"Holly Parrish has never met anyone like Micah Ravenwood: his dark eyes, his movie-star smile, the indefinable way he looks at her. Even when she thought he was no more than another client for her investment firm, her lust overpowered her logic."But she never expected this attraction to whisk her from her busy southern California life to a silent and eerie ghost town in Wyoming. Only vampires call the deserted place home--and one of them is Micah. He says he's brought her to Morgan Creek for her safety, that vicious creatures are hunting her. But how can Holly trust him? One look and she can see the need barely restrained behind Micah's polite words. The heat of his kiss, the pleasure of his touch--none of it can tell her whether he wants her as his lover--or his prey..."
I'm about 50 pages in and I think I already like this book more than I liked the first in this series. I feel like this is due in large part to the fact that I have already seen a great deal more from Micah's perspective than we did Saintcrow's. We met Micha in the first book and, given our first "meeting," I wasn't certain how much I would like him as a hero of his own story. He actually feels more developed with a solid backstory. Knowing what we do of his family and history (especially having a good percentage of the story told from his point of view thus far) I feel like I care about him more already. I sympathize more with him; hopefully the trend continues.
Holly is still pretty generic. She is pretty, smart, does her chores every Saturday, and loves to eat. So far, she doesn't differ very much from Kadie (other than her career) and she's still pretty generic. I hope she develops more as the story goes on.
We've also been introduced to some villains already, which is nice. I like starting a book off with an undercurrent of conflict; it makes for a better story and a more intense read. I think, perhaps, this is some of what the first book in this series was missing. Granted, Saintcrow and the rest of the vampires in Morgan Creek are technically the villains, but we don't get an external villain until much, much later in the book. This is probably why it felt like the story (and Kadie's conversations and conflict with Saintcrow) kept going in circles. There had to be something to keep the story moving until an external villain could be introduced. I like the villains thus far and I'm looking forward to the inevitable clash.
I'm hoping for a bit more of an explanation as to why Holly (who works solely in a formal business world) would be meeting a prospective new employee at a goth club. It feels a bit unbelievable and REALLY unprofessional on his part. Maybe it was a trap? I'm hoping to find out more as I continue onward.
***
I still prefer the development of Micah's character to Saintcrow's. I feel the sympathy toward him that was missing for me in the first book of this series. I care about him more. He feels more tortured, perhaps because, in some ways, he's still coming to terms with his vampire existence. Holly, on the other hand, feels very similar to Kadie (i.e. generic). They have the same reaction and mentality toward vampires (which I suppose is reasonable), the same obsession with food, and no real defining hobbies or traits (personality or physical) that set them apart or make them unique from a caricature of what, perhaps, someone expects a modern woman to be. Take away their physical descriptions and professions...and they're basically the same woman. They're both virgins (there's nothing wrong with this, but I'm definitely noticing a trend: the men are very possessive, the women are innocent virgins, there's a lot of steamy kissing, and the sex usually winds up very vanilla (nothing but missionary) -- man, does this last one make me sound like a kink, but I promise I'm not). Neither of them really seems to have a defining history or past. Both of them occupy themselves the same ways (nothing more than movies and books). Their scenes always seem to start with or involve food (usually overly-descriptive, mass quantities of food).
I still like the fact that this book has more tangible villains; it makes for a more exciting read. Even if Holly is falling a bit flat for me, I think the plot is moving well and it doesn't feel as "trapped in a cycle" as Kadie and Saintcrow's book did.
***
Well, I finished this book last night and I can safely say that I did end up liking it more than I did the first in the series. Kadie and Saintcrow played large roles in this sequel and, I can say with definitiveness now, that Kadie remains rather underdeveloped (as does the relationship between Kadie and Saintcrow). Saintcrow did gain a little bit more individuality in this book (which is surprising because he was not the male lead), so it made him a bit more interesting.
I did end up liking Micah a great deal more than Saintcrow in the first book. As a male lead, Micah was better developed, more individualized, and had a much better-explained backstory. This is probably due in large part because he's such a young vampire that he still has living human relatives. It helped show what he was like as a human and gave me a much better sense of who he was as a character. (Now, I'm not saying that the only reason Saintcrow was underdeveloped was because he had no living human relatives...there are a lot of ways he could have become more well-rounded.) He was witty and his personality suited his age. I understood his attraction to Holly a bit better than I did Saintcrow's to Kadie, but it still fell a little bit short. I'm stuck asking the same question: What makes these women so damn unique? They may be attractive and resistant to their vampiric charms, but that could be any one of hundreds, if not thousands, of women. We see very little of Holly's family life (until the very end of the book) and nothing of her friends. I felt like there was a big feud being hinted at when Holly mentioned that he father was a believer in vampires and hated them with a passion, but it never came to fruition. Holly remained pretty flat, never quite setting herself apart from any other female lead in a vampire romance novel. She loves the man; she is put off by the vampire; and she doesn't long for eternal life, but will accept it if it means she never has to leave the man she loves. (Possibly a minor spoiler: This is just a side note and I may be reading too much into this, but I REALLY cannot imagine any modern twenty-something picking fingertip veils for her bridesmaids... This choice shattered the illusion for me because it felt really dated.)
I still had a few issues with the flow of the dialogue and there were some repetitive phrases, words, and conversations that simply struck me the wrong way. This probably won't bother others as much, but I wanted to at least mention it.
I did mention before that I liked the fact that there were more tangible villains in this book. It turns out that there were a few (we're introduced to another later in the book) and this made for a more dynamic plot. However, I admit that the "big fight scenes" felt a little bit anticlimactic. The action was fairly glossed over. I didn't feel like I was watching an intense battle, rather hearing a quick account of what took place.
The last few chapters did set up the protagonists and villain for the third book in this series, which is scheduled to be released in a few weeks (and of which I also received an advanced copy in return for my honest review). If these few chapters were any indication, we're in for our most combative male lead yet. I am pretty certain I know who his female counterpart will be and I hope she matures and becomes a better-developed female lead than we've seen previously.
Overall, I liked this book more than the first in this series. I appreciate that Morgan Creek is like the vampires' base -- their haven -- and I look forward to seeing how this continues and what becomes of the town now that there's no one to take care of it. What will Saintcrow decide to do with it? The story has potential, I just hope we get to see a more dynamic female lead.
