Friday 8 June 2007

Kiss of Crimson by Lara Adrian

This book starts off with the author boasting about her upmarket lifestyle. I'm so glad my money's going to a worthy cause.

What defines a paranormal romance? Basically soft-core and bloody violence. After reading Crimson I felt quite nauseous from so much of both.

What is missing from this novel is a sense of peace. There is so much going on. On every page. Busy, busy, busy. Much too busy. In the end I didn't care about any of them. Including the main couple. Still. That's better than when I spent a whole week obsessing about Z and Bella after reading LA.

A word about mind control. Vampires who use mind control on their intended female 'mates' are all pussy. Because it takes away free will. Mind control is not violent so it's not rape but it comes a close second. In Crimson the heroine frequently has sensual images of herself and the hero. But the reader could be unsure if those images are the due to the hero's psychic abilities or not. Just a thought. Plus. The hero, Dante, also lies his fucking head off in order to ingratiate himself with his intended. But he apologises nicely towards the end of the story. As if that excuses his behaviour. Personally I prefer the moral code of humans. Not only about telling the truth. But also about not going out and personally killing people who are different.

On the other hand I have to ask. Why are so many female authors, including this one, using a child abuse theme to entertain their readership? That is the reason why I stopped reading Eve n Roarke stories. Mind you. I've read dozens of books which feature murder but never questioned the ethics of those authors. Maybe I should have.

But at least the drug-dealer gets what he deserves in Crimson. We can only hope the same fate awaits Rhevenge. However. imo Ben's is the most interesting story in the novel. He started off with such high ideals and then descended into a complete hell. His mother truely has a loss to mourn. Unlike the cardboard Elise. I wouldn't be surprised if Ben is based on a real-life incident.

Usually I'm not a fan of novels where the reader is subjected to the POVs of several minor characters in addition to those of the main couple but the technique works quite well in Crimson.

This novel is primarily about the romance between Dante and Tess. However we also meet the newly scarred vampire warrior Rio. A civilian vampire called Sterling who will probably get his own novel sometime. I quite liked the Gen One warrior Tegan but it looks like he’s going to get it together with the extremely wimpy Elise. Pooh.
Although I expect she will have totally changed her character by the time Tegan's story is published in December. Also I'd love to read how 'blonde' tech wiz Gideon and 'mocha' Savannah became a couple. Is there a chance for Marek to be rehabilitated?

Best scene; because so much of this type of novel is told from the vampire's pov the reader doesn't always realise how truely scarey these creatures are. So for me the best scene was when Tess met Rio in all his vampire glory.

Most gross scene; the tattoo sucking sex scene with Tess n Dante ( I thought I was long past the stage where an oral sex scene would get me going..but the imagery of blood and tattoos was just...); the orgy sex scene with Chase; when Dante hears the Rogues feeding on Tess. All totally gross.

A reason I find it very hard to like this type of paranormal romance is that essentially the heroine falls in love with a person who she knows is a multiple murderer. But in Crimson the heroine was a murderer herself long before she met the hero. So really, Tess and Dante are a good match.

What I'd really like is for one novel in this series (or Ward's or Kenyon's) to feature a female human who forces a vampire warrior to be her mate and he then falls in love with her. Would this work? On the other hand. Two wrongs don't make a right.


Next. Ann Stuart.

Oh.My.God! My reviews of Crimson over on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk have been deleted. That is exactly why I created this blog. Amazon can't take less than gushing reviews of the books they sell. It's pathetic. (I wonder how I upset them)

Genre; paranormal smut. Movie rating 18; animal abuse, female brutalisation, gore, murder, violence, use of knives, use of guns, child abuse, mysticism, cursing, explicit sex, group sex, voyeurism, substance abuse.




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