Frost, Jeaniene: Eternal Kiss of Darkness
Eternal Kiss of Darkness (2010)
Written by: Jeaniene Frost
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 361 (Mass Market Paperback)
Why I Read It: There was a time when Jeaniene Frost was an absolute favorite author and I gobbled down every sentence she wrote. That feeling has faded in the last year or so (Destined for an Early Grave and First Drop of Crimson really put a damper on my enthusiasm), which meant that I was feeling quite a bit of trepidation to read her second Night Huntress spin-off, so it languished in my TBR. However, the latest Cat & Bones book is now available, and I couldn't in good conscience pick it up until I'd given this book a go, so give it a go I did.
The premise: ganked from BN.com: An immortal war has been brewing in the darkness . . .
And now one woman has stumbled into the shadows.
Chicago private investigator Kira Graceling should have just kept on walking. But her sense of duty refused to let her ignore the moans of pain coming from inside a warehouse just before dawn. Suddenly she finds herself in a world she's only imagined in her worst nightmares.
At the center is Mencheres, a breathtaking Master vampire who thought he'd seen it all. Then Kira appears-this fearless, beautiful . . . human who braved death to rescue him. Though he burns for her, keeping Kira in his world means risking her life. Yet sending her away is unthinkable.
But with danger closing in, Mencheres must choose either the woman he craves, or embracing the darkest magic to defeat an enemy bent on his eternal destruction.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Yay. There's a major spoiler that happens in the book that's something of a turning point, and since I want to discuss it, you've been warned. If you want to avoid any and all spoilers, please jump to "My Rating."
Thumbs Up: Kira's her own woman, and I appreciate that. She's not spineless and she fights when others push her around. Sure, she makes mistakes and will have to be rescued because of it, but she's not a passive character, which is nice to see, since the stereotype is for heroines who are fainting lilies, you know? Also, while Mencheres is used to bossing people around, he's not ridiculously Alpha and omnipresent in Kira's life: he's not hovering over her every mood getting ready to save her, and that was a breath of fresh air. I hate it when heroes don't give the heroines room to breathe.
The pace of the book picks up quite a bit when Mencheres lets Kira return to her normal life. Suddenly, I was able to be interested in the narrative, because it's not focused on the two of them trying to get a glimpse of each other's hot bodies, you know? We see Kira living her life, and we see Mencheres making the preparations to end his. Sure, they think about each other, but they aren't drooling. I was quite surprised when Kira ended up getting changed to a vampire. I'm not sure WHY that surprised me so much, but it did, and that too helped the pace considerably, because Mencheres was focused on more than just how hot she was: he was focused on how to make sure she survives with her new abilities.
Before I get into what I didn't care for, I want to stress I ended up enjoying this installment better than First Drop of Crimson and Destined for an Early Grave! I really did, but it's NOT classic Frost, not by a longshot.
Thumbs Down: The reason it's not classic Frost is this: her books are paranormal romance. Period. But these spin-off novels? Are MORE paranormal romance than paranormal romance. And I'll be honest: switch out the character names, and then hand me the books without my knowing who the author is, and I'd swear up and down that two different people wrote the Classic Frost versus these spin-offs. I'd swear by it.
The romance is just so dry, stale, dull, and predictable. The whole opening is a big fat yawn, with obligatory oogling, obligatory wondering why they're into the other person, and even when the pace picks up and my interest follows along happily, there's the obligatory sex that makes me go, "Oh, a sex scene. Yay. There goes ten pages… " and I say this in total deadpan and with an eye-roll. This should not be the case, because Frost has written some HOT sex scenes in her earlier books, but this? Dull. I saw a commenter once say about a completely unrelated book that even mind-blowing sex is boring if you're not the one having it, and yeah, I can agree to that. It's doubly hard when you're just not connected emotionally to the characters. I don't know if Frost is being too obvious in her formula, but with Cat & Bones, it was a joy to watch them fall into each other's arms, whereas with this book (and First Drop), it's obvious the two main characters are getting together and we're just going through the obligatory motions. There's no excitement in watching the characters hook-up, because the pages leading up to the hook-up (and then the hook-up itself) just feels overused.
And I hate bagging on Frost, because I'll recommend her first three books until I'm blue in the face. Yet it makes me second guess my praise: maybe I'm jaded now, and those first three books aren't as good as I thought?
No. No, we're not going to go THAT far. But it's a fear when the last three offerings from the same author have been average for the genre.
It sucks that I don't remember enough about Mencheres to really appreciate what Frost is doing with character development. I get the sense he's not the cold-hearted bastard we thought he was, but I'm still not connected. And Kira's so new that while I appreciate her being a strong-willed woman, since the story's isn't solely HER story, I'm ambivalent. And why was it that Kira was so special that Mencheres couldn't read her mind? Just because he gave her some of his blood? That's it? I thought that was disproven when it should've been out of her system? Meh…
And I had the following problem with Cherie Priest's Bloodshot, but I never really felt that Mencheres acted his age. And it's not just a problem with him, but rather the overall vampire world-view. How do these vamps keep from not just getting bored, but feeling out of touch and at a loss with the world around them? ESPECIALLY someone like Mencheres, who's been around since Ancient Egypt? You'd think that's what does these older vampires in, you know?
Lastly, while some fans love it, I'm tired of the Cat & Bones cameos. I don't like seeing these characters from strangers' POVs. I want to see Cat from Cat's eyes, and Bones from Cat's eyes too. That's it. Cat comes off as really weird to me when I see her through another characters' eyes, and frankly, can't these characters have adventures on their own anyway without having to pull in the staple of the series to help them out? Probably not, in terms of what the fans want, but this fan doesn't want it.
My Rating
Take It or Leave It: Compared to the first three books featuring Cat & Bones, this is a poor imitation, but it's not as poor a showing as First Drop of Crimson, which I didn't care for at all. The beginning of this book was not promising in the slightest, mind you, but after that turning point I mentioned, I was a little more engaged and found myself being less critical and more engaged with the story. It's still no where near Frost's best work, and I'm not really all that invested in Mencheres or Kira in terms of where they fit in the overall story, but it hasn't turned me off of Frost's work completely, which is good. But overall, these spin-off books from the Night Huntress series are too typical a paranormal romance for my taste, and this was just slightly better than the first one. Will I read a third spin-off? That greatly depends on how I feel about the next Cat & Bones book, This Side of the Grave.
Buy or Borrow: Borrow. I consider myself a Frost fan, but this really doesn't do it for me, so I don't feel it's something that's worth keeping. If you can borrow, do so, especially if you're like me and have been disillusioned by the two titles preceding this one.
Cover Commentary: I was never overly fond of this cover, though it does it's job: it tells you that THIS is a paranormal romance. Seriously, even if you don't find this cover sexy or romantic, can you mistake it for anything else? Horror? Urban Fantasy? Not so much, not in my book. But what I really want to draw your attention to is the drops of blood on girl's neck and the guy's lips. Next time you're in the bookstore, find this book in the romance section and really LOOK at this blood. You know what it looks like? That some amateur got a hold of the paint tool in PhotoShop, selected the color red, drew a few lines and said, "Look, BLOOD!" like an overexcited toddler who's just made his first drawing. Harsh? Yes. But I'm married to a graphic designer, I'm allowed to be harsh. Like I said, it's not THAT noticeable, but let me tell you, once you notice it, you'll obsess over it. It's just red lines on a canvas, that's it! It drives me bonkers!
Next up: Discord's Apple by Carrie Vaughn