Review: Not What I Expected---Disliked Most Of The Characters
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 13, 2012
The "Vampire Assassin League" boxed set by Jackie Ivie was comprised of four novellas. I kept hoping I would like at least one of them, but I disliked all of them and was sorry I purchased them. Part of the problem was that I assumed the Assassin League was going to be comprised of the "good guys" killing off the "bad guys", but this was not the case. The assassins were hit men contracted out to whomever could pay their high fees. Linda Howard once had an unrepentant hit man as one of her "heroes", and I hated it in her book, and I hate it in Ms. Ivie's books. I want my heroes to be the good guys or at least reformed characters, and I couldn't get past the fact that they were not.The characters in the four novellas were, for the most part, very unlikeable. In the four pairings, at least one character in each was either thoroughly obnoxious, bitchy, overbearing, too stupid to live, or a combination of all of those traits. I just could not warm up to them.The quality of the writing mechanics was very good, there were no obvious errors, and the writing flowed smoothly. The idea that every vampire has one potential soul mate has been done by other writers, but Ms. Ivie created her own spin on it, and this was an interesting component of her assassin's world. Similarly, the organisation of hunters out to destroy all vampires has been done by others, and yet Ms. Ivie infuses her own touches into these enemies of her vampires.Ms. Ivie writes well, and anyone who can get past the fact that her heroes are hit men or that some of her characters have less than endearing personality traits might enjoy these novellas. Let's face it, we don't all like the same things. So while I can appreciate that many people might love these books, I really disliked them. I debated giving more stars, since the books did have some positives. Fairly or not, though, two stars more accurately reflect my personal response to the books.