Well, I finished the book and I can't say that I was really thrilled with it. It was just a little too dark for my taste I think. It also could have been my mood. I'm not ruling out reading more in the series, but I definitely won't be listening to them because I simply could not stand the person who read this one. ( )

With little to no memory of life before but haunted with the knowledge that he lost a wife and should be mourning her lost yet unable to remember whatever feelings he may have had for her, the hero is quite content with his job as a police officer. Crimson city is a town on the edge of chaos. Werewolves running the tunnel below the city, vampires towering over in there high rise building and the humans stuck trying to regulate things in between. Tensions run high and everything hangs of the end of a needle and once night succeeds in sparking the fire that will burn them all. The hero is called to incident where a human designed Mech has apparently gone rogue and assassinated the 2 ruling parties of the Vampire assembly. His superiors deny responsibly and the hero is tasked with working with the new vampire leader to find the culprit in a sign of good faith between the species. There the hero meets the stunning heroine. After making a grave mistake in her young by changing a lover to a vampire, something that's forbidden, the heroine has been overlooked for the leadership position that's supposed to be her hers by birth right. Now that her brothers are dead, it falls to her to leader their people. But she's horribly inexperienced and in over her head. She hides it well but soon her lack of understanding of her new power becomes apparent. Though their two species are reluctant allies, the hero and heroine soon develop a deep understanding and partnership. They are very much alike they soon discover despite being so vastly different. But together they are the only thing standing between peace and war. The hero was always a level headed guy, able to listen to all sides of every story and giving loyalty to the truth rather than the humans. But as time progresses it becomes apparent that the humans have no loyalty to him. He begins to see darker and darker things from his people who claim the vampires and werewolves to be savages. And no matter how impossible their love might seem, the hero finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the heroines possession. I liked this story. I thought it was smooth in it's pacing and interesting with his level of intrigue and politics that laced well with interments of action. I really liked the hero and heroine respectively. I liked the hero with his complex balance of easy going carefree attitude and inter dark and sometimes violent tendencies. I liked the heroine being a badass vampire and fierce warrior when cornered yet still being a vulnerable and inexperienced woman who relies on the strength of the hero himself as well as her cousins. I can't say that I was over the moon in love with this book but it was a very nice story none the less. ( )

Spoilers..sort of

This was an ok story but it lacked something. I can't even really place it. Maybe it was the lack of any defining character development. It was a good story with plenty of action. Some places have you rushing to turn the pages while others are not so much. I liked the concept behind the plot and the characters were good but there were a few things that seemed left undeveloped. Like when Dain takes Fleur to meet with a werewolf. She just snapped and they fought and then she killed the wolf. You can ask why but it's not really answered and the story continues like it never happened and there weren't any reprocussions. Then Dain's partner Cyd goes missing or maybe killed but there again was no development on why or any answers. The story just moved on like it was no biggie.

Overall it was an ok read but could have been better. ( )

Dain Reston is human and a leader for B-Ops (Battlefield Operations) in charge of keeping the peace between all the conflicting species. Fleur Dumont is vampire and heir apparent to the Dumont family bred to lead the vampire people but after a youthful mistake when she turned a human to a rogue they no longer trust her. Her two half-brothers take over leadership. But when her half-brothers are killed the vampires have no choice but to make her their leader even though they still don't trust her. Dain and Fleur are forced to work together after a rash of vampire killings to try to discover who and what group is behind the murders.

Worldbuilding in paranormals can sometimes be confusing for me since I read so few of them. Crimson City had many different species and sub-species to keep straight: Vampires, humans, werewolves, rogues that are vampires that have been made from humans, and mechs that are humans with mechanical limbs. Vampire (fangs) control the sky, humans control the surface, and werewolves (dogs) control the underground. Most of the time I was able to follow all the rules but not always.

But aside from that this book seemed to have several problems, the greatest being the uneven pacing. Some scenes were gripping, dark and intense but others were ho-hum and still others were just confusing. It's always a bad sign to me when I have to flip back several pages repeatedly to figure out characters, dialogue, and worldbuilding details that I must have missed. I don't know anything about the publishing world but it seems to me that this book could have used a good editing job.

I did like Dain and to some extent, Fleur, even though I thought she was a bit weak. But I never really bought their love story. It seemed a little forced. The most intriguing characters were actually Cyd, Dain's partner, and Hayden, the rogue vampire that Fleur had 'made' in a rash moment. I am hoping that these characters appear again in the series. (Grade: C) ( )

Dark for the genre, other books in series are written by different authors.