Beware! Criminal - Incubus

Night's Cold Kiss
Dark Brethren, Book 1

Author: Tracey O'hara
Genre: fantasy, romance
Pages: 352
Publisher: Eos

Brief Summary:
Antoinette is a Venator, a trained hunter of vampiric killers (necrodeniacs). The world has come to an agreement with many kinds of paranormals (including the better-behaved vampires called Aeternus), but Antoinette does not trust them, because one killed her mother. Too bad for her that she now must work with a slew of paranormals to get revenge for her mother's death.

Review:
Night's Cold Kiss is not exactly deep and meaningful fare, but nor did I expect it to be. O'hara delivers a raunchy, paranormal-filled romp that is sure to delight fans of the Sookie Stackhouse or Karen Chance books. Believe it or not, this book is actually steamier than those books, although not as steamy as some of the Laurell K. Hamilton books.

The characters are fairly one-dimensional, but they are at least somewhat interesting and not offensive. Antoinette kicks ass, which is always a good thing to see. Christian, the love interest, does have the whole perfect and broody thing happening, but manages not to be quite as insanely over-protective and irritating as the Edwards or Bills of the paranormal world. My favorite characters were the ursian (shifts into a bear) Oberon and the malamute Cerberus.

I have three rather nit-picky criticisms. One: the names. The character names are almost all absurd. See Antoinette (how would she not have abbreviated this?) and Christian (good name for a vampire). Antoinette's brother is nicknamed Nici (for real?). Two: the drinking. Antoinette says at the beginning that she rarely drinks and then proceeds to imbibe spirits (more than are good for her) in every scene until the action (ahem) really begins. Three: vampire healing or lack thereof. An Aeternus character heals from multiple broken bones in a matter of minutes. Another Aeternus is killed by a single silver bullet wound in a matter of minutes. Really? Sure, silver is bad, blah, blah, but that still seems a bit swift and unlikely.

But really, who cares about that? If you want to read a hot paranormal romance, Night's Cold Kiss will satisfy.

"You came, you saw, you conquered
Everyone
I'm left here bleeding.
Oh, what went wrong?
Yeah I'm down, but not out
And far from done.
Hey all, Beware! Ooh...
Beware! Criminal... criminal... criminal"