A review by kikiandarrowsfishshelf
The Angry Angel by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Christopher H. Bing

2.0

Vampires do seem to fastinate us, don't they? How many incarnations has Dracula gone though? In fact, he still live while those who supposedly killed him are long forgotten. Is it the sense of power that attracts reads? Is it the outsider idea?

There's a paper in this.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is far better known for her long lasting (the longest running vampire series btw) series about Count St. Germain. While Yarbro does use her vampire as a quasi and at times out right, romantic lead, she never forgets that he is in fact a vampire. There are references made to the evil deeds that Count commited during his mad time. Yarbro herself has even gone on record as saying that she will not write about that time in the Count's "life" because neither she nor her readers would like the Count. At the very least, Yarbo is aware of the fact that vampires can be bad ass. This makes her different from the sea, actually, the swamp of wounded soul vampires that over populated today's urban fantasy (or paranormal romance). You know the vampires I'm talking about. They sparkle; they're wounded souls; they're the master of the city until they get whipped by the heroine of the novel. The fact that they suck blood is just a tiny, teeny, minus. They aren't bad people. (This last is true. Vampires are undead, not people).

You know, those vampires who have less bite than your kitty cat.

Shoot, they have less of a bite than a mostiquotio. Hate those bloodsuckers.

Yarbro has never written those.

Which should serve her in good stead in this series.

Yarbro knows her vampire history, both in terms of folklore and in terms of literature. Her Count might be a nice guy, now, but I sure wouldn't want him angry at me. In this series, Yarbro intended to give the history of Dracula's wives. Yes, I said Dracula's wives. Those three lovely undead ladies who almost vamped (or vamped. I'm not 100% sure where their teeth were) Jonathan Harker in [b:Dracula|4915891|Dracula|Bram Stoker|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411h-OZQtbL._SL75_.jpg|3165724]. The same ones that Van Hesling had a hard tim steeling himself up to kill. The women that Dracula loved until he turned them into his undead brides. They really have little more than a brief walk on in the novel, a few lines, and they eat a baby.

They don't seem very nice, and yet they have inspired back story upon back story. Undead women are sexy. It must have something to do with the sucking bit, the sucking the blood that is.

The dedicated Yarbro reader will know that Yarbro's books in The Sisters of the Night were heavily edited and the author has disvowed any connection to the book. I've only reaed this one. It is not bad. It's blah. It's okay. It's nothing to write home about, and if Yarbro's name hadn't been on the cover, I wouldn't have known that she had anything to do with it. It doesn't read like her.

If you like Yarbro, skip this series and read in her Dracula inspired short story in [b:Dracula in London|72504|Dracula in London|P.N. Elrod|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170815525s/72504.jpg|70190]