So first things first, this is more Urban fantasy then paranormal romance. I really only picked it up, because it's advertised at the end of Gail Carriger's Timeless... (One of those, "if you enjoyed this book, you'll enjoy this..." type of dealios)...however I don't see the connection. It wasn't bad...a few dialogue issues (one character atually uses the phrase :you better check yourself". seriously.) Also the author is not afraid of killing of characters. But yeah, there's really no connecting it with Gail Carriger anything. The over all story is engrossing, though there are a lot of vamp sterotypes in play...What I mean is...Well okay, you know how most authors seem to come up with their own lore/mythos re: all their para folk, and laugh at all the "dumb stuff ' that comes out of the movies? Well Ms Painter seems to embrace all that 'dumb stuff'....(holy water is bad, vamps cant enter any domain without an invitation, they can't go on consecrated ground without serious repercussions, etc) For me personally, it seemed an easy way out, of having to come up with your own ideas...Although to be fair, the society she created, and the different levels to it, were pretty interesting, if not wholly original. Also, the H and h are at odds for waaaaay too long...and becasue this is more UF than PNR, there's no clear resolution between them...(there's a cliffhanger ending, dammit!) and if you read the reviews for book two in the Comarre series you learn that there's another "Hero" introduced...and the heroine can't choose b/w them, so she tells them that she wants both of them...and( I think), they agree to share her! Not a menage mind you, but an unecessary love triangle -that comes out of freaking nowhere!-starring a wishy washy heroine that can't seem to decide what she wants, so she samples a little bit of everything....now if this was an erotica title I probably wouldn't mind, but here? int h is series? Um yeah, no thanks. . Also a number of times (in particular, near the end) a character would make a choice that just wouldn't be the right/sane choice...So i ended up being pulled out of the story wondering why so and so didn't do this other thing that would have made more sense, and wouldn't have screwed thigns up. Oh and there's a lot of minor characters....A lot. And we'd randomly get a small bit from said secondary characters points of view, for, IMO, no good reason. oh and there's a lot from the villain's point of view too. A lot, a lot. Usually I like getting the big bad's perspective, but here, it just felt like too much. Every other chapter is from her point of view...really, i get it. She' bad. she's bad. she's really really bad. There's no need to clobber me over the head with it. (from i understand,t his continues on into the next book as well)okay, crap I think I got on a roll with all the negatives... I swear its not that bad... Like I said it's engrossing, and the world building is pretty top notch....But the reviews for the rest of the books have screwed won me over, and I probably won't be continuing with the series...but its' still a 3 star read :)
