Night's Cold Kiss, by Tracey O'Hara

I'm a little bit behind on my reviews, folks, so I'm hoping to get a lot of them up for you over the next couple of weeks. I'm also going to add a couple more things to the site - review criteria, etc.

I'd read several reviews for this book before it came out, so I was so pleased to find a copy of my own when I was in Canada. Here's what the back cover says:

For centuries war raged between the humans and Aeternus vampires - until courageous efforts on both sides forged a fragile peace. But the rogue Necrodreniacs will never be controlled - addicted as they are to the death-high... and bloody chaos.

Since witnessing the murder of her mother, Antoinette Petrescu has burned with fiery hatred for the vampire race, even for Christian Laroque, the noble, dangerously handsome Aeternus who rescued her. Now an elite Venator, Antoinette must reluctantly accept Christian's help to achieve her vengeance - even as he plots to use the beautiful, unsuspecting warrior as bait to draw out the bloodthirsty dreniacs.

As you all should've guessed by now, I'm a big fan of vampire romance stories, so you won't be surprised that I liked this book.

This story has a great opening chapter - readers are pulled straight into Antoinette's daily life, as she stalks then fights with one of the evil Necrodrenics, or just dreniacs for short. It's clear she's good at her job of hunting them. We also meet Christian, who is watching the lair Antoinette is about to attack. He's passingly curious about her, and fate soon leads them to be working together. The two are very different, and sparks fly immediately - despite the fact that they are working towards the same goal, they have very different motivations.

To start with, I didn't really like Antoinette as a person - she's very prejudiced against vampires, and, even if she thinks she has good reason for it, I hate prejudice. Christian and his friends soon make her reconsider, though, and her initial resentment of Christian turns to a passion that makes for some quite interesting situations.

This is essentially a murder mystery. They know who the bad guy is - it's tracking him that's the problem, and working out where the other bits and pieces fit in to the story. Just as big a part of the story, though (if not more) is the relationship between Christian and Antoinette. While it was a bit predictable that they would get together, I didn't mind that - I like that in these books, it's why I read them, so it wasn't an issue for me. It annoyed me a bit how much Antoinette fought against the relationship. She gets angry too quickly, and still lets her rage and prejudice get in the way.

I liked the relationship Antoinette formed with Viktor, Christian's best friend - they get quite close, and she lets herself be normal with him, and enjoys his company. I wished she could give that easy acceptance to Christian, too.

The story was very enjoyable, but there was something about the writing that just got to me a little bit. Something about it just didn't quite seem to click for me, but it wasn't anywhere near enough for me to put the book down, and I'll definitely be picking up the sequel when it comes out. The book stands very well on it's own, so I'm curious about what will happen in the next book. There is a lot of unsettlement in the politics of Antoinette's world, so I'm hoping to read more about that, and see what becomes of some of their organisations after the revelations and events in NCK.

A good book for paranormal romance fans, although it is quite a dark story, I would definitely recommend this book. I give it 7 out of 10 stars.