I'm stepping out of my comfort zone a bit in picking up Crimson City, but I thought I might as well start somewhere in delving for the first time into the realm of urban fantasy/paranormal, and this book seemed as good as any. I don't know how original or formulaic Crimson City might be, but I really enjoyed the world building that Liz Maverick accomplishes in this first instalment of the series. The relations between humans, vampires, and werewolves were set up very well, grabbing my attention with questions of inter-species conflicts and tensions. As for the romance, I think it paled in comparison to the fantasy and mystery elements of the book, and was its weakest aspect. Also, after creating such an interesting world, I thought that the book failed to deliver on its promise and mostly fell flat by the end. ( )

I've heard many compare this series to Underworld, and having not read any of the rest of the series (yet) I can't speak for it as a whole. As a stand alone book, however, this one can't be compared. The werewolves are barely mentioned in this book.

While I very much like the idea of Crimson City, a futuristic LA where the three races (vampires, humans & werewolves) must live in a delicate symbiosis, I feel it left something to be desired. For a novel set in a futuristic society/world this book greatly lacked in the descriptive scene setting a look for in a book. What few descriptions I got mostly concerned the clothing of Fleur, the heroine, and the same redundant descriptions of the state of her hair. I would have liked to know more about the physical state of the city, the weather, the true scene setting.

As far as the romance is concerned it was predictable, seriously lacking in the Romeo and Juliet-like qualities I was lead to believe would be in play. In the end it felt as if this was nothing more than a surface attempt at riding the coat-tails of some stronger grounded futuristic romances.

I will be reading the full series to give it a chance, it is not unenjoyable, just predictable and missing one of the elements of futurism I feel is needed to establish a good setting for a full series. ( )

Sigh... I'm still trying to fill the void in my reading life that the current Anita Blake books have left. I had such high hopes for this series. I loved the idea of having different writers for each book in the series but having the same setting and characters. Unfortunately, here is yet another paranormal series that has fallen flat for me.

The story takes place in an alternate reality L.A. nicknamed Crimson City after the last war between species. The species in question are Werewolves, Humans and Vampires. Currently their is a tentative peace between the species but when a human killing machine (a mech) takes out the two head vampires leaving our heroine Fleur (dela something or other) as a defacto leader, Crimson City is teetering on the brink of another species war.

Dain is a member of some kind of night patrol for the military down on the humans level and for reasons I still don't understand (don't leaders of one society generally go talk other leaders when crap hits the fan?) Fleur and Dain form an alliance to try and figure out who sent the mech in the first place and who is responsible for all the random killings of vampires and humans.

My first problem with this book is that the romance between the h/h was really weak. Outside of the fact they were both ridiculously attractive I can't figure out why these two fell in love with one another and I certainly didn't see it. There was plenty of mental lusting going before the declaration of love but it didn't seem like the author put a whole lot of effort into the relationship. I still wasn't discouraged though I like lots of books that don't even have a relationship as long as the plot is interesting and action fast paced I'll still enjoy it.

As far as plot and action go this book was pretty meh. I don't know how to explain it but I couldn't get into the fighting scenes I just didn't care. I ended up skimming the last half of this book because it was just not holding my attention.

I don't know if I will pick up the next book or not even though it's by a different author I really don't care what happens to the characters or Crimson City. If your looking for an exciting paranormal series you may want to look elsewhere. ( )

Vampire and human fall in love. Human was a murderer, memories blanked, turned into a mech, memories blanked, and turned back into a human.

PACING: fast paced; quick read; description slightly more than dialogue; CHARACTERIZATION: most important aspect; focus on two primary characters, but with community of intertwined lives; series characters; important secondary characters; strong tertiary characters; roguish; sympathetic; emotional involvement; reader identification; introspective; STORYLINE: character-centered; strong issues; lots of action; multiple plot lines; resolved ending; plot twists; thought provoking; layered; allegorical; mythic dimension; paranormal; community-centered; FRAME: bleak to bittersweet; foreboding; hard-edged; melodramatic; philosophical; suspenseful; dark; morbid; nostalgic; chilling; paramilitary police force; vampire intelligence agency; human intelligence agency; detailed setting; urban; stark; conversational ( )

This is a horrible book to review.

Parts of it are excellent, parts of it dire. Fortunately it's so obvious where the story is going there's no need to avoid spoilers (although there are a couple of twists in there that I will avoid).

Dain Reston is an unhappy street cop/militia man, part of the front line of humans keeping an uneasy peace between humans, vampires and werewolves. He falls for the person who steps up to become leader of the vampire nation. Political, confrontational and emotional baggage make for a bumpy ride for them, and will true love prevail?

The core of this book is really the rising tide of passion - which is pretty predictable, but nicely written. The fight scenes however, are well worth skipping. The human politics is, sadly, all to plausible and believable. Vampire politics is suitably alien, but rather sketchily painted in given our Juliet is, certainly for most of the book, in charge and doing what she has been expected to do.

If the next book in the series was from the same author I'd probably not get it. However, it's by a different author. Some of these things work, some don't, but I'm going to give it a go. ( )