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Dead Sexy

Amanda Ashley

Published 2007              353 pages

Synopsis

In a futuristic America vampires have been declared an endangered species.  They are supposed to be confined to the park, where they are fed synthetic blood and can not harm humans due to a force field that keeps the vampires in the park at night and the humans out.

A spate of brutal murders is taking place in the city both in and out of the park.  The M.O (victims drained of blood) suggests vampire attack but the bodies are also mutilated and some of the victims are vampires themselves, which the police have not seen in vampire attacks before.  They call in ex-vampire hunter Regan Delaney to investigate.

Joaquin Santiago is an ancient vampire and Master of the City.  He recognises the work of an old enemy in the spate of murders that bring Regan Delaney to the park.  Mutual attraction flares between Regan and Joaquin despite their obvious differences but this just makes Regan a new target for the murderer who still has an old score to settle with Joaquin.

The Review

This one is bad!  Initially I was worried that this book was going to be an Anita Blake clone (it was probably the whole vampire hunter meets and falls in love with the Master of the City blurb on the back of the book that gave me this idea) but it soon became apparent that this book has more problems than a less than original plot line.

I always try to provide balanced and informative reviews - tell people my opinion and let them make up their own minds about whether they want to read the book but sometimes a book comes along with so few redeeming qualities that it’s hard to give an informative review.

The setting of this book is supposed to be a futuristic America but apart from a mention of space colonies, coffee making robots and “satellite screens” (aka as TV to you or me) the setting could be America today.  The author really hasn’t put any thought, or even effort, into making this book have a realistic futuristic feel.   If a book is supposed to be set in the future the least an author can do is show us their vision of that future. 

Regan, the heroine of the story, is a strange mixture of character ideas.  On the one hand she is a fearless (ex) vampire hunter on the other hand she is so squeamish that can’t bear to see a vampire drink synthetic blood.  One wonders how she actually managed to slay any vampires if the sight of blood makes her feel ill.  Her reasons for becoming a vampire hunter are clichéd – yet again we are served up a half-baked revenge motive (a vampire killed one of her friends.)

I could go on and on about the characters, setting and plot lines that didn’t make sense but frankly I don’t see the point.

Summing up - the romance in this novel is lukewarm at best and the paranormal elements are either clichés or ill-formed and half-arsed ideas.  If you like paranormal romance there are many good authors writing quality novels – just try J.R. Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Lara Adrian, Kresley Cole or Lynsay Sands – don’t waste your time with Dead Sexy.

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