Bark at the Ghouls

GR Cleanup Originally Read in 2010

Honestly the only reason I read this immediately following its lackluster (IMO) predecessor “First Drop of Crimson” was because it was the only unread audiobook left on my Ipod. Me riding home with only my thoughts for company is never a good thing.

Kira is a private investigator who hears a scuffle and walks in on a man on the brink of being slain by . . . ghouls. Not hoodlums dressed as ghouls but genuine, flesh-eating ghouls. Now if this were me I’d shriek like a girl and beat it but she’s much tougher than me and tries to save the man. He is gorgeous, so I guess you can’t blame her. She ends up getting herself cut up pretty bad and the lovely, pale, long haired man manages to behead the ghouls without breaking a sweat. If you haven’t guessed already, he’s a vampire and being the noble vampire that he is, gives her a big dose of his healing vampire blood because he feels bad that she injured herself trying to save him. I found this all very sweet and fun but did have to wonder why the ghouls held him in such a precarious position in the first place. If this was all setup only to conveniently get the couple together I was going to be seriously ticked off. But there were other reasons and for that I’m grateful.

Mencheres has exposed himself to a human and he can’t woo her into forgetting him with his otherworldly green glowing eyes because his magical blood is in her system. So he is forced into keeping her prisoner until the effects of his blood wear off. But damn if it isn’t taking much longer than he figured and he’s starting to develop feelings for her. Oh noes! He needs to get back to brooding and the girl has got to go!

Seriously, I liked Mencheres and I even liked Kira a lot too. They were much better sketched out than Spade and whatshername from the first book and their attraction was also better developed. Mencheres is a lovely “I will protect you even if it means my demise” type of guy. I’m a sucker for those types. He’s also a little suicidal and though I’m normally not ok with that type of behavior it works here. He’s freaking ancient, he’s seen and done it all (even men – note to author I would pay good money to read that book!), has lived through betrayal, lost his superpower visions, sees only darkness in his future and the poor man hasn’t had sex in 900 years. 900 years, people! Would you still have the will to live? Kira gives him the will to live but he has a cloud of doom hanging over his head to make him gloriously angsty. Kira has a dying sister and a drug addled brother and her life, though much shorter than his, has been no bed of roses either. The two were well matched.

There were teensy glimpses of humor but I could’ve used more. I have nothing really to say about the plot which is why I can only give this book 3 ½ stars. It wasn’t anything special but it wasn’t horribly tedious either. I’ve read too many of these urban fantasies, I think. There’s a big bad, he does big bad things, he tries to hurt Kira, he pays for his transgressions and Kira and Mencheres live to spend another night filled with erotic bliss.