Horror

EMBRACE THE NIGHT, by Amanda Ashley aka Madeline Baker.: Genre: Horror, but found in the Romance section; Availability: IP, in bookstores now; Special Notes: *DG; Rating:; Review: Embrace the Night runs counter to the usual romance stereotype. Baker's book is generally less explicit than, say, the Harlequin Phantom, has much more realistic characters (even with the vampire hero), and demonstrates very decent writing. The plot stalls on a basic problem which most vampire fiction fights with--vampire Gabriel loves the fair young Sara, but how can light and dark mix? The book has some nice touches: the early portrayal of Sara in a wheelchair is intriguing, and the humor of having a modern-day vampire watch the "Bram's Stoker's 'Dracula' " film is worth a giggle. The main character, a Davis Gaines prototype, is compelling enough to make the reader yearn for more of him. The major problem for Phantom fans in this novel is that it isn't really a Phantom novel; there is one Phantomy scene, and the theme of the "unlovable" reaching for the beautiful, but the real hook for Phantom fans is the Davis Gaines character, not a direct and consistent link to the Phantom story itself.

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REDEMPTION, by Annee Cartier

Genre: Horror, but found in the Romance section

Availability: IP as of February, 1997; a second book is to come out, pending contract

Special Notes: *DG, *GN

Rating:

Review: Redemption struggles with the same issues that all vampire romance must deal with--what is one to do when an immortal and mortal love--but fails to satisfactorily solve the problem. Moreover, the story is skimpy and confusing, relying often on incredible or simply silly devices to forward such "plot" as there is. I did not find the characters particularly appealing; the male, Marcus, abused "nay" to an extent that annoyed me, and the female lead was an over-the-top portrayal of the anachronistically independent female of old Britain. I'll let Nicola, my first guest reviewer, take it from there!

******

From Nicola: Redemption is apparently inspired by Grant Norman's Phantom and Davis Gaines' Phantom. Well, I haven't seen Davis Gaines, but I must say categorically that Marcus the vampire has nothing whatsoever to do with Grant Norman's Phantom!

Redemption starts in a promising fashion, but quickly descends into what I would call 'trash romance'. Any 'conflict' between the characters quickly disappears, and most of the book is spent dealing with the practical problems of Marcus being a vampire; for example, a long explanation is given about his feeding off corpses. Writing about vampires in a romantic fashion is something of a 'tightrope'; go too far into detail and the result is humorous rather than sensual. Alas, that is what happens in Redemption. Marcus is not sensual, or alluring- vampires sinking their teeth into young maidens are alluring, but Marcus is rather weak and feeds off corpses.

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OBSESSION, POSSESSION, CONFESSION, and ETERNITY by Lorie Herter: Genre: Horror, but found in the Romance section; Availability: OP, try UB; Special Notes: *MC; Rating:; Review: The vampire series by Lorie Herter is notable for Phantom fans for its inclusion of one of the most blatant Michael Crawford characters in Phantom lit. "Matthew" appears in POSSESSION and is involved in the story up to the final chapter in ETERNITY. All four books work from the same plot, begun in OBSESSION: David, a vampire and a modern-day playwright, meets sweet and pure Veronica. He initiates her (a blood bond, for those of you not up on your vampire vocabularly), but they soon discover that the intense nocturnal relationship is causing problems with Veronica's daylight life. So, David sends Veronica away for 10 years, to grow up and rethink her immediate decision for him to make her a vampire, too. In POSSESSION, David attempts to deal with his self-imposed misery, while his vampire friend, the dazzling Darienne, grows interested in the lead actor of David's very Phantomy musical, one Matthew McDowall. While David's relationship with Veronica moves closer to happiness in CONFESSION and ETERNITY, Darienne's relationship with Matthew in these books rides storm after storm.
I found myself liking these books against my will. The vampires, David and Darienne, grow on you, although the sickeningly sweet Veronica and all the hordes of women falling over themselves to be David's love slaves irritated me. The Michael character was undeniable and Herter mercifully does not hide him from the reader for long. But my enjoyment of these elements of the books did not keep me from being severely bothered with other aspects of the quartet. To begin with, the sex was just annoying. Every other page, the characters fell on each other in detail so graphic that I was simply bored. Herter also falls into the trap of equating great sex with great love; ultimately, she even argues that great sex is something to give up a hope of heaven for. Somehow, even though these books were admittedly not written for deep reading, that idea did not find a sympathetic note in me. The ease with which the mortals decided to engage in vampiric relations disturbed me; I would think it would take me more than a few minutes to decide that drinking blood for eternity is my thing! But most of all, the piggishness Herter unfortunately attributes to her Michael Crawford character made me burn. "Matthew" and Darienne engage in a "just sex, no strings" relationship for several years, and after that time, Matthew still doesn't *get* that maybe the girl is hanging around for something other than the sex! He then gets mad when, after years of being his mistress, this woman dares to express another kind of affection to him. Since my interest in these books was mainly the Matthew character, Herter's mistreatment of Matthew did the most severe injury to my enjoyment of the books.

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