Review: Bonnie, Or How A Vampire's Mate SHOULD Be Written
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 5, 2013
I am a vampire snob. I do not apologize for that. Most of what passes for "vampire romance" is painfully bad to me--rehashing the same old tropes (or worse creating a new mythos that the author doesn't bother to stick to). I like my vampires to be amoral (and sometimes immoral) beings who know they're the apex predator. If they're angsty it's because they have a great reason to be (like having lived through some of the worst depredations perpetrated by man). I don't need them driving Escalades with cutesy-spelled names.I also appreciate it when the vampires aren't boringly Eurocentric/white, as if the contemporary world looks like a Leave It to Beaver re-run. Hence Shiree McCarver's Eternally I Do which features a powerful Japanese clan of blood-drinkers. McCarver is pretty well-known in IR circles for prominently featuring Asian men as romantic leads(paired with black women) and needless to say as a huge fan of Gackt, Hyde, Versailles Philharmonic Quintet and the now-disbanded D'espairs Ray, seeing Asian men as sexy and desirable is right up my alley. Ms. McCarver not only writes Asian men, but she seems to be well-versed in both the language and the mores of Asian culture, for she writes her characters with respect. If you're looking for socially-inept nerds or chop-socky types, her novels are not for you.Eternally I Do is the sexy adventurous tale of Hide, a Japanese vampire with a dark past who winds up in the morgue after a harrowing battle with a rogue group of vampires. He comes to the attention of forensic anthropologist Dr. Bonnie Hudson, a woman with her own scars. A random discovery by her assistant Ramon sets the wheels in motion once she realizes the body on the slab isn't dead (well, he is but not in the way he should be). Bonnie finds herself drawn to the no-longer dead hottie who seems to be regenerating right in front of her and she risks her life to save him from the final death. He repays the favor, since she was now at death's door, by turning her into his vampire mate--a fate the feisty doctor isn't exactly thrilled with at first.McCarver's vampires behave like vampires in most of the ways that matter--they can be passionate, violent, overbearing. And while McCarver creates her own mythos, unlike a certain author whose vamps sparkle, for the most part she actually sticks to the myth (though the pregnancy angle really needed to be introduced earlier on instead of popping up when I did not expect it, even though the author did a far better job at explaining how it was possible).I liked the character of Bonnie. I read a review where she was considered "ghetto". I don't know who wrote that or if they even know the difference between assertive and ghetto (bet they don't), but Bonnie's sass and refusal to be treated with kid gloves fits into what I think a vampire mate should behave like. Some paranormal authors think that pairing an aggressive alpha male with a wimpy heroine is cute, but to me it makes no sense. I've said it before--one cannot afford to behave like The Perils of Pauline when surrounded by beings who drink blood or claws and just might want to kill you. In Bonnie's case, her assertiveness would save her life since Hide has an eons-old enemy who'd like nothing better than to destroy his chance at happiness. Hide sometimes made me want to hit him; he was so used to having his way, being the head vampire, and having the full-figured Bonnie around definitely made for fireworks. It bothered me how he wouldn't tell Bonnie everything she needed to know in order to survive this new world she found herself in, all in the guise of protecting her. Then again his actions make perfect sense because he's never been in love before.The sex scenes are trademark Shiree McCarver, which means they are asbestos-gloves HOT. If you have issues with a few non-traditional acts, then you may want to skip this one. What I enjoyed is that her characters aren't just having sex for the sake of kinking up the book.My only FAIL moment and why I didn't rate this a five-star book was the character of Ramon, the typically flamboyant gay male--a trope that makes my back teeth ache. Granted, he was definitely funny, but it would be nice when one is breaking new ground when it comes to creating complex characters that one doesn't fall back on trite stereotypes. The other problem was that I think this is meant to be a series because there are some loose ends that haven't been wrapped up yet. I have a feeling we'll be meeting the members of Obsidian Opus soon...I hope.