Upon the Midnight Clear by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Don’t be fooled by the gorgeous male on the cover. This is a horrible horrible nasty book featuring a rich whiney supremely self-centered small-minded jerk who thinks because he hands out money to his friends and relatives they should give him their undying love, gratitude and loyalty. And then hates them and the world in general when they don’t. News flash. When I get my salary every month it does not mean I love the corporation I work for nor am I particularly grateful for it.

The jerk’s name is Aidan. He’s about 100 times worse than an 80s Lowell hero. Aidan’s brother Donnie is in jail for lying to the tabloids about Aidan.!! (That could only happen to one of life’s serial losers.) So what does Aidan want to do? He sets out to kill Donnie. But will he end up in jail. Like hell. Because he’s a multi-multi millionaire. But the reader’s sympathies are supposed to lie with rich Aidan. There’s an absolute ton of this kind of stuff in the novel;

"(Aidan) was so tired of people playing him, using him to get what they wanted, then casting him aside the minute they got what they wanted."

Tons and tons of how Aidan is the only loyal, good, sincere person in the world. You know. This type of thing happens to many non-rich people in life too. I’ve had friends cry on my shoulder about how their partners or bosses have used them for money, career advancement. Sure they are hurt. But they get over it and on with their lives. To obsess about each bad life experience and plot vengeance or death is the type of thing only a social misfit or weirdo would do. Like postal killers or Klebold. People who can’t take not being the centre of the universe. People who resent other people being happy without them. And that’s the hero of this book!! Which is supposed to be a vampire action-romance.

But why am I complaining? I rumbled this author long ago. She puts her bad life-experiences in her novels, churns them through some kind of ‘this is how it should have been’ machine in her brain. And then foists them on her readers. But it just shows how narrow-minded and self-obsessed she’s become. Which is just like some rich people who believe that ordinary citizens should show them some kind of deference for the single fact that they are rich. I’m going to be even ruder. I used to work in special-ed. Believe me. The lack of ability to see any point of view other than their own is very much a characteristic of this client group.

So why did I pick up the book? Basically I forgot about the immature revenge fantasies the author often writes and just thought ‘greek gods and goddesses plus vampires plus good romance.’ I should have thought ‘petty trailer park mind-set.’ At least I just got it from the library. And the cover was very nice.

dnf.

I know that the author has a whole bunch of loyal fans. I leave it to one of them to write a glowing review.