Review: Engaging Paranormal Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 3, 2011
When you talk about reading paranormal romance, it's extremely easy to start snickering and laughing. Paranormal romance? BWA HA HA HA HA. But stop and look at some of the most popular books in the past 10 years - they're basically paranormal romances, and are amazingly good ones (even if I do have serious issues with Meyer's liberal use of dashes instead of commas).Kiss of Darkness is a paranormal romance. It centers on a woman named Winter. Winter is considered a hybrid - half human, half demon. She wasn't born that way, but accepted the demon into her body in order to become strong enough to fight them. In Winter's world there are all sorts of different immortals - lupines, demons, and nightwalkers.Marcus is the leader of the nightwalkers, someone that Winter normally doesn't have anything to do with. Unfortunately something is destroying the hybrids, and the lupines and hybrids need to work with the nightwalkers, something that Winter is not happy about. Marcus, however, is, as he is immediately aware of who Winter is to him.THE PROS: The writing isn't the strongest writing I've ever seen, but it definitely kicks Meyer's butt (NO DASHES!!!!). The character of Winter is an extremely strong one, and Marcus is just as strong. Even better, however, is that there are so many side plots and other characters that you want to know about, making you actually want to read the next story, even though it may not center around Winter and Marcus. That, my friends, is the sign of an author who knows what they're doing.THE CONS: This isn't, unfortunately, a flawless story. Winter seems so strong, but yet seems to bend almost too easily when time comes. A little outburst or a long heart-to-heart between she and Marcus would have been appreciated and would have made the situation a little more believable. Wait - I'm talking about hybrids and nightwalkers and I want believability? Yes, dang it, I do want emotional believability.And unfortunately I found the final battle a bit too, well, short, and this is coming from someone who doesn't love to watch or read about battles that are too long.And, finally, I left the book feeling as though Loribelle Hunt had a difficult time finding that perfect balance between dialogue and action. But it is a hard thing to balance, especially when you're dealing with paranormal situations on top of everything.THE VERDICT: Kiss of Darkness was actually a very strong and engaging story. I had a hard time putting my Kindle down when I was reading it, and found myself connecting with more than just the two main characters, and wanting to find out what happened to many of them after the novel ended, which is, to me, the sign of a great story.