were frustrating personalities.

It was refreshing to read about a romance heroine who could argue sensibly while also understanding the larger picture. Was it wrong of Rafe to jump to conclusions and basically turn her life upside down because he didn't think to ask before assuming she was a vampire hunter? For sure. But he was being very accommodating and aside from ludicrous threats against her life that no one believed BUT her, was the picture of helpfulness. Look when even the villains of the plot say to each other "He won't kill her" (and in fact use that as a reason to revolt against Rafe) you should probably assume he isn't going to kill you.

Truthfully her agitation over whether he would or wouldn't kill her came quite late in the game (after the initial fear she all but forgets about it) and felt more like a contrived reason for her to fall into the dastardly (but highly inept) clutches of the bad guy.

To settle on the bad guy, Clayton, for a moment - he was so over the top shady that I'm certain the only reason he wasn't figured out sooner was all the "Lords of London" (in three years they've had three different lords!) keep getting hitched and finding their wives. I was a bit squicked by a lot of how he allowed his goons to treat their prisoner. Mild Warning for discussion of rape - there's nothing explicit, but the prisoner mentions it, the goons mention it and while later on everyone is very clearly NOT OKAY with it (to some violent degrees) I wish it had felt less like a set-up for two characters to be drawn together.

Lenore, a supplicant of Rafe's who Clayton kidnaps and allows to be raped multiple times by his "rogue vampire" henchmen, later uses their sexual assault as a means to escape. Jolly resourceful, if not particularly pleasant, for her! She then escapes to a neighboring vampire's domain--a well known vampire who dislikes others tramping about in his area uninvited and is no close friend of Rafe's--and more or less falls into his arms. He helps her and then later, after extracting a debt from Rafe for helping him defeat Clayton, requests Lenore. Its stated, a couple times, that Lenore is afraid of men and shies away from all of them no matter who they are (understandably so). Except for this Blackwell, the vampire who helped her.

I think if such an issue hadn't been made about the assault, and a key reason why Clayton could never be allowed such power for allowing it in the first place, I would have been more okay with how those two characters meet. But after the end, and the request made to fulfill a debt, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Not sure why.

In all this was an enjoyable, if rather uneven, historical paranormal romp. I do think some of the descriptions of Cassandra and Rafe's ahem sexy times sounded less then sexy to me (I'm sorry "animalistic brutality" does not make me all hot and bothered), and Ann did kill my darling, but I definitely enjoyed this outing.… (mehr)

Bite Me, Your Grace was a disappointment on a couple of levels. I was expecting a fun wallpaper historical romance with vampires, a smart heroine and humor (kind of like Minda Webber's books), which I guess was my first mistake. This is by no means a bad book, its just...Angelica is so annoying. She's an utter harridan!


***SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT***

This was kind of how things went:

Mother: Angelica! You need to behave!
Angelica: I refuse to behave as a lady must! I will RUIN MYSELF! :flings self into ruination:
Ian: This damn female...I should marry her and maybe possibly get these people off my back about being a vampire...ho young lady! I shall save you! You shall be awesomely celebrated! Also lots of passion!
Angelica: Married to a vampire? Never! I will show you how smart I am! And difficult! And political! And strongly against women being marginalized!
Mother: Oh my smelling salts!
Ian: All you are doing is proving how different you are and how right I was.
Angelica: I'd rather be poor and destitute! As long as I can write it doesn't matter!
Ian: :shows Angelica the poor and destitute lifestyle:
Angelica: :immediately horrified by the stench: Maybe I will marry you I mean it can't possibly be as bad as all that right? I mean I can still do whatever I want...

So on and so forth. The book is literally one idiotic notion of Angelica's after another as she attempts to either a) get Ian to not marry her, b) get Ian to tell her more about his vampire lifestyle for her Gothic writing or c) both at once. After they marry it only gets worse because she then falls into the 'Oh the sex is so good! Why does he not love me?' angst. I don't know Angelica, considering you spent half the book trying to convince him you shouldn't marry? Or maybe because you're idea of communication is to say how strong and independent you are and then run off doing something stupid? She gets drunk at Almack's and kicked out just to prove she shouldn't get married for pity's sake!

I realize she was meant to be a 'strong' and 'socially progressive' woman, but instead it seemed like she was a child having a tantrum because no one would listen. Why did she have to be a Women's Rights Activist AND a gothic romance author AND cross dress AND not want to be married or have children AND hate everything about the ton AND be virtually friendless? Mind you she's also an immensely wealthy heiress who's apparently gorgeous.

Meanwhile Ian, who's a couple centuries old and has not apparently ever fallen for a mortal before, finds her simply refreshing. Personally I think he just likes having to save her. Oh he's Lord of London and is super powerful and super wealthy and super this and super that, but for a guy who's ready to take some poor writer's head off for writing a satirical novel (that may or may not be about his vampire self) he's awfully jolly about sharing everything with Angelica. Only to wonder why his gothic romance obsessed wife would try to write a gothic romance about it. Ian you knew what you were marrying when you married her, don't acted surprised when the crazy woman who broke into your house (for research!) ends up, well, being crazy even after you marry her.

Honestly it sounds like I dislike the book and really I only disliked Angelica. She just...no. Every time she spoke I was taken out of the story. Yeah I can see why folk want her dead. Your mileage may vary though, so take this as a cautious recommendation.
… (mehr)