Anna Strong was a tough-as-nails bounty hunter, until the night she was attacked-and changed forever.
Now a vampire, Anna discovers that her long-dead brother may have had a daughter-and the girl's in serious trouble. There are some very dangerous people after her, but they're about to learn that to a bounty hunter with an unnatural thirst for blood, even the deadliest human predators are easy prey.
My Review:
Culebra is trying to teach Anna the feeding basics while she
is in Mexico and tries to persuade her to sort things out with police
chief Williams. The girlfriend of Anna's dead brother reports that her
abused daughter is missing, and her daughter's friend was murdered for
threatening to expose a paedophile teacher. Anna goes undercover at the
school.
This book was such a let down after enjoying the first one. It didn't actually feel like a vampire story...it felt more like a crime novel with a few supernatural characters thrown in. The plot is a missing teenager who may be related to Anna and a teacher who might be perving on his students. We then follow Anna going to the school to investigate, Anna finding out the suspect teacher is a shifter, Anna getting David involved in the case, Anna discovering what Carolyn has lied to her about, and the search for Trish. There is so much talk and interviewing people that it feels more like a crime novel than urban fantasy. It is slow and lacks the action and excitement that I expect in this genre.
The subject of the book is child pornography and the story is of course pretty dark and grim. This doesn't bother me but I DON'T like the implication that the rapes aren't rapes because the victims 'enjoyed' it. That seriously offends me. In the first book Anna is raped but seems to think she was more of a willing participant because she was drugged and didn't fight back. In this book a thirteen year old girl is subjected to rape and abuse but despite her terror, climaxes leading to the assumption that she was a participant and may have enjoyed it. Sounds like an escuse a rapist would use and I expect better from female authors.
I also don't like the way the character of Carolyn justifies her treatment of her daughter. It is the chip on the shoulder defence, saying that she only abused and mistreated her daughter because she didn't get the chances in life that Anna was given. Oh please. I hate that whining 'woe is me' excuse for child neglect. Plenty of single parents on low incomes do everything they can to provide for their child, putting the kids first at their own expense, not selling them into sex abuse.
I'm afraid I did not like the slowness of the plot, the way the story was put together or any of the new characters that appear. I don't like the way that Anna refuses to resolve any of her issues ie Max, so it drags on into yet another book. It was just dull. And I don't like the ideas that the author puts in the heads of her female characters and projects as normal. Actually, I didn't really like anything about this book, and I've decided not to read on with the series.
This book was such a let down after enjoying the first one. It didn't actually feel like a vampire story...it felt more like a crime novel with a few supernatural characters thrown in. The plot is a missing teenager who may be related to Anna and a teacher who might be perving on his students. We then follow Anna going to the school to investigate, Anna finding out the suspect teacher is a shifter, Anna getting David involved in the case, Anna discovering what Carolyn has lied to her about, and the search for Trish. There is so much talk and interviewing people that it feels more like a crime novel than urban fantasy. It is slow and lacks the action and excitement that I expect in this genre.
The subject of the book is child pornography and the story is of course pretty dark and grim. This doesn't bother me but I DON'T like the implication that the rapes aren't rapes because the victims 'enjoyed' it. That seriously offends me. In the first book Anna is raped but seems to think she was more of a willing participant because she was drugged and didn't fight back. In this book a thirteen year old girl is subjected to rape and abuse but despite her terror, climaxes leading to the assumption that she was a participant and may have enjoyed it. Sounds like an escuse a rapist would use and I expect better from female authors.
I also don't like the way the character of Carolyn justifies her treatment of her daughter. It is the chip on the shoulder defence, saying that she only abused and mistreated her daughter because she didn't get the chances in life that Anna was given. Oh please. I hate that whining 'woe is me' excuse for child neglect. Plenty of single parents on low incomes do everything they can to provide for their child, putting the kids first at their own expense, not selling them into sex abuse.
I'm afraid I did not like the slowness of the plot, the way the story was put together or any of the new characters that appear. I don't like the way that Anna refuses to resolve any of her issues ie Max, so it drags on into yet another book. It was just dull. And I don't like the ideas that the author puts in the heads of her female characters and projects as normal. Actually, I didn't really like anything about this book, and I've decided not to read on with the series.
