Harbinger of Books

I went into reading this book with caution after hearing some bad reviews, so perhaps I had low expectations. Having said that I really liked it! It is different from the first one and by that I mean Riley is different, to me that is ok though because she has been bitten and as such she is changed.

Now back to the book, this book picks up where Afterlight (book #1) leaves off. Riley Poe is recovering from a strigoi vampire attack (Victorian and Valerian had bitten her in the first book which injected their toxin into her blood). She has been taken to an island for detoxification, Riley is having a lot of issues on one hand she wants blood and continuously attacks everyone, she needs sex (thank goodness for Eli :-)), she discovers a connection to Victorian and another vampire who is killing people. Now that she has all of these new tendencies she joins with the Dupree family to keep people safe from vampires.

This book was kind of conflicting for me on the one hand I like Eli and Riley together but I cannot help but to think their relationship is shallow and based on sex. I mean there was a lot of “oh he is so freakin beautiful it makes my heart hurt” and yet they do not trust each other each other with their secrets, for me there was no spark, something was missing. Again this could be because Riley is battling for who she is in her new body, so I am willing to let that slide and see what happens. Then there is Victorian, he keeps entering her mind, she says he does it with force and he says she wants him there. In the end for me it was creepy not to mention a little annoying, it seems that no one could help Riley in finding away to build a defense or even suggest how to keep him out of her mind. I am not a fan of this story line and I hope to see it come to an end in the next book I really do not want a love triangle.
As for the action for some reason I keep thinking the movie Fight club combined with free running so personally it worked out seeing that I liked both. I loved the scenes at the beach and again in Charleston, at times there was a bit of a lull but the end made up for it. The new introduction of vampires was interesting. The plot did not really move a long that much in this story but it feels like things are being set up for the next book. For example Eli learns some really important information, which he kinds of shares but I get the feeling or hope there is more. The murdering vampire is still out there free plus it ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. The author does gives you a little teaser at the end which I did not read so perhaps that clues you in perhaps not.

Things I did not care for was the Dupree family of mind readers, I mean at times I wondered why bother saying anything seems like they would just shift through as they saw the need. Then the use of slang, honestly I do not mind bro, dude, or even sick just use it correctly, for example “Dude that fighter was so sick OMG” BAM perfect in the book at times it came across very forced, which for me makes it noticeable. I never really got why a French 200 year old vampire would use that type of slang…that did not fit for me. My final issue that kind of weirded me out was about Riley all the vamps think she is a “babe” why is that? Also why does she think she is a badass? Because she takes on fights on her own instead of calling on people to help her? Or is it because of her juvenile delinquent past when she smoked weed and hung with the delinquent kids. Now her brother seemed like a badass, he was taking people down has plenty of energy. Perhaps my questions will be answered in the next one.

Overall I liked it and thought it was a decent sequel. It was not as good as the first but not a bad second book. Despite the issues I still think it is a solid 4 stars mostly because the book held my attention and it kept me curious about the characters.