I agree with the other reviews in that Chance could have done less telling in this entry and revealed more backstory and mythos over what is obviously going to be a series. I also found the constant use of famous historical figures as vampires a bit irritating and felt she used that to "cheat" on some character development. That said, by the end I was enjoying the book enough to keep the second on my WL and I disagree with those reviews that felt the ending was a "to be continued" - there was a complete story set above an obvious series arc. There are sex scenes, they are actually in context and, unlike LKH, Chance at least understands what is interesting and anatomically possible.

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I'm a huge vampire fan, but this one didn't quite meet my expectations. It had all the ingredients, but just fell short. The plot doesn't never really gets going, because the author keeps interrupting the flow with another fight scene, and never quite explains what's going on until near the end. And the end was too abrupt, even though I know it's because this is the beginning of a series, the ending just sort of...hit, and then you were left standing there. I like a bit more of a conclusion, even with my series novels. However, the urban setting is in right now, and this is very urban, and the book has some good characters to redeem it. It certainly is worth a try--you might find you like it more than I did.

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This book is a fairly solid opening in what is obviously a series. The main characters are well drawn and the plot is intriguing. Unfortunately the author swamps those factors with an overload of useless (at this point in the series) information. There are too many extraneous characters and sub-plots splitting the reader's focus and drawing away from the main story.

The world and the characters have potential, but Chance needs to learn how to pare down her work so readers are pulled in, not drowned.

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Strong beginning to what looks like a new series by Karen Chance! This is a very fast-paced book with interesting characters and almost nonstop action. The world is solidly thought out, which is a nice change from some of the other new paranormals I've been reading lately, and it packs a good amount of plot into its 307 pages. There's a sequel, Claimed by Shadow, and I'm very interested in seeing how Cassie deals with the next phase of her life!

I've seen several comparisons of this book to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series. While there are a few surface similiarities, overall they're quite separate. I'm pleased to report that Cassie has a much firmer grip on herself -- and is thankfully much more decisive! -- than Anita ever was, even in her earlier books.

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Too much rabbit chasing at first. If you can stick with it, the story picks up and becomes much easier to follow about halfway through the book.

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I am a big urban fantasy fan, and I thought the book's premise was solid. But after the first few pages, the book quickly deteriorated into a racier version of Twilight. It read like a softcore version of a teen fantasy and has little to add to an already tired genre. Unfortunately, there are no redeeming strokes of brilliance in this book. The writing is uneven and confusing at times (maybe an attempt to add mystery to this otherwise entirely predictable novel?). The characters- including the plucky heroine- are one-dimensional and unengaging. I could barely keep from rolling my eyes as vampire after vampire inexplicably collapsed with desire over the flat, boring heroine. Pass on this one.

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For me the story seemed to start out slow compared to what I'm used to but after a few pages it picked up. I did get confused a bit here and there in the book some parts just didn't seem to be clarified enough/or not at all but it didn't interfer with the main story itself. I would have liked more in the ending but I always do so no change there. =) I guess my main issue with this book was the lack of feeling I felt after reading it to go read the next one in it's series. Normally I jump up and want to grab the next part of the series to read and with this book I didn't have that feeling.

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Very disappointed in this book. There are far too many characters with complicated names. I couldn't keep them all straight! The constant flashbacks was confusing, too. I wanted to give up on the book multiple times. I don't think I'll be continuing the series. I recommend trying other vampire/paranormal series before this one.

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