Review: Decent story, should've been longer
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 6, 2013
When OWEA agent Beatrice Davis is awakened in the wee hours of the morning by a knock on her door, the last person who she expects to encounter is her vampire ex-lover, Claude Desmairis. Claude is also one of the last people she wants to see, but Beatrice has a secret power: she has visions of deaths that assist her in crime solving, and Claude desperately needs her help. As they work together, old sparks start flying again, making Beatrice wonder if maybe, this time around, she and Claude might have a shot.This novella will definitely keep you on your toes! Balancing suspense with romance, Allee tells the story of two ex-lovers who struggle to stay professional and focus on the case that they need to solve, despite the lingering attraction that they feel for each other. She does a good job of portraying the romantic tension between them. As for the mystery, there are some really great plot twists involved in this, especially near the end.Be warned, this book is graphic in multiple ways! The language is frequently vulgar - the book is littered with f-bombs, and as I've mentioned in some of my other reviews, I view excessive profanity as a sign of weak writing, because I feel that there are usually more eloquent and tasteful means of expression, even in times of volatile anger. There are also some pretty violent scenes and the sex scenes are fairly explicit, as well. Allee makes no claims to target a young audience, but if you are sensitive to vulgar language, violence, or sex, you may want to skip this.Prior to reading this, I did not realize it was part of a series, and as a result, I was definitely confused at times. There were some instances where Allee very briefly explained certain key elements of background information, such as the fuction of the OWEA and the nature of interactions between humans and supernatural creatures. However, I am confident that if you read the other three books in the series prior to reading this book, you won't experience any of these problems. While it is possible to understand the gist of the story without reading the other books, I think that it would definitely be helpful to read them beforehand and if I have time, I would eventually like to read the rest of the series.I wish that this book had been written as a novel rather than a novella. I think that it has really great potential as a full-length novel - Allee could have gone more in-depth with the mystery, as well as the romance between Claude and Beatrice. I feel that because of the brevity of the story, the romance was very rushed and felt undeveloped. I wish that Allee had chosen to write a longer story so that she could have developed these elements more.Overall, this is a quick but satisfying read! It meets all of the requirements of a novella and if you're looking for something that you can start and finish in a brief amount of time, but still have a good story, I think that this would be a good pick for you.Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy of this novella from Entangled Publishing, but in no way did this influence my review of the book.