Thursday, October 28, 2010

Ecstasy in Darkness

Title:  Ecstasy in Darkness (Alien Huntress, Book 5)
Publisher:  Pocket Star
Pages:    512
Source:  Gallery for review

From Publisher:  New York Times bestselling sensation Gena Showalter enthralls with a dark, tantalizing world of humans, otherworlders, powers beyond imagining, and a seductive vampire undone by his insatiable hunger for one woman. . . .Growing up poor on New Chicago’s meanest streets, Ava Sans had two options: be the predator or be the prey. No contest. Now, working for Alien Investigation and Removal, she’s been ordered to capture the biggest, baddest warrior of all—a vampire too beautiful to be real, with the abilityto manipulate time. Once the leader of the entire vampire army, McKell has been deemed savage and unstable, spurned even by his own kind.To McKell, humans should be nothing more than sustenance. Yet the petite, golden-skinned Ava is a fascinating contradiction—vicious yet witty, strong yet vulnerable, lethal but fiercely loyal. Against his better judgment, McKell craves that loyalty, and much more. When the chase leads to seduction, McKell and Ava will race to discover the truth about his past. But the answers will come at a price, even for a woman who thought she had nothing left to lose. . . .


My Take:  This is my first Gena Showalter novel and I have mixed feelings about it. I'm pulled between categorizing it as a highly amped and sexualized Twilight with intimate detail of what McKell and Ava did and fantasized about doing to each other and applauding the dialogue which was incredibly entertaining.

First of all, the book is sexually explicit. There is no sexual innuendo. The sexual tension which leads to sex scenes are spelled out. It was a little much for me. I don't mind a little sex talk in books that make me want to go wake up my husband, but this was over the top for my tastes.

Second of all, this book is part of a series. There are back stories for each character that is briefly explained in this book. Gena does a good job of giving enough information to stay with this book but not more than is needed. If curiosity is piqued, the reader will read a previous book. I really liked that I could jump right in without feeling lost but I felt like the characters had greater depth than just this story.

Character development was adequate but I didn't love any of the characters. Sure, I felt some lust for Mckell, but who wouldn't? Besides that, I could take them or leave them. I think if I had read a previous novel regarding Ava and Noelle, I'd enjoy them more.

Speaking of Ava and Noelle (add McKell), the dialogue is hysterical. The interactions between these particular characters made me snort out a laugh. Very clever.

I like it fine. I just didn't have any strong feelings one way or the other.
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