Nikki is a private investigator blessed – or cursed – with
considerable psychic abilities that definitely give her a leg up in her job.
Certainly it should be enough to keep track of a spoiled and indulged
off-the-rails teenaged girls at the behest of her unpleasant, but far-to-doting
father
But that teenaged girl is in far deeper than Nikki had
ever imagined, thrall to a vampire, becoming a vampire herself, she tries to
lure Nikki in to her master, Jasper’s clutches. Her powers will be an
incredible asset to him
Especially since he is being hunted by Michael, ancient
vampire, troubleshooter – and on a mission to protect Nikki from Jasper. And
settle his old grudge with Jasper while he’s at it, if he can, after having
hunted the other vampire for decades.
His priorities become skewed when he meets Nikki and
starts to consider a relationship he thought impossible.
There was a lot about this book that it got right. We had
a very consistent internal voice, we had a developed and fairly clearly defined
world (though I find the masquerade of the world a little odd). The pacing is
really good – it runs at a nice steady rate. We have a hunt that is well maintained
– the characters make a constant effort to catch the big bad that never has
dead moments nor does it get massively distracted – not even by the romance. In fact the romance also has a good balance between pained introspection and
actually getting on with the story
It does start with a rather grandiose turn of phrase and a lot of convoluted rambling, but the book soon gets that out of its system and knives can just be knives rather than blades glowing with argent flame. Later there’s some shaky characterisation with both the big bad's persona (who is pretty much a comic book villain) as well as convoluted ways to make Nikki share her tortured past; Michael keeps telling her Jasper is attacking her through her bad memories but we've never actually seen him do that
The main problem I have with this book is that there’s
nothing shiny about it. It follows a lot of the traits and tropes I’ve seen
elsewhere. Nikki has dead parents and a tragic past with an ex that has left
her with issues and inability to trust. Michael has a tragic past and issues
and a duty that will take him away from Nikki. Neither of them think they can
fall in love but lo, love happens despite only knowing each other for a week. We
have a big bad who is very big and very bad who Michael has a personal grudge
against and he must balance his need for revenge against his love for Nikki. Nikki
is a private investigator with psychic magic powers. Michael is a vampire. I've seen it before so many times
It’s not that it’s bad – the story isn’t bad by any
stretch of the imagination. It’s just that it reads like a basic urban fantasy/paranormal
romance. There’s nothing unique here. It’s a template for so many urban
fantasies and it just hasn’t coloured outside the lines at all. Many urban
fantasies start with this – but then they embellish on top of it, they take the
basic pattern and then add their own tweak, their own style, their own unique
selling point to say why you should read them rather the gazillion and one
other books on the market that are so similar to it.
I can only assume this is because the book is a
re-release, while this is an ARC, the books were published before in
2000. Back then, it’s likely these books would be more unique and original –
now they’re kind of lost in a sea of very similar stories.
There are also some tropes in this book I don’t care for
at all, particularly related to the romance and the way Michael treats Nikki.
Firstly, the romance is horrendously fast tracked; normally I wouldn't spend
too many words on that because fast-forwarded “I just saw you and now I love
you forever can’t live without you!” is a staple in the genre. But this goes
above and beyond – Nikki and Michael are thinking about how luscious the other
is on their very first meeting while neck deep in zombies. So fast tracked is
it that Michael is already angsting about how their relationship is doomed to
fail before they even have anything resembling a relationship (18% into the
book!)
