Review of Duncan by D.B Reynolds Book 5 of Vampires in America Series

 

Once again, in the interest of being fair to D.B. Reynolds, I feel that it is necessary to disclose that I am not a fan of paranormal romance, so please keep that in mind when reading this review.

Duncan, Raphael's longtime second in command is finally ready to become a master vampire.  Though he will always see Raphael as his sire, it's time for him to have a territory of his own.  With that in mind Duncan travels to Washington with a few people loyal to Raphael and is met by some of his own children.  He kills Victor and becomes not only a vampire lord, but the representative of Vampires in government because his territory is Washington.

Duncan quickly discovers that Victor, the former lord was very corrupt.  Emma Duquet, who has no interest in vampires or their politics arrives in what she calls the embassy to find out what happened to her best friend Lacey.  It appears that Victor invited Lacy to one of his special parties and no one has seen her since.  Duncan promises Emma that he will look into the disappearance of her friend.

When Lacey is discovered dead, Duncan promises Emma vengeance - the only thing that can hope to bring peace to her broken heart.  Though Emma and Lacey are not actually related, Emma considered her, her sister.  They were both children of the foster care system.  Once again, we have a woman whose parents are missing, and who had a troubled background fall in love with a vampire.  Can this trope be anymore cliché at this point? 

Review of Sophia By D.B. Reynolds Book 4 in the Vampires in America Series

As always, in order to be fair to D.B. Reynolds, I am going to declare up front that I am not a fan of paranormal romance.  As far as Sophia goes, I do think it is the best book in the series that I have read to date.

Sophia get a summons from her vampire lord to return to Vancouver and upon arrival she learns that not only he missing but several of her his vampires are dead.  The only clue as to what is going on, is a letter that he left to her with instructions to see out Lord Raphael.  Once Sophia arrives in Seattle, she learns that several more vampires are dead and one human mate was savagely raped.  That is not the only surprise that awaits her, because investigating the murdered vampires, along with Cyn, and Raphael is Colin a former navy seal, whom Sophia has unresolved history with.

What I liked about this romance is that for once it wasn't a case of girl meets boy, some woo woo is interjected and then zmog, instant I lurves you forever. I think that we can all agree that, that approach to writing romance is old and tired.  The other flip in this, is of course the fact that for once, the female in the relationship in question is the vampire, and the human is male. This led to a lot less paternalism in this relationship, because Colin was forced to confront the fact that despite Sophia's appearance, she most certainly is not a wilting little flower.

Fangs for the Fantasy podcast, episode 43

This week we examined the lastest episodes of The Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, Lost Girl and American Horror Story

We examined our book of the week: Cold Fire by Kate Elliott, as well as the books we're reading including JR Ward, DB Reynolds. We also mentioned Charlaine Harris and infamous Teagarden series. Next week we will be reading My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland

Review of Jabril by D. B Reynolds

 

Having read Raphael, I went into Jabril with extremely low expectations.  I must admit that I was mildly surprised with Jabril; however, Cyn, the protagonist, once again found herself mixed up in vampire intrigue, but this time it was at the behest of the master vampire Jabril.  Cyn was initially hired to search for a missing girl, not because Jabril believed in her prowess as an investigator, but to irritate his rival Raphael.

Jabril Karim Al Subaie was the scion of a very traditional and conservative Arab family who'd been allies of the Saud dynasty for centuries, longer than even Jabril had been alive.  He demanded respectful and submissive behaviour from his servants ... and his women. (page 19)

Those scant few sentences should have served as a warning of what was to come in this book.  Of course, being an Arab man, Jabril was not enlightened enough to see women as his equals.  He had no female vampires in his guard and abused and raped all those he used for the purposes of feeding.   To make sure that the reader was appropriately horrified, Jabril spent the entire book either abusing White women, or trying to abuse White women.  Two beautiful young blonde haired blued eyed young girls absolutely needed to be saved from this man.

Of course Cyn saw how wrong this situation was right away:

The young woman was treated like an ill favored pet and made to dress as if her femininity was something shameful to be hidden.  Cyn didn't care how old the vampire lord was or where he he came from.  That kid was young and scared, and those big, blue eyes had been born in America, or Cyn would eat her boots. (page 25)

To ensure that Mirabelle, the only female vampire on Jabril's compound did not create undue lust in the male vampire population, she was forced to dress in black and wear an "ankle length skirt, t-shirt and loose black sweater, even a scarf to hid her long blond hair.  Her shoes were black Nikes, and she wore black old lady socks that rose above her knees."

Review of Raphael by D.B Reynolds

 

This is yet another book of the month selection from one of our reading groups on Goodreads.  This is yet another book that I would not have chosen to read because it is paranormal romance.  Unlike Love Bites by Lynsay Sands, there really is nothing to redeem this book. 

Cynthia is a former police officer turned private investigator. Normally, she does things like background checks and following cheating spouses, and so when Raphael and his vampires enter her office wanting to hire her to track down a kidnapped vampire, she jumps on the opportunity to do something new and interesting. The existence of vampires is sort of an open secret socially, but even with all the secrecy, Raphael's place in vampire hierarchy is well known.

What follows is the most contrived search for Raphael's sister, while he struts around glowering and showing just how strong and masculine he is.  Oooooh.  Of course, in typical alpha male fashion, Raphael sets his sights on Cynthia, who he calls Cyn ( isn't that an imaginative pet name), because she is resistant to him, though he can smell her desire (eau de wet pussy everyone).  Finally, in the middle of a gun fight no less, they find timeto deal with their desire - yes, I said the middle of a gun fight.  I know that this may seem inconvenient, but it's perfect for Raphael who only want's to deal with women who respect themselves.  If you doubt me, check out the following passage: