All in all this was a an acceptable, but not exceptional, read.Good points: Some elements of the world building and plot were quite interesting, such as the idea that a muse who descended from angels, would fall in love with a descendant of those her ancestors had fought in an earlier 'good vs. evil' type war. I found the notion that these angelic descendants retained some angelic characteristics to be interesting, as was the notion that their power was fading with sucessive generations of interbreeding with humans.The main characters were generally likeable: I liked that they were both people who found themselves completely alone and found each other. They were in general ethical and good people despite the worlds they lived in: the main female character was, for instance, desperately trying to help her father and wanted to regain her friendship with a current rival.Bad points: (i) I couldn't help but notice that this was yet ANOTHER novel where the female was utterly and completely useless when it came to taking care of herself. Now, while I understand not everyone in this world is a fighter, physically speaking, it was rather irritating to have her NEED. TO. BE. RESCUED. ALL. THE. TIME. I understand she was considered to be priceless as a muse (i.e. angelic descendant etc.). What is annoying is that the main character never even *considered* the notion of, oh I don't know, learning some basic self-defense? Especially AFTER learning that someone had betrayed her and that this person had managed to bypass the security apparatus and personnel surrounding the muses (raising the possibility that some of the security personnel themselves might be in on the betrayal)? After being rescued by the main male character, she...Did none of these things. Apparently being proactive was not in her vocabulary. So, while she was shown to be strong with regards to how she dealt with her mother's death, her father's illness, and her responsibilities, it was both annoying and incongruous (IMHO) for her to be lacking in common sense to this degree in this particular area (i.e. since she seemed to be sensible in other areas).(ii) The main female character had at least one PRIME example of the the TSTL (i.e. 'too stupid to live') syndrome. She had been betrayed and sold to the evil vampires by someone living among the muses, and this person had apparently managed to bypass the security surrounding the muses in order to be able to do this. So what does the main character decide to do, upon receiving a telephone call from a morally dubious reporter who claimed to have information for her regarding her earlier abduction?She went to meet him by herself. WITH NO SECURITY. And was again saved by the main male character, who had learned of her meeting with the guy just in the nick of time.Um, just how suicidal/mentally deficient/otherwise defective was she?(iii) Beware of spoilers here...****Of course, the big bad turned out to be...Her old boyfriend, whom she had always trusted implicitly. Um, just how many cliches was this book trying to hit, exactly? This has got to be one of the worst ones out there, and rather anticlimactic, IMHO. Especially given the fact that the only explanation for his betrayal was the fact that he had learned of her correspondence with the main male character, which betrayed some sort of notion of 'purity' (Racial? Sexual? This wasn't entirely clear.) on his part. I'm not saying that a novel cannot ever have a close friend betray another -my point is that if this is to be used as a plot element, then it has to be made *believable* by having some 'lead up' into it, thereby showing that the author PLANNED this part of the story, rather than saying 'Eureka!' late one Saturday night when they couldn't figure out how to end the last chapter of their novel.This felt to me like it came out of left field.So, all in all, I would rate this as no more than average (2.5 stars, rounding down to 2). 3.5 I had a hard time getting into this book, to be honest. It starts off very slowly and I only really started to become sucked in a little more than half-way through. My main issue with the book was how it thrusts the reader into a world with words like Ventala and Varden with explanation that is not the most detailed or easy to understand. I did like the ending, but I felt like the romance took off too quickly for someone that was supposed to be so reserved. In the end, I found it was a good book, but not a great one. I may continue on in the series, but it will be one of those books that I keep in the back of my mind for a while.
What do You think about All That Bleeds (2012)?
Merrick and Alissa make an unlikely pair, but love prevails all.
—peeknboo
Smart, well-written, suspenseful supernatural love story!
—jaddet
Awesome new series about aMuse and a vampire.
—malicecullen17
