 | Title: Nightshade
A couple moderately graphic sex scenes. References to rape.
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying. |
Description
DESIRE IS IN THE BLOOD
Jillian Conrad never believed in vampires. But she’s just become a living, breathing weapon against them. Attacked by a desperate scientist, she is injected with a serum that was supposed to act as a deadly poison to vampires. And when the scientist is gunned down in front of her, his secrets die with him.
Declan Reyes was only half-vampire, but he hates them with all his heart. He knows that the poison in Jillian’s veins could finally destroy the undead kingdom. Also, the serum has had an unintended effect, making her blood irresistible to all vampires—including Declan, whose bloodthirsty traits are driven into a frenzy by her.
Driven by duty to protect her and by instinct to crave her, Declan takes Jillian into his shadowy world of blood and battle. But he soon realizes his increasing need for her may be a different kind of hunger…
Review
Confession time: I’m a huge fan of Martin Short. I love all those stupid comedies he made in the 80’s including one starring Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan called Innerspace. In the movie Martin gets accosted by a scientist exiting an elevator (who’s being chased by an assassin) and injected with the contents of top secret experiment after which the assassin shoots the scientist and pursues Martin. Why am I telling you this? Because that’s the exact same opening scene of NIGHSHADE, except instead of a micronized Dennis Quaid, Jillian is injected with a formula that makes her irresistible—and deadly—to vampires.
My hands down favorite thing about NIGHSHADE was the surprising turn (or should I say turns?) that the romance took. The guys in this book do not start out as shiny and drool worthy—they are monsters. Harsh, uncaring, debauched monsters. And I didn’t see them coming. I kept waiting for the ‘real’ love interest to show up and didn’t even notice how the monsters snuck up on me until they were no longer monsters in my eyes. Hats off to Michele Rowen for the skillful turnabout that I bought completely.
I wonder what it says about me that I preferred the monster side of Declan to the more human version. He acted a bit ‘neutered’ for lack of a better word when he was off his vamp-suppressing meds. I also did not get how he went from almost attacking Jillian one minute because he couldn’t control his desires to essentially having to be coerced through every single step of the first sexual encounter with her. She’s supposed to be vampire heroin in every sense of the word and he had to be literally dragged to her bed protesting the whole time. I was expecting/hoping for something more there.
The beginning of NIGHSHADE is excellent, the middle is a bit lackluster, but the ending was strong and nicely set up the future for this series. The good news is you don’t have to wait even another day to read more about Jillian. Her story continues in the anthology PRIMAL that released on February 1st. The next full length Nightshade novel is called BLOODLUST and will be published on July 5, 2011. Off to read PRIMAL.
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Great review Abigail. Hmmm, not sure I like my heros "neutered". lol
ReplyDeleteGreat review. I might have to check this one out!
ReplyDeleteGreat review. Nightshade was on my skip pile, but after your review I've got to try it out.
ReplyDeleteTori - I still liked Declan overall, and there is another romantic possibility from NIGHTSHADE that never comes close to being neutered :)
ReplyDeleteAmanda - I had a lot of fun with this one. If I had have ratings, NIGHTSHADE would have gotten 3 1/2 bats.
Shera - I can actually see the next book being much stronger now that the premise and major players have been introduced. i'll be reading more without a doubt.