Review: love this series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 14, 2012
JR Rain changes it up a little bit yet again...hot on the heals of American Vampire, Samantha Moon is left with a horrible decision..one that will quite literally change her dying son's life forever...Does she let him continue on his predestined path as described in the previous novel or does she use her own vampiric powers to change him into a monster like herself with only the hope that the medallion left to her by her maker MIGHT be able to reverse the vampire curse?There are no cases here.  Samantha isn't tracking down drug lords or kidnap victims.  Samantha is trying her best to make a decision that could very well turn her son into what has cursed her life in many ways for the past six years.Enter her support system.  Kingsley Fulcrum: would be boyfriend, defender of the not always innocent.  He and Samantha have their problems but he knows things about the supernatural that she can't even begin to guess at.  Will he help her in her find the information she seeks about the medallion even though he's not fully in support of her decision?  Fang: could be boyfriend and wanna be vamp.  Always there for support when she needs him..as a friend..but can they be more?  Detective Sherbet (probably my favorite supporting character in the whole book): he's a good detective...a great detective...he's always there for Sam in his way as well but is his intuitive nature starting to chip away at Sam's cover story?  We also get a decent dose of Detective Hannen who's like Sam and interesting in her own right.We also get one thing in this book that's been lacking in the other novels: an honest to goodness arch nemesis type of villain.  A mysterious figure with a french accent and a bow tie that's been following Samantha around.  He's going to get close to her..too close.  He also reveals some things to Samantha that makes her question some of those that are closest to her.This book, once again, was a lot of fun to read.  Even though she's a vampire, JR Rain makes it easy for the reader to relate what she's going through in this book..the self doubt and loathing..the uncertainty about her romantic life..the confusion over her new powers and what she's to do with them.I really thought hard about how to rate this book.  While I enjoyed it a great deal there are certain things that nag at me.  I've noticed some oversights over the course of the series.  Kingsley said he loved Samantha in the very first novel, but in this one he professes that he's falling for her.  In the first book Danny's secretary dumped him and Samantha was happy about that..in the second book he's still dating her.  Nit picking for sure but sometimes the state of these characters' emotions can be made confusing by it.Also, Sam's growing powers.  She finally has an adversary that she just can't blow through like she has in the previous three books, but I can see her getting too powerful at some point.  There's a certain other series in a similar genre that is written by another author (who I shall not name here) that seems to just get new powers to suit any situation to pull their posterior from the fire.  I truly hope that this series doesn't degrade to that.  But I have faith in Mr. Rain, I don't think he would fall down that particular pit.In addition, the handling of the potential love triangle going on with Sam and her two love interests.  Without getting into any spoilers (although I'm sure someone's mentioned something along these lines in previous reviews..as usual I'm late to the party!), while it doesn't seem like there's a 100% clear 'winner' yet, one has made some headway in gaining Samantha's heart and the other just seemed to be pushed to the back burner with a 'sorry pal...no dice right now' sort of move.  A little disappointing.Anyway, those are some minor quibbles.  Don't let them deter you from reading another fun and witty emotional roller coaster chapter in Samantha's life!  Or should I say, un life =)