Realm of Shadows

[Spoilers] Shannon Drake has added another element to her vampire series: The Alliance. This is apparently a combination vampire slayer/watcher organization that’s been around since the beginning of time. Our newest heroine, Tara, is the genetic inheritor of her family’s membership in this alliance. However, this does not make her as cool as Buffy. She’s got the dreams about vampires, but no super-powers, although she might be a little better at killing them than the average human. She’s also got a guy hanging around protecting her from the latest super-old, super-powerful vampire to have been recently awakened. This guy, Brent, may or may not be a vampire.
This could have been a really fascinating element with flashes back to show more the grandfather’s inception into the Alliance and historical explanations of the order, however, none of this is explained until the last chapter. Tara spends most of the book completely disbelieving there are any such things as vampires, and protesting long and loudly about how everyone around her is insane. Fortunately she’s still “compelled” to take steps to protect herself and her family, otherwise this idiot would have died in the first chapter.
Drake also doesn’t explain much of anything else that’s going on. Characters have long interactions with each other being described only as “a man,” and “the woman” so the reader has no idea who’s actually involved here. Drake is also ambiguous about who is good and who is evil. We know for sure that Tara is good because she’s the heroine, and also some people from the second book in the series, but that’s it. Even the hero’s relative trustworthiness is cast into doubt, and the heroine isn’t sure she likes him throughout much of the book (even though she’s “compelled” by him and also sleeps with him). I think this is intended to heighten suspense, but it’s just confusing and makes me care a lot less about what happens to these characters.
The eventual climax is really the only good part of the book. I was left wanting by some of the “big vampire fight scene(s)” in the other books in this series, but this one really delivers. It almost makes reading the rest of this 400 page crap-fest worth it. Drake (who is also Heather Graham) should really just stick with writing historical romance, because her foray into the paranormal sub-genre is extremely disappointing. show less

Well, I finished it - the author just tried to hard to balance between a good old fashioned bodice ripper and a more modern throat ripper but fell between two stools. I can see where she was going and it may be that this is precisely aimed at a (mainly female) target market. I just felt there was literary merit struggling to escape the bondage of a scary Barbara Cartland.

This novel was just plain bad. The writing was rambling, and the story, what there was of it, was slow-paced, dull, and not fully developed. There were too many characters that weren't well-explained, and the "hero", Brent Malone, whose character and paranormal abilities could have been compelling, was never developed. Also, the implications of what it meant to be part of the "Alliance" were never explained, nor were the consequences of someone who was part of the alliance hooking up with someone who wasn't. Even my review of this book is confused because the book was so confusing. Total waste of time.

The 4th book in a series of romantic vampire stories. The first two are really good. But since then they've gone down hill. Just plain boring.

From BackCover:
EVERY NIGHTMARE HAS ITS BEGINNING
In an ancient churchyard just outside Paris. archeologists uncover an ancient tomb certain they have stumbled onto the find of the century. But something goes very wrong as the tomb is opened. Something too frightening to imagine...and too terrible to utter.

AND ITS END
For American visitor Tara Mason, the romantic city of her dreams has suddenly turned sinister. For she has heard the blood-curdling screams in the churchyard and knows that she must run away--from the powerful stranger chasing after her...and from a nightmare she can't be sure is real or imagined.

IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT
At the country estate where she has sought refuge, the shadowy man reappears. He calls himself a show more guardian, sworn to protect the innocent from an evil most never see. And Tara will have to trust him, because that evil has seen her...and won't stop until it claims her, body and soul. show less