I wrapped up the Just One Sip anthology yesterday. I've already talked about the Jennifer Ashley story here - unfortunately the other two aren't much better.
The Katie MacAlister entry suffers from an accute case of series-itis. If you aren't already familiar with her paranormal series featuring the Dark Ones, trust me when I say you will likely be lost. It seems like the author has done some extensive world building, none of which is explained and just "assumed" that the reader is already in the know. Plus, there are other issues.
The heroine has two souls. I'm not sure what is so special about this, but it apparently makes her vulnerable to the "bad guys." The hero is a banished Dark One (which is some sort of vampire) who wants revenge on the hero from Sex, Lies and Vampires (at least the author has a good web site, this info was easy to find out). But he meets the heroine and decides that she is his "Beloved" - that is they'll be linked for all eternity and she'll be able to restore his lost soul. There are also demons, an obnoxious kid, zombies and the heroine's spirit guide who speaks mangled French.
I'm not sure what the hell the French was for, since I literally could never figure out what this character was saying (not that I really wanted to know). I'm thinking it was supposed to be funny, but how funny can it be when I have no idea what the obnoxious little creature is trying to say?
For fans only, and even then the French nonsense might make your eyes roll back into your head.
The Minda Webber story had the best premise out of the bunch, but I kept fantasizing about an crazed gunman with an Uzi mowing down the lead couple. Not a good sign.
The paranormal are now walking among humans, and naturally humans are fascinated. The heroine is the host of a Jerry Springer style talk show, but she really wants to be a serious journalist. She sees her chance when she gets wind of an incubus running amok in New Orleans, raping women and feeding off of their youth (aging them rapidly to the point of death). This brings the heroine back into contact with the hero - a vampire and police detective that she used to date. They broke up when she caught him in a compromising situation.
The hero chases after her and begs her to let him explain. She screams at him and tells him to leave her alone. He eventually gets the hint, but is deeply wounded that she didn't trust him or let him explain. So we have a heroine who refuses to listen, and a hero who is now a Neanderthal because the heroine done him wrong.
Swear to God, I hope the paranormal world has marriage counselors because these two are going to need one. I liked Webber's plot and writing style - but the misunderstanding and complete lack of communication (Talk damn you! Talk!) made my eyes bleed.
All in all, very disappointing. Maybe worth of look if you're a MacAlister fan girl. Otherwise, my final grade = D.
2 comments:
Ah, darn it. I already bought this one to read the week before Halloween along with that other Halloween antho..the one with the blue cover.
The french speaking spirit guide drove me crazy and I speak enough french to understand what she was saying. It was just a big distraction to me and not funny at all.
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