Review: Not a huge fan
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 09 20, 2013
Valerie Craig has a good reason to hate vampires - her marriage fell apart when her husband became obsessed with turning into one. Her bias makes her the least appropriate person to work for the VLO (Vampire Liaison Office), but she's good at her job. She has to be, if she wants garner political influence and put a stop to all vampire transformations for good.Val's black and white world view is turned on its head when she meets vampire royalty, Kade Rollins. She knew about the savagery the Vampire Prince was capable of even before she walked into his home - so why does she feel drawn to him, instead of disgusted? Like Val, Kade's past is a litany of events which give him reason to resent humans. Abused by his human carers as a child and exposed to the worst dregs of human society, Kade finds the whole race revolting.When the tentative truce between the two races is threatened the VLO puts Val on the case: a string of human victims have turned up, seemingly drained dry by a deranged vampires. She knows she needs to get the ruling vampires - the ancients - on her side if she's going to get anywhere with the investigation. To both Val and Kade's dismay, the ancients appoint Kade as their liaison, forcing the two to work together - but can they get past their differences?We're introduced to the character of Val in the first chapter. Right off the bat, McCallister paints her as tough and brave - she walks right into a Vampire den with little fuss. It seemed like this heroine was going to be a good one, but I found that the more we find out about her the less I liked her. Professionally, Val is my kind of gal. She's a successful, high ranking professional who gets to call the shots. On a personal level, she's far less endearing - fragile, naive and snobbish. After a few chapters, I was left rolling my eyes at her internal monologue: particularly when she takes such issue with Kade's language. She is so ill at ease with his brashness that she ends up coming across as sheltered and un-worldly.I liked Kade as a character, despite him being just as archetypal as Val. He's a bad-boy Vampire Prince with a devil may care attitude and a foul mouth - what makes him interesting though are his secrets. I won't give anything away, but suffice it to say he's got the best of intentions and a lot on his plate. As the book progresses, more and more aspects of his life and personality are revealed. Kade's Bad Mouth is the namesake for this book, and I understand why but I didn't actually find his language that abrasive - maybe because I have some pretty bad language myself. His banter with Val was fun to read, though when it came time to talk about his feelings his dialogue seemed to become less natural.The whole romance is worked around the murder investigation. For most of the book, I felt that the investigation was just an excuse to throw the two characters together and watch the sparks fly - and boy did they! Whatever qualms I have about the characters themselves, there was absolutely nothing wrong with their chemistry. Kade and Val didn't jump straight into the sack, which was a good move by McCallister. It allowed her to ramp up the sexual tension, which makes their lovin' so much hotter when it does actually happen.The world building was a valiant effort, but I had trouble keeping track of the different kinds of vampire. There were different castes and within those castes there were vampires who could reproduce and then there were the human servants and crazy vampires... all of whom had roman sounding names that I couldn't keep straight.I haven't seen many fresh takes on vampires lately, and Bad Mouth was no exception. This book wasn't highly original, but it added an element of bureaucracy to the vampire world that I hadn't seen before. Vampires live side by side with humans, with the humans even being able to put in applications to be turned. It all made for an interesting dynamic.Bad Mouth wasn't a perfect read but it had its charms. If I wasn't tasked with picking it apart, certain aspects wouldn't have bothered me so much. If you're out of ideas for reading, give it a go. It was a sexy, fun read. Be warned though, the language may be too much for some.