Review: Great new series!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 13, 2012
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.Now, at the beginning of DEAD Faint, I was really confused. I felt like I was thrown into this world with little explanation. I mean, all of a sudden I had three vampire characters who were all connected, seemed to know what was going on while I was clueless, etc. I felt like I missed a book or something. Then, when I found out that this is actually book two of the series, it made sense. This isn't the type of series where each book is pretty much standalone with some overlap between books. I would definitely recommend reading DEAD Awake (which is free today on Kindle) before reading DEAD Faint. Once I figured that out and read DEAD Awake, it made a lot more sense.I absolutely loved the characters. Billie Joyce (or BJ) was one of my favorites. She's a survivor, fierce and feisty when she needs to be and she won't back down without a fight. She's also not your typical heroine. She's an older woman for one (though her age isn't exactly mentioned) and she has a very odd quirk being a vampire who faints at the sight of blood . I loved seeing her grow from a small town country girl to a sophisticated, capable woman. I love her Southern sayings and how she loves to drive Daniel crazy. I can definitely see myself in her, which helped me connect even more with her. As for Daniel, I wasn't a huge fan of him at first, but he definitely grows on you. I'm still debating who's more stubborn, him or BJ. He's an extremely old vampire, raised in a much more different time and place, which leads to part of the problems between him and BJ. There are parts of the book where I just want to smack him, but he grew on me at the end.Now, my second favorite character was Dovey Lowell, formerly Deb Stein. She and her husband Aaron were featured in the book DEAD Awake, which is the first book in this series. Dovey also reminds me of myself. She's a funny, sarcastic character and what makes her even more interesting is when you add the pregnancy hormones in. Yep, pregnant vampire makes things so much more interesting and funny. This book also featured her point of view several times, so you got to see more of the improved Dovey in this book. Aaron wasn't around as much and didn't get to see his POV, so I didn't really form an opinion about him. I did kind of like that they were more involved than secondary characters usually are, but I would have loved to see more of BJ and Daniel's development as a couple and I think it would have been nicer if the book was longer. Though there is hope that we'll see more of them in future books along with Dovey and Aaron.I loved the vampires here. While they don't sparkle and they aren't vegetarians, they also aren't cold-blooded murderers. They have problems just like humans do, though theirs are a bit different (anyone else having trouble their reflection?). There were some other interesting elements thrown in, like pregnant vampires and the crowning of a new vampire king, which I would rather have seen than just read about it happening. All in all though, while different vampire aspects are mentioned, the focus isn't so much on the paranormal element than on the romantic element. I liked their BJ and Daniel's courtship, though it didn't go too well at first. I loved when Daniel finally pulled his head out of his ass and decided to stop making me yell at him and started being the character girls would swoon over.My only real problem with the book was all the action. The blurb frankly sucked at preparing me for what I would read. So much happened that didn't tie in to the relationship or seemed to be thrown in to make it seem like it would be impossible for the two to work things out. But there weren't as many details. I mean, something huge happens to Daniel and then it's barely mentioned at all, except as a possible problem. There's little development or details. I mean, I know the focus is on their relationship, but come on. That's be like telling someone, "oh yeah, (INSERT NAME) just died", and then just walking away. I wanted to hear more about it and see it play a bigger role and it didn't. Also, while I loved seeing more of Dovey and Aaron (I hate reading series and never seeing previous characters), I also think there were times the story focused more on them than the main couple. Heck, there were times were I was more interested in Dovey than everyone else, which upset me. It's like a bride being upstaged by a bridesmaid, it's not supposed to happen.All in all though, I did greatly enjoy this book. It was cute, funny, absolutely hysterical at times, and a good read. I would definitely recommend this book to others, and I can't wait to read future books in this series. I will be featuring other books in this series this month, so stop by to hear more about this interesting series.