Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)First the pros:
- I really enjoyed our heroine, Vicky. She was powerful, funny, smart and kicked all kinds of tail. Not quite as awesome as my current favorite, Kate Daniels, but I would say that she's not too far off.
- The plot was interesting, moved quickly and concluded well. The menace was believable, the dramatic elements were clever and I just liked it. I thought the premise was an interesting twist on the old favorite. And that is getting much harder to do lately.
- World-building. We didn't get to see as much of the world as I would have liked, since the focus was mainly on the action, but what we saw was interesting and original.
All this counts for a lot, but with the urban fantasy market as crowded as it is, it takes that extra something for a book to go from good to great in my view. And the one, massive con was something I couldn't move past: the cast.
I did not like any of the supporting cast. They were, almost without exception, untrustworthy, evil or plain old jerks and they made the book a lot less believable. The one I took the most exception to, and will use as the example to illustrate my point, is Tina.
Tina the zombie sidekick is actually a potentially interesting and original new character. Unfortunately Tina completely lacked charm. Every time she appeared on the page I wanted someone, anyone, to slap the heck out of her. Not for being a smartass, but for consistently pulling crap that could get our heroine killed. She's a danger to pretty much everyone around her, literally from the first chapter. The heroine can probably empathize, since she was something like that as a teenager, but Vicky's actions as a teenager actually DID cause a tragedy. Every time Tina appeared and did something stupid that could get the heroine killed I wondered why the heroine would ever agree to train her, knowing that the attitude could get someone killed. It didn't make any sense. I cant imagine her associating with, much less training, someone who doesn't listen, will STEAL from her, and is a danger to her AND her clients. She has experienced the consequences of such a lack of control and unwillingness to listen in her past and out to know better. It ripped me right out of the story, as I spent the time thinking WTF!
Tina was the character that aggravated me the most, but far from the only one. The client and politicians were a cliche, the lawyer boyfriend plain unlikable, and the human love interest was boring. If we must have a romance (and I know it's pretty much a given in this genre- I don't mind it when it's done well), I hope the author will introduce a viable third candidate in the next book. The closest I came to really liking any character other than the lead was in flashbacks to Vicky's dead relatives.
I will certainly check out the reviews of the second book in this series when it is published. I hope that further development will make the cast a bit more interesting and fun to read about. There are just too many good urban fantasy books out there right now to buy one that doesn't get me interested from the beginning. If the cast issues are addressed, I will absolutely buy the next book.
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