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What pleased me about this book:

I picked this book up on a whim and was delighted to find an honestly good, hot story. I finished it in the same day I unpacked it from the shipping box.

Victor has a job he doesn’t care much for, a talent that makes his life a misery, and the depressing realization that there isn’t much better for him out there. He spends most of his days in a drugged-out haze to help deal with the ghosts and doesn’t have any friends. He’s also gay in a traditionally homophobic career and not entirely comfortable with that either. He could easily come off a self-pitying whiner who spends pages dwelling on the suffering of his life, but instead he is portrayed as a sympathetic, likable guy who just isn’t happy with his life — and with good reason.

Victor’s love interest, Jacob Marks, while not a particularly complex character, presents a perfect counter-point to Vic’s awkwardness with his grinning self-confidence. He’s handsome, talented, capable, likes his life and his job — Vic’s baffled “and this hunk wants to be with ME?” attitude is understandable and easy to connect with, but at the same time, we can see what Jacob finds so appealing about him. It’s enjoyable to watch their relationship develop and Vic struggling to figure out his place in it. I was never left with that annoyed sense of “wish-fulfillment” that I get from stories with overly bland characters attracting overly amazing love interests.

The plot is fun and nicely paced. It’s no mind twister, but it will draw you right in and keep you entertained and interested in what will happen next right up until the very end. There are no holes or inconsistence, and it’s not constantly put on the shelf for the sake of sex.

Now about the Sex…

This is no traditional romance filled with scenes of ever-building passions leading to a final, firework cumulation between the two characters. Jacob and Victor’s relationship is dirty back-room hip-grinding from the get go, and the deeper feelings and connections start developing from there on. The sex scene themselves are numerous and fantastic. They run short, sweet, and hot, and are joyfully free of silly euphemisms or meandering internal monologues on “feelings”. They never overwhelm the plot or take place of good character development.

I loved all the side characters; they were as well handled as the main character and were never marginalized for the sake of the main romance.

Overall, I highly recommend this book for a good, fun read.

Well, half of one at least and for him and his ninja-trained older brother, half is plenty. Especially when the non-human side of Cal’s family tree has been hunting him down for four years, no matter how fast and far the two brothers run to escape them. You see, the real monsters have a big plan in the works and Cal is the key to it all — whether he likes it or not.

Trolls and elves…but not the way you were thinking.

Despite it’s supernatural/horror inspired title and the short appearances of both vampires and werewolves in it’s pages, “Nightlife” is much more of an Urban Fantasy, complete with a troll under Brooklyn bridge, bogles eating muggers in Central Park, a banshee enjoying a stay in an upscale New York hotel, and the infamous Robin Goodfellow himself selling used cars.

But where the names behind the creatures are familiar, the creatures themselves are not. “Nighlife” eschews the traditional concepts of elves and faeries that permeate the fantasy genre and goes for a more monstrous, demonic take that fits well with the dark and quirky atmosphere of the novel. Elves are not high-brow, pointy-eared aristocrats armed with swords and arrows, but red-eyed, sharp toothed bringers of mayhem and evil who dwell a in hellish sub-dimension of suffering. The troll is a terror of suffocating tentacles and the overwhelming reek of rot and death. The resulting effect is a compelling mix of familiarity and newness; you feel like you know this world, but you don’t.

The narrator of the story, Cal, is a sharp and sarcastic teenager with the duel afflictions not knowing when to shut-up and an attitude problem that may or may not be related to his half-demonic heritage. He blames himself for the life his brother, Niko, left behind him to protect him and is eternally grateful for that love and protections, but this doesn’t stop him from nettling big brother to death. He’s had a shitty life and doesn’t entirely like himself (courtesy of a mother that hated him and the fear of the monster he could become) and despite that, struggles fiercely to survive.

In short, Cal is a smart-talking bundle of ass-backwards coping mechanisms and black humor, but he makes for a fun read.

Niko’s controlled, almost prissy, manner and biting humor is a perfect counterpoint to Cal’s wit. Unfortunately, in the earlier chapters of the book, you get the impression that this is the only reason he’s there; the banter between Niko and Cal is so perfectly timed that it feels like a scripted variety show. Luckily though, this improves as the story goes on. Niko begins to stand out as more of a character and their relationship is believably portrayed as siblings who’ve only ever had each other to depend on. Admittedly, Niko doesn’t develop much further past “ass-kicking ninja who likes books, eats obsessively healthy, hates stupidity, and can snark his little brother into submission”, but given that this is ultimately Cal’s story and he is self-centered teenager, it’s minor issue.

Several other eye-catching characters also make appearances to help or hinder the duo. Robin Goodfellow (or Puck, or Pan; they’re all pretty much the same beast), is a vain, randy fellow with a mouth that won’t stop and a hidden heart of gold; George, a teenage girl who’ll read your future in exchange for a milkshake; Raffety the healer and his dog-that-really-isn’t.

In the latter half of the story, the narration makes an abrupt shift and becomes from the point of view of one of the villains.

The concept itself is exciting and different, but the execution was a little shallow. The villain is one-dimensional — and he’s supposed to be. He is literally an embodiment of evil, arrogance, self-indulgence, and destruction. As a conventional fairy-tale style bad guy, this is just fine. As the main narrator of a novel with lots of gray areas, it made immersion into his part of the story a little difficult. His actions of destruction and thoughts of murder and chaos were so casual to him that instead of going “oh no, he’s really nasty!”, I felt more like I was reading about a normal guy changing the oil on his car. I would have enjoyed to see a little more “conflict” between his personality and Cal’s, or even more of Cal’s morals mixing in with his. It was still entertaining, but not nearly as engaging as the rest of the book.

Taken for what it is, “Nightlife” is a delight. It addresses many familiar concepts — what it means to be human or a monster, devotion to family, the loneliness that comes with centuries of life, be happy with the moment you have — in a fast-paced, off-beat setting, with clever, snappy narration that is bound to inspire a snicker or two out of you.

I was surprised and mildly disappointed to discover that it was a “Vampire Hunter” type novel, and then in retrospect wondered why I was. Nearly all supernatural stories with female main characters are “Vampire Hunters”.

For those not into this sub-genre; a “Vampire Hunter” story is classified by a main female character in a world where supernatural exists, she is involved in it, and hunts vampires — sometimes repeatedly as a job/calling, other times as a rare incident born of necessity. She is always loved by and loves at least one vampire. She has some skill, disability, or power that makes her stand out from humans and often other supernaturals, putting her in the position of being both desirable to those that can use her and utterly alone. She’s a strong, kick-ass character despite her emotional hang-ups, and when the shit is on the line, she is the only one who can tip the balance in the favor of the good guys.

She may also be loved by no less than two other men. She is drawn to them in turn, yet can’t decide which one she wants and is often half-assed about sending them away when she does make up her mind. She will continue to go to them for help even after they’ve “broken up”, allowing for further drama/romantic tension between them.

In case you couldn’t tell, the majority of “Vampire Hunter” novels are also Romances.

“Blood Bound” falls into all of the above. Main character Mercedes “Mercy” Thompson is a coyote shapeshifter raised by a pack of werewolves. Because she’s a special type of shapeshifter that isn’t tied into the moon’s cycles and doesn’t run the risk of being taken over by her inner beast, she doesn’t completely fit in with them. She can also resist the powers of vampires and see ghosts, so the bloodsuckers aren’t that fond of her either.

On the normal end of life, she works as a mechanic and lives in an old trailer with Love Interest #1, aka Sam. Sam is the son of the Marrok (the top werewolf above all other packs) and has been lusting after Mercy since they were teenagers. Mostly because he thinks her womb would make a good place for his babies. They dated for a while and had a pretty bad break-up; possibly the first book better explains why they’re living together a decade later, because it seemed doubtful to me. Sam is a doctor, but apparently doesn’t pay much in rent, because Mercy frequently worries about being able to cover the bills or to repair the vampire-caused damage to the outside of her trailer. (Or she’s too stubborn to allow him to contribute, that’s a possibility too.)

The trailer is neighbors with Love Interest #2, aka Adam the leader of the local werewolf pack. Mercy rescued him and his daughter in the previous book, at which point he declared her his mate in front of the entire pack and she hasn’t been entirely sure what to do about it since then. Both Adam and Sam play tough dominate types around her, alternately “grrr-ing” at each other and trying to protect and coddle her. In the grand scheme of things, I like Adam more than Sam, because he’s more into looking after Mercy and less into growling at Sam for being near her — and I like Mercy less for being wishy-washy with her feelings about them.

Love interest #3 is Stefan the “nice” vampire and is shockingly the least annoying of the love interests. He’s played off as a very secondary interest for the majority of the book and you’re left guessing whether he feels platonic or romantic affection for her up until the end. He’s also the primary push of the plot.

Oh right, the plot.

It’s actually pretty entertaining. You got a demon-ridden sorcerer turned into a vampire and causing mass destruction because of it. Stefan is asked to investigate and drags Mercy along in coyote-form to both contribute to his bad-guy image and in hopes that her vampire-magic-resisting abilities will be of use. It goes worse and better than planned and death pretty much abounds.

The author wins points for non-annoying take on vampires. She managed to make Stefan the Good Vampire without either diluting how evil vampires are in her world, or making him a whiny prat. It’s also clear that ‘good’ is a subjective phrase, for while Stefan is better than the others in how he keeps his humans, he’s still also collecting the needy and downtrodden who won’t be missed and feeding off of them.

If you’re a fan of “Vampire Hunter” books, this one will satisfy you. If that isn’t your thing, you probably won’t care for it.

Opinion: I am a sucker for good werewolf stories, especially since so many of them are the same old dreg that everyone writes. The background for Blood Trail isn’t overly unique or amazing, but the werewolves (in my little world) make up for everything. They’re more animal than human; they solve the issue of clothing getting in the way of shifting by simply not wearing any when in their own home; the children hunt and eat rats and frogs; and they mark their territory in a very canine way. I haven’t seen the equivalent of it in supernatural books yet. Additionally, the main female character is interesting, if not the most stellar charactrization ever, and the vampire is even better. Worth reading if supernatural/horror is your kink