Binah the Bold review: The Truth About Vampires by Theresa Meyers

Paperback: 238 pages
Price: $5.25
ISBN: 978-0-373-61854-5
Released: Feb 15, 2011
Publisher: Harlequin Nocturne (What were you guys THINKING??)
Author's Website: Here.
Buy it: Amazon (please don't)
Obtained: Via Authors After Dark swagbag (YAY let me just tell you it was GREAT and be warned that's the last positive bit for this review)
Genre: Paranormal Romance Count Chocula Angst
Series: Sons of Midnight
Book Order:
1. The Truth About Vampires
2. The Vampire Who Loved Me
(3. Please Tell Me This Series Doesn't Continue Past That Because OH GOD WHYYYY)

All her life, Seattle reporter Kristin Reed sought her breakout story. She never thought she'd find it in the crimson lair of a real-life creature of the night. Kristin never believed vampires existed—until with dark brooding eyes and a decadent chocolate scent, Dmitri Dionotte called out to her….

Dmitri and his clan's true nature was cloaked in secrecy until a warring vampire order threatened their existence. Kristin was just the woman he needed. She couldn't resist their story…or Dmitri. Her blood pulsed hot and furious when he touched her, and with his kiss, all logic fled. But each night she spent with her vampire lover brought her closer to death and destruction. A death not even an immortal could triumph over.

My Rating: Two bottles of tequila and a shot to the temple because the only way to fix this is to pretend it never happened. Got that? It never happened.

My Opinion: If you've read this far into the review, you already know my opinion. (My opinion is BAD.) Now that we have that out of the way, let me expound upon that for you.

Other than smelling like chocolate, the hero is pretty generic. I didn't hate him - I didn't like him, either. He's the "oh woe is me, for I am pretty and immortal" type of vampire (which is... all right, I suppose, if you're into that) and the "let me help you, little lady, ha ha you're trying to be an independent, resourceful human, that is just adorable AND DISAPPROVED. I TAKE CARE OF YOU NOW." Can you tell it annoyed me?

Our heroine starts off promising (she's a reporter, woman trying to get ahead in a man's world, yadda yadda) and very quickly and disappointingly devolves into TSTL.*

There's some kind of plot, but really I don't remember much of it. I've been trying to review this damn book for over a month now and the pain has just died down enough for me to give you the highlights (if I recall correctly):

- Vampires can teleport

- Vampires can teleport objects

- This leads to several scenes of clothing magically teleporting off & on (Not. Joking.)

- Big Badguy Vampire looks like Spike (of Buffy fame)

- So basically he looks like Billy Idol

- Am I the only one who doesn't find that very intimidating?

- Also, he's killing people because he serves (wait for it...) the greek goddess Eros. Who is half vampire.

- Please hold, must stop the blood coming out of my ears.

- Where was I? Oh, right. The heroine writes a piece that vampires are real, which her editor accepts without question, and the vampires (who basically hired her) completely fail to check. This results in mass chaos and rioting all over Seattle and numerous vampires are beheaded in the streets. The heroine is quite surprised by this, despite the fact that she outlined all the ways vampires are horribly dangerous in her article. (See? TSTL.)

You get the idea. Of course, there is more to the story (sex) but it wasn't really worth telling all of you about (mediocre sex).

I read it for a laugh, almost DNF'ed but hung on in case there was something good at the end. There wasn't.

Learn from my mistakes!

*Too Stupid To Live

Tori's Review: Grave Dance by Kalayna Price

Released: July 5, 2011
Paperback: 400 pages
Price: $7.99
Publisher: Penguin
Source: Publisher
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Alex Craft 
Buy: Amazon

Add this book to your Goodreads shelf

After a month of down time, Grave Witch Alex Craft is ready to get back to solving murders by raising the dead. With her love life in turmoil, Alex is eager for the distractions of work. But when her new case forces her to overuse her magic, it might be the last mystery the Grave Witch ever gets to solve...

My Rating:

My Opinion:
I am suffering from a horrible cold/sinus infection as I write this, so please excuse me if I sound incoherent at any point in this review.

GRAVE DANCE, by Kalayna Price, is the second book in the Alex Craft series. Alex is a grave witch, and a quirky one at that. Between book one and two, so many discoveries are made--including her powers evolving (or perhaps manifesting would be a better word?) and learning of her heritage. Some may view all of these additions as over the top, and I admit that some moments in GRAVE DANCE made me roll my eyes, but I do not feel that these changes will ultimately ruin the story for readers... as it may in some other books.

While I did enjoy this book, it did not blow me away like its predecessor. There was one primary reason why I grew exasperated with the title--which I will state below--but despite my exasperation (and the intense desire to fling the book away at one point), I simply couldn't. I needed to know what happened next, and if I didn't, my life would suck until I did know. That alone is proof that while I may not approve of what is occurring within the novel's pages, Kalayna is a kick ass author and one I will follow with the utmost fangirly dedication.

The bad: the love triangle this time around infuriated me. In GRAVE WITCH (GW), readers were introduced to both love interests (Falin and Death). Like I said in my other review, I equally liked both men--though I was leaning more towards Death. In GRAVE DANCE (GD), there was no contest; Death had stolen my heart.

I felt that, while he did not appear as often as I would have liked, Death was a lot more developed in GD than Falin. Death has a vivacity about him that Falin lacks. Falin, I've noticed, is a lot more two dimensional in comparison. He's either injured, trying to hit on Alex, or he's depressed/pissed off. It worked for him in GW, but in GD, it made him seem like the weakest link amongst all the characters.

My frustrations--as a Death/Alex shipper--elevated after each scene where Alex kept fawning over the fae. She kept trying to be logical about the entire situation, but she would literally turn into jello whenever Falin touched her. And considering how Death was not shy about revealing his affections... I don't know, I was disappointed in Alex. Meanwhile, she would get flustered around Death--who didn't manhandle her--but she would mostly avoid her feelings regarding our mystery man.

The good: Death! What can I say, that guy is one sexy character. There were a lot of cool action scenes that kept me glued to the pages, and secondary characters that I've begun to like in GW made appearances. I enjoyed the descriptions of all the realms and the effects Alex's magic had on her and the environment when she tapped into her power.

My favorite part, despite my exasperation with Alex/Falin/Death, was learning more about faerie. The ending of the book was interesting in that regard, and I think the descriptions truly added another intriguing element to this series.

I also want to kick that soul reaper in the face for saying what he said to Alex by the end of the book. UNACCEPTABLE!

The Alex Craft series is one of those new urban fantasies that has captured this unsuspecting reader's attention. I would be stupid not to recommend this series to other readers who are searching for a great UF to read.


Series Order:
1. Grave Witch (Tori's Review)
2. Grace Dance
3. Grave Memory (Tori's Review)