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I'm a bit conflicted about this book.
First of all, the sex and sexuality in this gives me the vibes of going in search of your first porn and typing BOOBS into a browser.
Early on, like, first couple of pages, the FMC ventures to free some human hostages from vampires, does it in a very badass way too, but then, upon examining the beaten up women, she casually remarks (in her head) that they were probably r*ped. I don't know how to explain it, but it honestly felt like she was commenting on the weather.
On her way home, she meets a naked vampire, covered in mud at her door. She immediately thinks about how hot he is, then upon finding out he's obscenely rich, she casually remarks that she hasn't fucked a realrealrich dude yet. Later on, when she gets shot, literally dying on the ground, half her body going numb, she hears his voice and gets aroused (and don't even get me started on the getting shot thing, and how much of a non-issue that was).
Now, onto the actual sex. And we're 15% into the book, mind you. Our FMC is a half-werewolf. In this universe, werewolves get increasingly aroused a week before full moon and that culminates into a mating frenzy on the night of the full moon. We are currently in that week. So our FMC is walking around thinking thirsty thoughts whenever her two reasonable braincells take a break. To get some clarity of thought back, I believe, she goes to a nonhuman-only bar, wearing scraps of clothing, a g-string (and thank god we left those in the early 2000s) and 6 inch heels. That is considered wearing a lot, because most of the patrons at the club are naked and going at it on various flat surfaces, right there on the main floor. She then proceeds to have wild sex with one of her two semi-regular (but only realrich) partners for two hours, leaves the bar, meets another one of her semi-regular partners and gets horny again. At this point, all this sexual content felt like a mud to wade through to get to the plot. Chemistry? We don't know her.
SPEAKING OF THEL PLOT. All the while our FMC is daydreaming about sex, having sex and planning sex, her brother is presumably missing and she's presumably trying to figure out what happened. The priorities in here were truly something.
Now onto the things I liked:
- a surprising queer rep in a 2006 book: FMC's brother has two male sexual partners. when talking to the mud-covered vampire dude, we also get a comment that often times, vampires over a couple hundred years old tend to swing both ways. so yay.
- the worldbuilding was shaping up to be pretty interesting. we get some politics surrounding nonhumans, a nonhuman law enforcement, snippets of unique pack politics, some futuristic technology.
- when she wasn't thinking about sex, the FMC seemed reasonable enough (if emotionally flat ).
All in all, this felt like a gritty suspense smushed together with cheesy 90s porn and emotional depth of a puddle. From what I've read in other reviews, it only gets worse on all fronts, so I'm noping out.
First of all, the sex and sexuality in this gives me the vibes of going in search of your first porn and typing BOOBS into a browser.
Early on, like, first couple of pages, the FMC ventures to free some human hostages from vampires, does it in a very badass way too, but then, upon examining the beaten up women, she casually remarks (in her head) that they were probably r*ped. I don't know how to explain it, but it honestly felt like she was commenting on the weather.
Now, onto the actual sex. And we're 15% into the book, mind you. Our FMC is a half-werewolf. In this universe, werewolves get increasingly aroused a week before full moon and that culminates into a mating frenzy on the night of the full moon. We are currently in that week. So our FMC is walking around thinking thirsty thoughts whenever her two reasonable braincells take a break. To get some clarity of thought back, I believe, she goes to a nonhuman-only bar, wearing scraps of clothing, a g-string (and thank god we left those in the early 2000s) and 6 inch heels. That is considered wearing a lot, because most of the patrons at the club are naked and going at it on various flat surfaces, right there on the main floor. She then proceeds to have wild sex with one of her two semi-regular (but only realrich) partners for two hours, leaves the bar, meets another one of her semi-regular partners and gets horny again. At this point, all this sexual content felt like a mud to wade through to get to the plot. Chemistry? We don't know her.
SPEAKING OF THEL PLOT. All the while our FMC is daydreaming about sex, having sex and planning sex, her brother is presumably missing and she's presumably trying to figure out what happened. The priorities in here were truly something.
Now onto the things I liked:
- a surprising queer rep in a 2006 book: FMC's brother has two male sexual partners. when talking to the mud-covered vampire dude, we also get a comment that often times, vampires over a couple hundred years old tend to swing both ways. so yay.
- the worldbuilding was shaping up to be pretty interesting. we get some politics surrounding nonhumans, a nonhuman law enforcement, snippets of unique pack politics, some futuristic technology.
- when she wasn't thinking about sex, the FMC seemed reasonable enough (if emotionally flat ).
All in all, this felt like a gritty suspense smushed together with cheesy 90s porn and emotional depth of a puddle. From what I've read in other reviews, it only gets worse on all fronts, so I'm noping out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Gun violence, Violence
Minor: Rape