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Book Review: All I Want For Christmas Is a Vampire By Kerrelyn Sparks (Series, #5)
Summary:
Toni never meant to wind up working as a daytime security guard for vampires. She meant to be spending her December focusing on finishing up her masters degree so she and her best friend Sabrina would be one step closer to their dream of running a high-quality orphanage. But Sabrina was attacked and her claims that vampires orchestrated the attack has led to her uncle locking her up in a mental institution. Toni is determined to prove to Sabrina’s uncle that vampires are real, so she has gone undercover guarding the good vampires seeking some definitive way to prove their existence. Much as she wants to hate vampires, a certain Scottish highlander vamp named Ian has a way of making her feel very much alive.
Review:
Since I received this book as a present and there was no indication on the cover, I had no idea it’s the fifth book in the series until I was partway in and did a little bit of investigating. So, I haven’t read any of the other books in the series.
Of course, I don’t particularly think I would want to. The book starts out strongly. Toni is a character who it is easy to identify with. She’s a young adult with dreams and struggling with her self-esteem via a list of positive affirmations she says every morning. She is fiercely loyal and intelligent. Toni’s character does develop throughout the book, unfortunately not in a good way. Instead of realizing her own strength, she now has a whole new set of people–vampires and shape-shifters–to feel inferior to.
The vampire world that Sparks creates is simply not appealing. She sets up two groups of vampires–the good guys and the bad guys, or as the good vampires call them, the “Malcontents.” The Malcontents enjoy making others feel fear and pain and want to kill off all of the good vampires. The good vampires, no kidding, have their own priest and Mass. Yeah, you read that right, the vampires are Catholic. WTF?! That’s almost as bad as vampires that sparkle.
Additionally, the good vampires seem to have a thing for marrying mortals, and the leader of the good vampires has come up with a way to splice male vamps’ genetic material so that the mortal mother can give birth to a child who is half-vampire. Naturally these children have super-human abilities, such as levitating, but they also seem to be able to miraculously heal the sick. Reading these scenes gave me the same feeling as fingernails on chalkboard.
On the other hand, the romance portion of the plot is actually quite good. Toni’s and Ian’s witty banter reads realistically, and their sex scenes are fun.
If you’re just after the romance element and won’t mind the world Sparks has created, you’ll enjoy the book. All others should stick to Charlaine Harris and Nora Roberts.
2.5 out of 5 stars
Source: Gift from a friend
Previous Books in Series:
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire
Vamps and the City
Be Still My Vampire Heart
The Undead Next Door
Book Review: Dead Until Dark By Charlaine Harris
Since I watched the first season of True Blood and loved it, I decided to read the book the first season is based on. This was an interesting reversal for me, since usually I’ve read a book then seen the tv show/movie that is made from it. Anyway, this review naturally contains comparisons between the two, so be warned there are spoilers for both Dead Until Dark and the first season of True Blood.
Summary:
Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in a bar in a small town in Louisiana, has been wanting to meet a vampire ever since they came out of the coffin a few years ago. She gets her chance when Bill Compton, a vampire who was made right after the Civil War, moves to her town of Bon Temps. Bill is in turn intrigued by Sookie, because she is different from other humans–she can read minds. They start dating, but it’s not always easy to date a vampire–especially when local women known to hook-up with them are being murdered by an unknown killer.
Review:
Charlaine Harris’s strength as a romance novelist is definitely witty conversations between our heroine and the various male characters in the books. They are witty and come across remarkably real considering the paranormalness of the plot. She also sets scenes well. I’ve never been to Louisiana, but I could just feel the humidity in the air as Sookie partook in various night adventures.
Something that bothered me when watching True Blood was I just couldn’t understand what Sookie found appealing in Bill. I find him dull, boring, and ugly. In the book, though, it is abundantly clear that what is so appealing about Bill is that Sookie can relax around him since she can’t read his mind. The amount she relaxes in scenes with just him is palpable. I therefore understand why she chooses to overlook his various faults.
The book is written in first-person, and I think this was an unfortunate choice. It limits our ability to see everything that is going on in Sookie’s world. Most notably missing is Jason’s storyline. In True Blood vampire blood is sold as a drug, V, and Jason becomes addicted to it. Thus, his odd behavior with Sookie is understandable. In the book though we only hear hints of V being used by anyone and certainly not by Jason. Jason is just a douchebag. This limits the levels of story in the book, and I missed the multiple storylines.
*spoiler warning*
The end of Dead Until Dark almost makes up for this though. In True Blood the murderer comes for Sookie, and she is saved by Bill and her boss, Sam. In the book though Sookie is left entirely on her own and saves herself. She finds the faces the murderer alone and defeats him. She finds her inner strength and just keeps fighting back. The murderer even says that the Stackhouse women were the only ones to fight back (he also killed her grandmother). They didn’t just lay back and let it happen. That’s what makes Sookie such a great romance heroine–she is strong and independent. She doesn’t need her relationship with Bill, but she does want it. This makes their romance much more fun.
*end spoiler*
Finally, if you’re a romance novel reader, you might be wondering about the quality of the sex scenes. Well, they do exist, and they are not corny. However, they also just aren’t that exciting. Harris keeps them short and to the point. No witty, fun double entendres are used, either, which is one of my personal favorite aspects of romance novels. This book isn’t one to read for the sex scenes; it’s one to read for the storyline.
If you could mash up the best parts of Dead Until Dark with the best parts of True Blood, you would have a truly amazing story. Unfortunately, both versions have flaws that hold them back from excellence. Dead Until Dark is worth reading if you enjoy paranormal romance. If you just want to read the books because you like True Blood for anything but the main Sookie storyline, though, don’t bother reading the books.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Sources: I bought Dead Until Dark and Netflixed True Blood.
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