REVIEW: THIRST BY JACQUELYN FRANK

A NEW SERIES BY JACQUELYN FRANK!

WHAT THE BOOK'S ABOUT:

A hidden society of vampires—and the humans they love—are at the heart of this opening novel in a biting, all-original series from the New York Times bestselling author of the Nightwalkers saga.

Rafe DaSilva is an energy vampire, soaking up nourishment from the sun—and, only when necessary, drawing sweet sustenance from humans who are pure in body and spirit. As the right-hand man to his queen, Rafe is a key player at a historic peace summit in New York City, which will unite the vampire nations against a common threat: the sycophants, who feed on humanity and kill indiscriminately. But Rafe’s fascination with a beautiful blond police detective may put everything at risk.

Detective Renee Holden has never worked a homicide quite like this. The victim has twin puncture wounds on his neck, and the only eyewitness swears she saw a vampire. Now’s definitely not the time to get distracted by a seductive stranger. But the suave, darkly austere, exotically handsome Rafe DaSilva is a hard man to deny, and as Renee falls under his spell, she also falls prey to his enemies. Desperate to protect her, Rafe lifts the veil on a shadow realm she can only visit—a world of intoxicating power, terrifying dangers, and forbidden pleasures.

ADD TO GOODREADS

PREORDER ON (RELEASES JAN 17) AMAZON

MY REVIEW:

I think the world of this author and the worlds she creates. I was thrilled to see a new series coming out (The Energy Vampires) and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I was fortunate enough to be able to get an ARC. Sadly, this one was just okay for me. On the up side there was melt-the-page heat between the hero/Heroine which the cover does seem to advertise, although perhaps not as hawt as the cover. This aspect of the story came through as seems to be the strength of this author’s writing. The plotline wasn’t unique with the heroine a cop working a murder that looks to be done by a vampire (or sycophant as the gone-bad vamps are referred to in the novel) and the hero who is a vampire who hunts or polices the “bad” vampires.

I had issues with conflicting characterization points for both characters. Rafe was initially made out to be a womanizing rebel, but then when he interacts with the heroine he is over-the-top polite and not at all the bad boy I expected. Maybe this was the author's attempt at having him be an antiquated guy of a different era? For the heroine she’s a cop but doesn’t come off jaded or as tough as I’d expect for a NYC Homicide detective.  On the technical side there significant use of passive phrasing.

This story has echoes of Christine Feehan’s Carpathian series in it, although the method of inhaling essences was intriguing.

Was it a fun read? Yes. Was it like Frank’s other series? No. Would I recommend this: Yes to someone who has not read a lot of other vampire PNR series.