Friday, June 29, 2007

Kiss of Crimson - Lara Adrian

Lara Adrian - Midnight Breeds series
1. Kiss of Midnight - Lucan and Gabrielle (see previous commentary)
2. Kiss of Crimson - Dante and Tess

Category: Dark Chocolate - loved by some, just "meh" to me (C-,D+)
Flame Height: 6” out of 9”

Look, if you don't read many paranormals, you'll probably love this series. And I tried to be tactful (well, kinda sorta) in my commentary of Kiss of Midnight. But after reading Kiss of Crimson, the velvet gloves are coming off...

How the hell did they get J.R. Ward to give a cover blurb for what is essentially a retelling of her BDB books with a little Christine Feehan thrown in for good measure?! This plain and simply should be called the Black Dagger Carpathians. Yeah, it’s that close, so close that I found myself playing “How do I copy thee? Let me count the ways…” as I was reading this last one.

Does this sound familiar? Bad-Ass Warrior class of vampires, misunderstood by the “civilian” vampire class; living together in an extravagant mansion whose underground facilities include a training room, separate living suites, an infirmary, and whose hanger sized garage contains top of the line sports cars and SUVs; only certain women with psychic abilities can be Breedmates (aka Carpathian lifemates); coming back in from their nightly patrol (where they hunt vamps who have succumbed to Bloodlust and turned Rogue- Carpathians again) to congregate in the opulent dining room; and now even a “pet” civilian cop who is partnered with the warrior that has visions of the future.

Perversely, I’ll probably continue to buy this series just because that “How do I copy thee?” game is so damn addictive!! Go figure. Hell, I'm not even sure what category to place this book in- I've changed it back and forth a couple of times between M&Ms and Dark Chocolate. The story is entertaining, no question about that, but it's not entertaining enough that I can overlook the complete lack of originality. I need Lara to show me SOMETHING I haven't read before.
Piquant Opines: RT, AAR,

6 comments:

nita said...

I thought Ward copied some of Sherrilyn Kenyon's heroes.. And now someone is copying Ward?? !#$^#@!@^&%$#@!!!!!!!
Have romance lost all originality and become Hollywood now? Not that I'm complaining about Ward.

Anonymous said...

Hey Babz! I can't say that I ever made a Kenyon-Ward connection, but there's no missing the Ward and Feehan aspects in Adrian's world building. If she had, at the very least, given me memorable character development, I could have found SOME redeeming grace in the books.

I really hate NOT liking a book.

nita said...

Oh you know..
Wrath & Acheron, 6'8", wraparound sunglasses..
Rhage & Talon, blonde, gets all the chicks, goes through them like underwear (IF they wear underwear at all)..
Zarek & Zsadist, most tortured, both names starts with Z..
I could list a lot more things but it takes more effort than I can spare right now :D
Never read Feehan, didn't connect with her writing, tried so hard to finish a book and then the guy turned into a BIRD??!? Not. Sexy.

I hate not liking a book too :(
I spend about 30 dollars of my currency to get a book - when I don't like it, I'm actually heart broken lol.

Anonymous said...

AHA! That's why I didn't catch the similarities- I was looking at the world building, not the individual characters.

Of course, maybe that's because I have trouble keeping track of all the individual characters. *blush*

nita said...

Most prolly I'm just being nitpicky. Don't worry - after so many vamp series in the market, the characters do blur into each other. I just don't bother remembering until the next book I read in the series ;D

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