karlakolumna

This book was OK. It seemed rather flat, sometimes even amateurish, to me at least. It's 2 stars, because the beginning wasn't all that bad. In fact, the first ~30-40% were somewhat enjoyable. After that not so much anymore, unfortunately...The characterisation is rather sketchy and, in my opinion, inconsistent. I never really got a feeling for the MCs, I didn't get to know them, although having read a whole book about them.Max for example is a cop, a very good one at that, so the book says at least. In the beginning he hates and despises Carter (vampire) because he kills men, women and even children without so much as batting an eyelash. Max is disgusted by him. At the same time there is this strong bond between them, call it attraction. Well, "soulmate"-attraction might be more suitable. They both are less than happy with said bond and come running to each other and accusing each other, like that: "What have you done to me?!! Nothing is the same anymore! I can't work, think, sleep anymore! Bla, bla, bla..."Then, suddenly, they fuck and subsequent to that they argue because Carter seemingly denies that there'll ever be an "Us" or a HEA. But the soulmate-thing is strong enough that they can't really stay away from each other and the next time they meet, or rather fuck, that is, everything is suddenly unicorns and pink teddybears. Carter and Max are forever in love with each other and Max suddenly wants Carter to turn him. WTH? All disgust and contempt forgotten. And the subplot with this bad vampire couple trying to take revenge on Carter is a bit...laughable? I couldn't really take it seriously. If this was a movie, I'm very sure that there would be this typical evil laughter in every scene that'd show them. [Yeah, I'm being harsh here, but this is how I felt during the read. Sorry.]The resolution of the whole revenge, the whole 'hunting-Carter-down-for-79ish-years'-conflict is really more than...--ugh. Boring. Convenient. Easy. Flat. I mean, not that it isn't painfully clear right from the beginning (when the book reveals the reason why those villains are after Carter) who really killed this poor Richard-guy. So, the whodunnit aspect is a complete fail.And Lyle's--the same Lyle who's supposed to be that bad, evil, vicious sadist--nonchalant reaction and demeanour after the great revelation (note my sarcasm) is utterly unbelievable and preposterous. I couldn't do anything but to snort and shake my head at his 'Ah, dude, my mistake. No harm done, aye?'-behaviour. And Carter's grudge against his former mortal enemy is forgotten rather fast. Sure.Oh, and the end. Really? Cheesy is one term to discribe it. Mushy is another one. I really wasn't happy with the outcome of Max's and Carter's relationship. Not to mention Lyle's. It's all very neat and nice and convenient.Another thing, for example, was [even if maybe not important to most readers ;)]: Carter needs to feed every 24 hours at least once (if I remember correctly). Therefore he chooses some nice human and sucks them empty, drains them completely. That would be 5-6 litres of blood, right?Then, later on, he can't feed on/kill other people anymore, he doesn't crave them anymore, so Max and Carter make the deal that Carter'll only drink Max's blood from then on. Male human beings are allowed to donate 500 millilitres blood every 2 months. Even if Max would donate, let's say 1.5 litres every month, which would be seriously harmful to his health, that'd leave Carter with 50 ml blood to drink per day...Even if he added banked blood , it wouldn't be very realistic for him to have 10 packets (a 500 ml) of banked blood in handy each and every day.Yes, I know, I am being very anal here. ;) But that's just how I think.There were just things that didn't seem realistic/logical (or stupid). I know, this is fantasy, but a story and its characters have to be consistent and logical in itself.So, just to be fair, I should mention that I'm not the greatest vampire/werewolves fan in general--in the M/M genre, that is. It just doesn't seem to work for me, because I always find something illogical that keeps nagging and nagging in the back of my mind during the read. ;) Then, most of them are always so damn corny, lacking plot and character depth. Less plot-driven, but sex-driven. Not my taste, at all.This story was, admittedly, not as bad as many others of its genre--hence the 2 stars. Although it wasn't awful, it just wasn't really my thing.If you're a fan of M/M vamps and wolves fiction (and like the stuff that's out there), then please, don't mind me and read this book. I'm very sure many of you'll enjoy it. :)