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Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator #1
Dancing With Werewolves
It was the revelation of the millennium: witches, werewolves, vampires and other supernaturals are real. Fast-forward 13 years: TV reporter Delilah Street used to cover the small-town bogeyman beat back in Kansas, but now, in high-octane Las Vegas -- which is run by a werewolf mob -- she finds herself holding back the gates of Hell itself. But at least she has a hot new guy and one big bad wolfhound to help her out...
394 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 10, 2007
35 people are currently reading
1975 people want to read
About the author
Carole Nelson Douglas
167 books567 followersCarole Nelson Douglas is the author of sixty-four award-winning novels in contemporary and historical mystery/suspense and romance, high and urban fantasy and science fiction genres. She is best known for two popular mystery series, the Irene Adler Sherlockian historical suspense series (she was the first woman to spin-off a series from the Holmes stories) and the multi-award-winning alphabetically titled Midnight Louie contemporary mystery series. From Cat in an Alphabet Soup #1 to Cat in an Alphabet Endgame #28.
Delilah Street, PI (Paranormal Investigator), headlines Carole's noir Urban Fantasy series: Dancing With Werewolves, Brimstone Kiss, Vampire Sunrise, Silver Zombie, and Virtual Virgin. Now Delilah has moved from her paranormal Vegas to Midnight Louie, feline PI's "Slightly surreal" Vegas to solve crimes in the first book of the new Cafe Noir series, Absinthe Without Leave. Next in 2020, Brandi Alexander on the Rocks.
Once Upon a Midnight Noir is out in eBook and trade paperback versions. This author-designed and illustrated collection of three mystery stories with a paranormal twist and a touch of romance features two award-winning stories featuring Midnight Louie, feline PI and Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator in a supernatural-run Las Vegas. A third story completes the last unfinished story fragment of Edgar Allan Poe, as a Midnight Louie Past Life adventure set in 1790 Norland on a isolated island lighthouse. Louie is a soldier of fortune, a la Puss in Boots.
Next out are Midnight Louie's Cat in an Alphabet Endgame in hardcover, trade paperback and eBook Aug. 23, 2016.
All the Irene Adler novels, the first to feature a woman from the Sherlock Holmes Canon as a crime solver, are now available in eBook.
Carole was a college theater and English literature major. She was accepted for grad school in Theater at the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University, and could have worked as an editorial assistant at Vogue magazine (a la The Devil Wears Prada) but wanted a job closer to home. She worked as a newspaper reporter and then editor in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. During her time there, she discovered a long, expensive classified advertisement offering a black cat named Midnight Louey to the "right" home for one dollar and wrote a feature story on the plucky survival artist, putting it into the cat's point of view. The cat found a country home, but its name was revived for her feline PI mystery series many years later. Some of the Midnight Louie series entries include the dedication "For the real and original Midnight Louie. Nine lives were not enough." Midnight Louie has now had 32 novelistic lives and features in several short stories as well.
Hollywood and Broadway director, playwright, screenwriter and novelist Garson Kanin took Carole's first novel to his publisher on the basis of an interview/article she'd done with him five years earlier. "My friend Phil Silvers," he wrote, "would say he'd never won an interview yet, but he had never had the luck of you."
Carole is a "literary chameleon" who's had novels published in many genres, and often mixes such genre elements as mystery and suspense, fantasy and science fiction, romance with mainstream issues, especially the roles of women.
Delilah Street, PI (Paranormal Investigator), headlines Carole's noir Urban Fantasy series: Dancing With Werewolves, Brimstone Kiss, Vampire Sunrise, Silver Zombie, and Virtual Virgin. Now Delilah has moved from her paranormal Vegas to Midnight Louie, feline PI's "Slightly surreal" Vegas to solve crimes in the first book of the new Cafe Noir series, Absinthe Without Leave. Next in 2020, Brandi Alexander on the Rocks.
Once Upon a Midnight Noir is out in eBook and trade paperback versions. This author-designed and illustrated collection of three mystery stories with a paranormal twist and a touch of romance features two award-winning stories featuring Midnight Louie, feline PI and Delilah Street, Paranormal Investigator in a supernatural-run Las Vegas. A third story completes the last unfinished story fragment of Edgar Allan Poe, as a Midnight Louie Past Life adventure set in 1790 Norland on a isolated island lighthouse. Louie is a soldier of fortune, a la Puss in Boots.
Next out are Midnight Louie's Cat in an Alphabet Endgame in hardcover, trade paperback and eBook Aug. 23, 2016.
All the Irene Adler novels, the first to feature a woman from the Sherlock Holmes Canon as a crime solver, are now available in eBook.
Carole was a college theater and English literature major. She was accepted for grad school in Theater at the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University, and could have worked as an editorial assistant at Vogue magazine (a la The Devil Wears Prada) but wanted a job closer to home. She worked as a newspaper reporter and then editor in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. During her time there, she discovered a long, expensive classified advertisement offering a black cat named Midnight Louey to the "right" home for one dollar and wrote a feature story on the plucky survival artist, putting it into the cat's point of view. The cat found a country home, but its name was revived for her feline PI mystery series many years later. Some of the Midnight Louie series entries include the dedication "For the real and original Midnight Louie. Nine lives were not enough." Midnight Louie has now had 32 novelistic lives and features in several short stories as well.
Hollywood and Broadway director, playwright, screenwriter and novelist Garson Kanin took Carole's first novel to his publisher on the basis of an interview/article she'd done with him five years earlier. "My friend Phil Silvers," he wrote, "would say he'd never won an interview yet, but he had never had the luck of you."
Carole is a "literary chameleon" who's had novels published in many genres, and often mixes such genre elements as mystery and suspense, fantasy and science fiction, romance with mainstream issues, especially the roles of women.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
March 21, 2023
NO SPOILERS
I found this book pretty terrible, but at times (key phrase here, 'at times') in that so-bad-it's-amusing way. Some flaws amused more than others. Tense switching occurred in some scenes where I presume the author was trying to involve the reader in the action - but jarring confusion was the result instead. I wish the author had stuck to past tense, or at least been more consistent in tense switching during action moments.
More amusing were the eye-roll-inducing stereotypes and ethnic fetishes. The heroine is 'Black Irish', as the author reminds ad nauseam, even though she was *abandoned as an infant* and knows nothing of her heritage. As part of this, the author belabours her 'lily-white', gorgeously pale skin, her 'baby blues', and she is of course totally gorgeous, very slender but with cleavage, and desired by all despite lacking self-confidence. Mary Sue FAIL! The hero, Ric, is even worse in this regard. He's LATIN and epitomises every cliché ever, and his 'coffee-colored' etc skin gets as much screen time as Delilah's porcelain version. An excerpt of this ridiculousness:
"The dowser was looking as dazed and embarassed as I felt, thank God. His rich cocoa-colored skin had an ashy undertone. Tiny beads of sweat swept across his forehead, catching the twilight like a diadem.
He looked...dazzling. Like a fairyland lord come to take me away. From the electricity I'd felt between us, I was ready to go anywhere."
Borrowing from Twilight, I see. Unfortunately, I can rarely stand to read the word 'dazzling' (or variations) after the damage that series wreaked on the poor word. There are countless other instances of terrible similes; some of them made so little sense or were so random I just scratched my head, others were so vividly unusual I couldn't help but laugh. Whatever faults the author has, she does not lack for creative description!
If you can overlook the bizarre and the cliché, the many references to classic cinema were an interesting angle within paranormal romance, and the futuristic fantasy world was interesting, too, if somewhat shoddily and incompletely constructed - in particular the CinSims, who defy known science and whose workings remained unexplained.
The plot was decent although incredibly scattered, the dialogue usually bearable, and some of the ideas (Delilah and Ric's powers, other supernatural creatures) were creative and interesting. The author possesses a broad vocabulary and isn't afraid to flaunt it, but abuses her thesaurus. On the whole I found Delilah likeable; other than being a virginal victim (so overdone and so not appealing), she rarely annoyed me. I finished the book, and it was *entertaining*, but I have no desire to ever read more by this author, let alone further in the series.
I found this book pretty terrible, but at times (key phrase here, 'at times') in that so-bad-it's-amusing way. Some flaws amused more than others. Tense switching occurred in some scenes where I presume the author was trying to involve the reader in the action - but jarring confusion was the result instead. I wish the author had stuck to past tense, or at least been more consistent in tense switching during action moments.
More amusing were the eye-roll-inducing stereotypes and ethnic fetishes. The heroine is 'Black Irish', as the author reminds ad nauseam, even though she was *abandoned as an infant* and knows nothing of her heritage. As part of this, the author belabours her 'lily-white', gorgeously pale skin, her 'baby blues', and she is of course totally gorgeous, very slender but with cleavage, and desired by all despite lacking self-confidence. Mary Sue FAIL! The hero, Ric, is even worse in this regard. He's LATIN and epitomises every cliché ever, and his 'coffee-colored' etc skin gets as much screen time as Delilah's porcelain version. An excerpt of this ridiculousness:
"The dowser was looking as dazed and embarassed as I felt, thank God. His rich cocoa-colored skin had an ashy undertone. Tiny beads of sweat swept across his forehead, catching the twilight like a diadem.
He looked...dazzling. Like a fairyland lord come to take me away. From the electricity I'd felt between us, I was ready to go anywhere."
Borrowing from Twilight, I see. Unfortunately, I can rarely stand to read the word 'dazzling' (or variations) after the damage that series wreaked on the poor word. There are countless other instances of terrible similes; some of them made so little sense or were so random I just scratched my head, others were so vividly unusual I couldn't help but laugh. Whatever faults the author has, she does not lack for creative description!
If you can overlook the bizarre and the cliché, the many references to classic cinema were an interesting angle within paranormal romance, and the futuristic fantasy world was interesting, too, if somewhat shoddily and incompletely constructed - in particular the CinSims, who defy known science and whose workings remained unexplained.
The plot was decent although incredibly scattered, the dialogue usually bearable, and some of the ideas (Delilah and Ric's powers, other supernatural creatures) were creative and interesting. The author possesses a broad vocabulary and isn't afraid to flaunt it, but abuses her thesaurus. On the whole I found Delilah likeable; other than being a virginal victim (so overdone and so not appealing), she rarely annoyed me. I finished the book, and it was *entertaining*, but I have no desire to ever read more by this author, let alone further in the series.
November 18, 2007
I only got to page 100 before give up - it was like trying to follow someone with a bad case of ADD and the writing abilities of a 5th grader. By page 60, the main characters had a date go terribly wrong, sorry her henceforth undiscovered twin carved up on a CSI show; had her dog die of blood poisoning; effectively lost her job/beat as a reporter; lost her house due to the actions of her co-worker - a weather witch - for no real reason whatsoever; mentioned 45 gazillion times that her Snow White like color makes her vampire bait; and hinted at a super-sikrit mysteriously sppoooky past, which of course she actually knows nothing about.
Frankly, I didn't have enough energy to hope that this whole thing would sort itself out at the end, much less continue to decipher if what was going on was action, a random thought, a nightmare, or a vision - something that was not always clear from the writing.
Frankly, I didn't have enough energy to hope that this whole thing would sort itself out at the end, much less continue to decipher if what was going on was action, a random thought, a nightmare, or a vision - something that was not always clear from the writing.
February 11, 2021
Overall, I liked this debut in a five-book series well enough to give it at least 2.5 stars and round up. But as many other reviewers have noted, and in some detail that I won't go into, this story has problems. The writing is admittedly uneven--disjointed at some moments and pocked with metaphors that didn't make much sense to me--but the first-person narration by the series main character, Delilah Street, age 24, radiates intensity and a good deal of attitude and held my attention throughout. It was like listening to a friend tell me about all the things that happened in the last two weeks or so, day by day, keeping the account in chronological order (thank goodness) but popping back and forth among several simultaneous adventures.
The publisher's blurb doesn't give much away (it's reprinted at the head of this Goodreads page). It does let us know that Delilah comes to Las Vegas, "which is run by a werewolf mob," and that she has "a hot new guy" (Ric Montoya, ex-FBI and a dowser) and "one big bad wolfhound" (Quicksilver, a rescue dog) to help her. The concurrent adventures I spoke of all take place in Las Vegas, but the first tenth or so of the book, that is, the part I feel comfortable telling you about without spoiler tags, is the story of what she does as an investigative TV reporter in Wichita, Kansas, before she leaves for Sin City.
So everything important that she does (and is done to her) is off limits for a review that tries to avoid those spoiler tags. But it might do no harm to sketch the world the author has built and to introduce the other principal characters.
All the supernatural types you can think of have revealed themselves to the world, all at once, and the world has had thirteen years to get used to them, and to the fact that they were operating in secret before then. Las Vegas was even the scene of a completely secret werewolf-vampire war in the 1960s (the werewolves won). And some of the famous gangland killings were really mobsters versus werewolves.
Our author has even invented a new (to me) type of supernatural, CinSims. They're characters in classical movies who were peeled off the screen and implanted on a mentally blank zombie, so that regular people like you and me can interact with some of our screen favorites in real life. Delilah's encounters with several of these CinSims were high points of the story for me.
As she sets off from Wichita, Delilah tells us
Characters: Delilah tangles with three different power brokers in Sin City. (1) Hector Nightwine, TV writer-producer, a very strange man but human as far as I can tell, is Delilah's first target. His super-popular CSI V show features naked corpses who get big fan followings, and one of the corpses on an episode Delilah saw in Wichita is identical to her in every respect! Major plot points follow. (2) Cesar Cicero, mob boss, owner of many casinos, werewolf alpha, big threat to Delilah's life. (3) Snow, or Christophe, owner of the Inferno, vampire, rock star, draws crazed female fans and wants to control Delilah. He gives her a surprising gift that protects her in fantastic ways--oops, I'm saying too much.
The main thing that keeps my rating down is that there's little or no resolution; this book is like the first long segment in a long life story with on-going developments on several fronts. I'm not too interested in werewolf mobsters or Delilah's romance with Ric (though their partnership as investigators seems to be going somewhere), but I must confess I'm tempted to get the next book to find out how Delilah's mysterious magic develops and how things work out with her double--will they really team up like the fae twins in Madrigal's magic show?
So you see I enjoyed this book much more than I should have, in the absence of a coherent plot or any real resolution at the end.
The publisher's blurb doesn't give much away (it's reprinted at the head of this Goodreads page). It does let us know that Delilah comes to Las Vegas, "which is run by a werewolf mob," and that she has "a hot new guy" (Ric Montoya, ex-FBI and a dowser) and "one big bad wolfhound" (Quicksilver, a rescue dog) to help her. The concurrent adventures I spoke of all take place in Las Vegas, but the first tenth or so of the book, that is, the part I feel comfortable telling you about without spoiler tags, is the story of what she does as an investigative TV reporter in Wichita, Kansas, before she leaves for Sin City.
So everything important that she does (and is done to her) is off limits for a review that tries to avoid those spoiler tags. But it might do no harm to sketch the world the author has built and to introduce the other principal characters.
All the supernatural types you can think of have revealed themselves to the world, all at once, and the world has had thirteen years to get used to them, and to the fact that they were operating in secret before then. Las Vegas was even the scene of a completely secret werewolf-vampire war in the 1960s (the werewolves won). And some of the famous gangland killings were really mobsters versus werewolves.
Our author has even invented a new (to me) type of supernatural, CinSims. They're characters in classical movies who were peeled off the screen and implanted on a mentally blank zombie, so that regular people like you and me can interact with some of our screen favorites in real life. Delilah's encounters with several of these CinSims were high points of the story for me.
As she sets off from Wichita, Delilah tells us
And I wasn't leaving Sin City until I knew...who I am. Or who I am not.I really wish she had made more progress on that particular quest over the remaining 300-plus pages of this book; maybe that's her mission for the whole series. Delilah was a foundling, named for the location where she was found; raised in a convent, she was even still a virgin till she got to Las Vegas. She does--very gradually--develop a magical talent that she puts to use in an adventure.
Characters: Delilah tangles with three different power brokers in Sin City. (1) Hector Nightwine, TV writer-producer, a very strange man but human as far as I can tell, is Delilah's first target. His super-popular CSI V show features naked corpses who get big fan followings, and one of the corpses on an episode Delilah saw in Wichita is identical to her in every respect! Major plot points follow. (2) Cesar Cicero, mob boss, owner of many casinos, werewolf alpha, big threat to Delilah's life. (3) Snow, or Christophe, owner of the Inferno, vampire, rock star, draws crazed female fans and wants to control Delilah. He gives her a surprising gift that protects her in fantastic ways--oops, I'm saying too much.
The main thing that keeps my rating down is that there's little or no resolution; this book is like the first long segment in a long life story with on-going developments on several fronts. I'm not too interested in werewolf mobsters or Delilah's romance with Ric (though their partnership as investigators seems to be going somewhere), but I must confess I'm tempted to get the next book to find out how Delilah's mysterious magic develops and how things work out with her double--will they really team up like the fae twins in Madrigal's magic show?
So you see I enjoyed this book much more than I should have, in the absence of a coherent plot or any real resolution at the end.
July 3, 2008
A strange phenomena--when an author changes style or direction, there's often a violent knee-jerk reaction from fans to the shift. You constantly see people complaining about an author doing the same old, same old. Yet, let a writer give you a fresh premise, a plot totally unlike anything she's done before and readers surprisingly scream, 'burn the witch'. I think readers--fans--often seek long time authors out for 'comfort food'. The books may not be exciting, but you know what your money is going for it's safe. Despite the whines of 'nothing new', when an author makes that about face, they nearly get stoned!
Carole Nelson Douglas --long time author with over fifty titles to her credit in the Irene Adler series and the Midnight Louie series--hops to another publisher and gives you the wildly zany Dancing With Werewolves. While I love her other stories, I truly enjoyed this book, and look forward to others in the series to come. It's sharply written, very witty and kept me turning pages until I read the whole book in one sitting. As fans become accustomed to this new direction for this talented author, I fully expect to see praise for her new style.
In a genre that's quickly filling with authors left and right, Nelson brings a fresh and sassy voice to Delilah Street. A woman with a dim past, she knows she was named after the street where she was found orphaned. She's currently an investigative reporter heading up the paranormal beat in Wichita, Kansas.
The theme reminded me faintly of the movie Fred Ward did for HBO (Cast a Deadly Spell, 1991), where paranormal was normal. I absolutely adored Ward's Harry Phillip Lovecraft character, so it follows I would enjoy this book, too. While watching a television show, Delilah spots a cadaver being dissected and gets a chill. The 'dead body' could be her twin sister! When the vampire anchorman tries to put the bite on her and she ends up fired, then she loses her dog and her home, Delilah figures someone is trying to tell her it's time to take the show on the road--and find out if there's a clone who may be her sister.
Vegas has always been considered a bit strange, but in this alternative world, werewolves are literally running the town. Besides the werewolves, there are a few witches and other not quite humans that keep the plot moving and full of surprises. As in the Ward movie, it's an odd blend on urban fantasy and film noir that is brought to life under the talented pen...hum...keyboard of Ms. Douglas.
My husband absolutely adored this book, so it should appeal to both sexes
Carole Nelson Douglas --long time author with over fifty titles to her credit in the Irene Adler series and the Midnight Louie series--hops to another publisher and gives you the wildly zany Dancing With Werewolves. While I love her other stories, I truly enjoyed this book, and look forward to others in the series to come. It's sharply written, very witty and kept me turning pages until I read the whole book in one sitting. As fans become accustomed to this new direction for this talented author, I fully expect to see praise for her new style.
In a genre that's quickly filling with authors left and right, Nelson brings a fresh and sassy voice to Delilah Street. A woman with a dim past, she knows she was named after the street where she was found orphaned. She's currently an investigative reporter heading up the paranormal beat in Wichita, Kansas.
The theme reminded me faintly of the movie Fred Ward did for HBO (Cast a Deadly Spell, 1991), where paranormal was normal. I absolutely adored Ward's Harry Phillip Lovecraft character, so it follows I would enjoy this book, too. While watching a television show, Delilah spots a cadaver being dissected and gets a chill. The 'dead body' could be her twin sister! When the vampire anchorman tries to put the bite on her and she ends up fired, then she loses her dog and her home, Delilah figures someone is trying to tell her it's time to take the show on the road--and find out if there's a clone who may be her sister.
Vegas has always been considered a bit strange, but in this alternative world, werewolves are literally running the town. Besides the werewolves, there are a few witches and other not quite humans that keep the plot moving and full of surprises. As in the Ward movie, it's an odd blend on urban fantasy and film noir that is brought to life under the talented pen...hum...keyboard of Ms. Douglas.
My husband absolutely adored this book, so it should appeal to both sexes
August 14, 2020
Dancing With Werewolves was interesting to say the least.
It was kind of like watching someone do something horribly wrong over and over again. But instead of actually trying to help them or say something.. you just keep watching it over and over. So yeah, reading this book felt like that sometimes.
That being said, this book was confusing. It had some moments where I thought I knew where things were heading and then I would get some serious whiplash and be completely wrong. I'm not even going to mention the amount of times I either rolled my eyes or shook my head. I would like to say it was entertaining but that would be wrong.
I don't even want to dive into the characters because they just annoyed me so much. They were just really cliché and reminded me of so many other annoying characters. Other than that, it was a bit predictable and I'm glad that I reached the ending of this book. Not sure how much wine I drank in order to do so.. but now I need more wine.
It was kind of like watching someone do something horribly wrong over and over again. But instead of actually trying to help them or say something.. you just keep watching it over and over. So yeah, reading this book felt like that sometimes.
That being said, this book was confusing. It had some moments where I thought I knew where things were heading and then I would get some serious whiplash and be completely wrong. I'm not even going to mention the amount of times I either rolled my eyes or shook my head. I would like to say it was entertaining but that would be wrong.
I don't even want to dive into the characters because they just annoyed me so much. They were just really cliché and reminded me of so many other annoying characters. Other than that, it was a bit predictable and I'm glad that I reached the ending of this book. Not sure how much wine I drank in order to do so.. but now I need more wine.
July 21, 2012
I've enjoyed novels by Carole Nelson Douglas in her Midnight Louie series and her Irene Adler series, but her first Delilah Street Paranormal Investigator novel Dancing with Werewolves left me cringing. I liked some of the characters and elements of the world building in a short story featuring Delilah Street, in a near-future Las Vegas saturated with supernaturals. Douglas's idea of CinSims -- famous movie characters personalities overlaid onto zombies -- was particularly original and perfect for a glitzy, supernaturally-ruled Vegas. However, in novel form I didn't find the world or characters convincing in key areas. While I liked the CinSims, I didn't get the sense that Douglas had well-thought-out cultures for her 'classic' supernaturals; her werewolves were simple thugs and her vampires were dangerous comic relief. Douglas was vague about the situation that caused supernaturals to emerge into the public eye; it's described obscurely as a somewhat gradual millenium apocalyptic event. (huh? Yup, that's what I said, too. I much prefer Kim Harrison's tomato plague, or Ilona Andrews' start of magic/tech shifts). A few other plot events, such as the final event that triggers Delilah's move away from Kansas, also are poorly integrated into the story. While some of the secondary characters were delightfully weird, Delilah Street herself didn't feel believable in her career, emotional reactions, and choices.
I had the hardest time with how Douglas handled violence. Delilah is assaulted four times in the first fifty pages of the novel, and more times after that. It didn't always feel important to the plot. Delilah didn't react much to these attempts, and I didn't buy it - it made the violence seem more gratuitous than revealing of her personality and personal history. That a single paranormal encounter suddenly freed up her sexual libido -- after a long childhood history or the threat of sexual assault, and with constant current threats -- felt cheap. Also, I didn't get the sense that the Vegas teeming with giggly tourists was such a dark and violent dystopia that it would justify Delilah shrugging off the number of assaults as unremarkable. Both Kansas and Vegas are presented as very much a man's world- every (non-zombie) male that Delilah encounters is misogynistic, domineering and unabashedly sexually harassing, but we aren't told why the emergence of the supernatural has led to the complete quashing of everything PC. Why is the world this way? Why? Convince me! Taken together, the sensationalist and easily dismissed violence against a woman, and the strong-man-to-the-rescue refrain felt like an action B-movie. There are hints of more interesting plot developments to come, though, with Delilah's newly discovered abilities, odd sightings in mirrors, and the possibility of fighting for CinSim rights.
I had the hardest time with how Douglas handled violence. Delilah is assaulted four times in the first fifty pages of the novel, and more times after that. It didn't always feel important to the plot. Delilah didn't react much to these attempts, and I didn't buy it - it made the violence seem more gratuitous than revealing of her personality and personal history. That a single paranormal encounter suddenly freed up her sexual libido -- after a long childhood history or the threat of sexual assault, and with constant current threats -- felt cheap. Also, I didn't get the sense that the Vegas teeming with giggly tourists was such a dark and violent dystopia that it would justify Delilah shrugging off the number of assaults as unremarkable. Both Kansas and Vegas are presented as very much a man's world- every (non-zombie) male that Delilah encounters is misogynistic, domineering and unabashedly sexually harassing, but we aren't told why the emergence of the supernatural has led to the complete quashing of everything PC. Why is the world this way? Why? Convince me! Taken together, the sensationalist and easily dismissed violence against a woman, and the strong-man-to-the-rescue refrain felt like an action B-movie. There are hints of more interesting plot developments to come, though, with Delilah's newly discovered abilities, odd sightings in mirrors, and the possibility of fighting for CinSim rights.
March 14, 2010
Very mixed feeling about this. For one thing, the author has written more than 50 novels and won more than 50 writing awards, yet the writing in this is pretty crummy pretty often. There are many odd transitions, sudden topic changes and just weird moments that left me really confused.
For another thing, the author's bio at the end makes a big point about her writing about strong women. Yet Del is a complete victim, from every part of her childhood, to the inexplicable beginning of this book where she loses everything she has worked so hard for due to one bad dating moment, to the entire plot of this book where she is manipulated, blackmailed, kidnapped, lied to by ernemies and even her sort-of allies. Her employer is a sleezy and manipulative as her deadly enemies. Sure, she bounces back a bit, but she puts up with a lot of it without complaint and even with unspoken compliance. She stays in town, takes the job, doesn't even protest about a lot of really invasive and pretty horrifying things (like Snow's "gift"). Even her big romantic breakthrough is due to a psychic incident, not a willing choice on either her part or his. She's a complete and total victim, mostly a willing one.
And the most annoying thing in the whole book is the VERY often repeated assertation that Del is Black Irish. She was abandoned, found at 3 days old. White skin and black hair is not exclusively reserved for only Black Irish. I have a few Eastern European family members who would refute that. It's just annoying. If you make your character an orphan you don't get to choose her heritage and you shouldn't repeat the same stupid story over and over again, regardless. End rant.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the homage to old Hollywood. There are a ton of great old, and even modern, references. Some of the supporting characters are pretty interesting with mysteries yet to be explored the CinSims are very clever, perfect for this Vegas tale. I don't really get the system of magic, but it does have some original aspects. I love the dogs and want to know more about Quick's secrets. And she tantalizingly left the mystery partially solved, a smart move in the first book in a series. It's enough to make me want to pick up the next book. But I don't think it's enough to make me want to try some of the books the author is more famous for.
For another thing, the author's bio at the end makes a big point about her writing about strong women. Yet Del is a complete victim, from every part of her childhood, to the inexplicable beginning of this book where she loses everything she has worked so hard for due to one bad dating moment, to the entire plot of this book where she is manipulated, blackmailed, kidnapped, lied to by ernemies and even her sort-of allies. Her employer is a sleezy and manipulative as her deadly enemies. Sure, she bounces back a bit, but she puts up with a lot of it without complaint and even with unspoken compliance. She stays in town, takes the job, doesn't even protest about a lot of really invasive and pretty horrifying things (like Snow's "gift"). Even her big romantic breakthrough is due to a psychic incident, not a willing choice on either her part or his. She's a complete and total victim, mostly a willing one.
And the most annoying thing in the whole book is the VERY often repeated assertation that Del is Black Irish. She was abandoned, found at 3 days old. White skin and black hair is not exclusively reserved for only Black Irish. I have a few Eastern European family members who would refute that. It's just annoying. If you make your character an orphan you don't get to choose her heritage and you shouldn't repeat the same stupid story over and over again, regardless. End rant.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the homage to old Hollywood. There are a ton of great old, and even modern, references. Some of the supporting characters are pretty interesting with mysteries yet to be explored the CinSims are very clever, perfect for this Vegas tale. I don't really get the system of magic, but it does have some original aspects. I love the dogs and want to know more about Quick's secrets. And she tantalizingly left the mystery partially solved, a smart move in the first book in a series. It's enough to make me want to pick up the next book. But I don't think it's enough to make me want to try some of the books the author is more famous for.
April 2, 2011
After 65 pages of asking myself "What the hell is going on?" I decided to abandon. The storyline was all over the place, it was nonsensical, and didn't interest me at all. And what's up with the 70's cover? This was just bad.
December 12, 2011
A tiny sliver of me would like to give this a 3, because for a few pages, it was a fun read.
The rest of me wanted to give it a 1. We compromised at 2.
Where to start? If I had to sum this book up in one word, it would "sloppy." Sloppy editing - typos like I don't usually see outside my own typing. Not the author's fault, of course. But as for the sloppy writing... again: where to start???
The protagonist:
Is she a split personality? How can "Irma" be in control enough to make shopping decisions?
Is she a virgin or experienced? Or, after only a couple of encounters, she all of a sudden knows what to do? Despite the hang-ups we've been told about repeatedly?
The plot:
Too many characters. You don't have to set up the entire series in the first book.
Too disrupted by metaphysical prosings in appropriate places that are presumably meant to further either character "development" or world-building. These ramblings do neither. Nothing gets explained, only made more murky, and in ways that suggest to my inner skeptic that Ms Douglas is covering her butt for later titles: if the first was murky enough, you don't have to remember/research what you already wrote. You also don't have to make any real decisions, because you never settled on any real explanations anyway.
Inconsistencies within this single title: "Seeing Madrigal and mysterious assistants had made me unhappy with the status quo with Ric." (p. 291) Ric is someone she's only known for a few weeks, of which he's been out of town for 2, and we've been bludgeoned with the idea that she's never had real relationships with men. Now she's unhappy with the status quo? There isn't even a status quo yet with this guy with which to be unhappy.
Another example: "The gown? No. Too Snow. I didn't like to mix my... encounters." (p. 294) Two problems here. The first is language. That type of writing: clipped phrases passing as sentences, with many in a row, recurs like a rash through the book. Second, again, if you've never had relationships or encounters, as we've been told throughout the book, how do you even know that you don't like to "mix" your encounters?
The language:
"What's new Kansas pussycat"??? Really? The entire book is written that way. For me, that wavered between boring and annoying.
There are several places where the tense changes prof past to present. Not often enough to be considered a device, but just often enough to remind me of papers written by in-coming freshmen.
There's also the fact that this series clearly gloms on to the pre-existing paranormal rage without bringing anything new. There's the fact that this is clearly at best a spin-off and at worst a down-right rip off of Carrie Vaughan's Kitty series. In other words - again - Ms. Douglas brings nothing new.
I don't think I would actually warn people off, but I'd sure want someone to know how sloppy the writing was before they started. I'm of two minds (apparently the whole Irma thing is contagious) about whether to try the second one. The part that wanted to give it 3 stars says I should, but the other part thinks it wouldn't be worth the penny to buy it used on amazon.
The rest of me wanted to give it a 1. We compromised at 2.
Where to start? If I had to sum this book up in one word, it would "sloppy." Sloppy editing - typos like I don't usually see outside my own typing. Not the author's fault, of course. But as for the sloppy writing... again: where to start???
The protagonist:
Is she a split personality? How can "Irma" be in control enough to make shopping decisions?
Is she a virgin or experienced? Or, after only a couple of encounters, she all of a sudden knows what to do? Despite the hang-ups we've been told about repeatedly?
The plot:
Too many characters. You don't have to set up the entire series in the first book.
Too disrupted by metaphysical prosings in appropriate places that are presumably meant to further either character "development" or world-building. These ramblings do neither. Nothing gets explained, only made more murky, and in ways that suggest to my inner skeptic that Ms Douglas is covering her butt for later titles: if the first was murky enough, you don't have to remember/research what you already wrote. You also don't have to make any real decisions, because you never settled on any real explanations anyway.
Inconsistencies within this single title: "Seeing Madrigal and mysterious assistants had made me unhappy with the status quo with Ric." (p. 291) Ric is someone she's only known for a few weeks, of which he's been out of town for 2, and we've been bludgeoned with the idea that she's never had real relationships with men. Now she's unhappy with the status quo? There isn't even a status quo yet with this guy with which to be unhappy.
Another example: "The gown? No. Too Snow. I didn't like to mix my... encounters." (p. 294) Two problems here. The first is language. That type of writing: clipped phrases passing as sentences, with many in a row, recurs like a rash through the book. Second, again, if you've never had relationships or encounters, as we've been told throughout the book, how do you even know that you don't like to "mix" your encounters?
The language:
"What's new Kansas pussycat"??? Really? The entire book is written that way. For me, that wavered between boring and annoying.
There are several places where the tense changes prof past to present. Not often enough to be considered a device, but just often enough to remind me of papers written by in-coming freshmen.
There's also the fact that this series clearly gloms on to the pre-existing paranormal rage without bringing anything new. There's the fact that this is clearly at best a spin-off and at worst a down-right rip off of Carrie Vaughan's Kitty series. In other words - again - Ms. Douglas brings nothing new.
I don't think I would actually warn people off, but I'd sure want someone to know how sloppy the writing was before they started. I'm of two minds (apparently the whole Irma thing is contagious) about whether to try the second one. The part that wanted to give it 3 stars says I should, but the other part thinks it wouldn't be worth the penny to buy it used on amazon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 8, 2008
I'm more partial to werewolves than vampires, and it was great to find this book. While there were a few confusing elements in the story, overall it was entertaining, and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series (hopefully there will be one).
July 21, 2011
This book was incredibly awkward - the writing was awkward, the characters were awkward, parts of the plot were awkward. Most of the other 1-3 star reviews have already covered my complaints. I picked this up at the library, and they have the second one, so I decided to pick that one up as well just to see if the writing gets better.
I expect authors to be able to spell their own characters' names consistently, and when they don't, that is a big no no to me. This author had some issues in that regard, along with other editorial problems.
I expect authors to be able to spell their own characters' names consistently, and when they don't, that is a big no no to me. This author had some issues in that regard, along with other editorial problems.
November 16, 2007
I liked this one a lot though it felt incomplete. The mystery of who the dead bodies were wasn't wrapped up - though I'd guess it will be revisited. Lots of action and a smart, snarky heroine.
October 26, 2018
Could not finish. Poor, scattered writing.
November 12, 2021
This book is astonishingly bad. I got it dirt-cheap from a charity shop and still felt cheated. As a fan of werewolf stories, I was attracted by the title, and the basic premise looked interesting - at the turn of the Millennium, it is revealed that werewolves, vampires and other mythical creatures are actually real. Our heroine, Delilah Street, is a reporter who deals with supernatural stories and has a mysterious past. An orphan with no known relatives, she sees a woman who appears to be her double on T.V., and sets out to find her. Unfortunately, the book in no way lives up to its potential.
Firstly, werewolves play far less of a role than you are led to believe - it's revealed that Las Vegas is largely run by werewolves, but that's essentially it. From the title, I assumed that her love interest would be a werewolf, but this is not the case - she and her (human) lover merely go dancing at a club full of werewolves one night.
The story meanders widely, with various new mysteries presenting themselves as we go along. The book begins with "something" having attacked a herd of cattle in Kansas, and Delilah reporting on it. This almost immediately fades into insignificance, only to be brought up much later and then instantly dismissed again. Delilah moves to Las Vegas solely because that is where the show featuring her double was filmed. Here, she meets a man who can dowse for the dead, and the two of them discover a pair of bodies in a park, accompanied by vivid visions of their murder. Who were they and why were they murdered? Delilah then begins to discover odd powers of her own, like being able to walk through mirrors. Where did she get this power? Is her screen double a "reflection"? Though Delilah spends much of the book searching for answers to these questions, we never get a conclusion. After nearly 400 pages, the book ends without any of the mysteries being solved, and you are obliged to buy the next instalment in the series to find out. Whilst I have no problem with book series in general, I do feel that each book should be a self-contained story. When you have to read six novels to find out what happened in the first one, it feels like the author is simply trying to screw money out of her readers - if you want to know what happens, you have no choice but to keep on buying.
The plot glosses over important points in a completely unrealistic way, the tense often switches between past and present for no apparent reason, and many problems are swiftly solved with unconvincing explanations. For example, Delilah's house in Kansas is somewhat mysteriously destroyed. Instead of any sort of investigation or an insurance claim, Delilah simply ups and moves to Las Vegas. When she gets there, the man who makes the show that featured her double conveniently offers her a job and free house the moment he meets her.
The characters are one-dimensional, particularly the villains (they are almost cartoon bad guys), and Delilah herself is not the most interesting or likeable main character - she whines a lot and is rather neurotic, and even her supposedly mysterious past is textbook stuff. She's always been a loner, has strange dreams that may be memories, has a phobia of being confined, etc. Pick up almost any supernatural mystery with a female protagonist and you'll get similar stuff, and whilst you may wonder what happened to Delilah that she doesn't remember, and what happened to her parents, these are just a few more questions you never get answers to. Also, the author seems to have trouble remembering some of the character names - Delilah's love interest is Ric one moment and Rick the next, and a woman she meets appears to be named both Vilma and Velma. If the author doesn't know who her characters are, how is the reader supposed to?
To cut a long story short (something I wish the author had done), don't waste your time on this book. It's poorly written, irritating, rather boring, and inconclusive.
Firstly, werewolves play far less of a role than you are led to believe - it's revealed that Las Vegas is largely run by werewolves, but that's essentially it. From the title, I assumed that her love interest would be a werewolf, but this is not the case - she and her (human) lover merely go dancing at a club full of werewolves one night.
The story meanders widely, with various new mysteries presenting themselves as we go along. The book begins with "something" having attacked a herd of cattle in Kansas, and Delilah reporting on it. This almost immediately fades into insignificance, only to be brought up much later and then instantly dismissed again. Delilah moves to Las Vegas solely because that is where the show featuring her double was filmed. Here, she meets a man who can dowse for the dead, and the two of them discover a pair of bodies in a park, accompanied by vivid visions of their murder. Who were they and why were they murdered? Delilah then begins to discover odd powers of her own, like being able to walk through mirrors. Where did she get this power? Is her screen double a "reflection"? Though Delilah spends much of the book searching for answers to these questions, we never get a conclusion. After nearly 400 pages, the book ends without any of the mysteries being solved, and you are obliged to buy the next instalment in the series to find out. Whilst I have no problem with book series in general, I do feel that each book should be a self-contained story. When you have to read six novels to find out what happened in the first one, it feels like the author is simply trying to screw money out of her readers - if you want to know what happens, you have no choice but to keep on buying.
The plot glosses over important points in a completely unrealistic way, the tense often switches between past and present for no apparent reason, and many problems are swiftly solved with unconvincing explanations. For example, Delilah's house in Kansas is somewhat mysteriously destroyed. Instead of any sort of investigation or an insurance claim, Delilah simply ups and moves to Las Vegas. When she gets there, the man who makes the show that featured her double conveniently offers her a job and free house the moment he meets her.
The characters are one-dimensional, particularly the villains (they are almost cartoon bad guys), and Delilah herself is not the most interesting or likeable main character - she whines a lot and is rather neurotic, and even her supposedly mysterious past is textbook stuff. She's always been a loner, has strange dreams that may be memories, has a phobia of being confined, etc. Pick up almost any supernatural mystery with a female protagonist and you'll get similar stuff, and whilst you may wonder what happened to Delilah that she doesn't remember, and what happened to her parents, these are just a few more questions you never get answers to. Also, the author seems to have trouble remembering some of the character names - Delilah's love interest is Ric one moment and Rick the next, and a woman she meets appears to be named both Vilma and Velma. If the author doesn't know who her characters are, how is the reader supposed to?
To cut a long story short (something I wish the author had done), don't waste your time on this book. It's poorly written, irritating, rather boring, and inconclusive.
November 21, 2012
Interesting concept that the millenium didn't bring the end of the world, but brought all the werewolves, vampires, etc. out into public. Kim Harrison uses a similar premise in her novels. But Carole Douglas puts a slightly different twist on it. The book was kind of fun and I'll probably read more of the series. Douglas also writes the Midnight Louie mysteries and another series I want to try, which is the Irene Adler one. Love her pet Quicksilver.
Delilah Street was raised in an orphanage, never adopted altho people thought she was a pretty child. She remembers the Milennium change-over that brought out the werewolves, vampires and other supernatural beings into the open, out in public. She had a certain fascination with those and learned to defend herself from those in the orphanage that were attracted to her looks. The orphanage sent her to high school and a "benefactor" paid her college tuition although she had to earn her own money to live on. She haunted estate sales and bought second-hand clothing, furniture and dishes. She loved the old-fashioned stuff and continued to buy it after she got a job. Delilah was a television news reporter on paranormal or supernatural events or occurrences. She had begun to date the evening news anchor, a vampire, but broke it up when he sneaked an exacto blade into flowers and caused her to cut her finger and sucked the blood. Her little lhaso, Achilles, bit him and died of blood poisoning a day or two later. Then the anchor got it on with the weather witch, who took over Delilah's job and destroyed her house with a tornado. But she had seen someone who looked exactly like her on one of the CSI V episodes. So she goes to Las Vegas to check out who this person is. She goes to the park across from the offices of the production company and runs into a man who tries to show her how to dowse, only he dowses for the dead and showing her how leads them onto a grave with a young couple inside and she is overwhelmed by the feelings of the dead. She later wanders over to the area where the shelter is trying to get animals adopted and finds a huge gray dog with blue eyes. She falls for him and adopts him. She names him Quicksilver, calling him Quick. This adoptions was fortunate for her because Quick is a werehunter, part wolf. He adores her and protects her from all the half-weres and others living in Las Vegas. But Delilah and Ric are determined to find out who the young couple are and what happened to them. Delilah has problems because not only does the woman who was the "body" on the show look just like her, but she was immensely popular and people think its her and keep trying to kidnap her. Delilah is also determined to find this other woman - perhaps she is a twin, too? Delilah was found on a street corner, which is where she received her name.
Delilah Street was raised in an orphanage, never adopted altho people thought she was a pretty child. She remembers the Milennium change-over that brought out the werewolves, vampires and other supernatural beings into the open, out in public. She had a certain fascination with those and learned to defend herself from those in the orphanage that were attracted to her looks. The orphanage sent her to high school and a "benefactor" paid her college tuition although she had to earn her own money to live on. She haunted estate sales and bought second-hand clothing, furniture and dishes. She loved the old-fashioned stuff and continued to buy it after she got a job. Delilah was a television news reporter on paranormal or supernatural events or occurrences. She had begun to date the evening news anchor, a vampire, but broke it up when he sneaked an exacto blade into flowers and caused her to cut her finger and sucked the blood. Her little lhaso, Achilles, bit him and died of blood poisoning a day or two later. Then the anchor got it on with the weather witch, who took over Delilah's job and destroyed her house with a tornado. But she had seen someone who looked exactly like her on one of the CSI V episodes. So she goes to Las Vegas to check out who this person is. She goes to the park across from the offices of the production company and runs into a man who tries to show her how to dowse, only he dowses for the dead and showing her how leads them onto a grave with a young couple inside and she is overwhelmed by the feelings of the dead. She later wanders over to the area where the shelter is trying to get animals adopted and finds a huge gray dog with blue eyes. She falls for him and adopts him. She names him Quicksilver, calling him Quick. This adoptions was fortunate for her because Quick is a werehunter, part wolf. He adores her and protects her from all the half-weres and others living in Las Vegas. But Delilah and Ric are determined to find out who the young couple are and what happened to them. Delilah has problems because not only does the woman who was the "body" on the show look just like her, but she was immensely popular and people think its her and keep trying to kidnap her. Delilah is also determined to find this other woman - perhaps she is a twin, too? Delilah was found on a street corner, which is where she received her name.
February 26, 2015
I have no idea if the copy I had was badly written or if the author was just that bad at writing. The book is a giantic question.
The book started its charm on me by leaving me in the clouds because I had no clue what the hell was going on. I mean, was it a human corpse she was taping? Or something else?
Next scene left me thinking: if she never liked him, then why the HELL did she date him? If her damn gorgeous lily-white skin had ALWAYS incited vamps into chewing on her like a dog toy, then why did she date a freaking VAMPIRE? If she was going to date a vampire, she must have expected some blood to be involved?
(Not that I would have let Undead Ted anywhere near my veins, that arrogant, self-centered prick.)
Then our infallible heroine looses her dog, house, and job. Not necessarily in that order. But does the author tell us why her co-worker just up and blew her house down? No. (I mean, that weather-witch just didn't wake up that day and decided she was going to impersonate the wolf by huffing and puffing her co-worker's house down.)
The dowser. Our proverbial Latino love interest. This is where the author not only puts the chip on my shoulder but she's scrubbing it deeper. Because I'm a Latino girl born in USA, but I still know my Spanish. Maybe I had a REALLY bad edited copy because it seems like she didn't bother to open a Spanish grammar book or dictionary. AT ALL. I understand that Delilah, our protagonist, doesn't know Spanish so she pronounces it badly but really, the LATINO guy also says it wrong.
How do these lovers connect, you ask? Well, when they grind on each other in a PUBLIC park. Sure, blame it on the dead people underneath them but they still rub against each other like two squirrels in heat. I still don't get how there is no one in the park. I've been to Vegas and at night the streets are packed with tourists and people, SOMEONE was bound to see them. How come there are no patrolling officers checking up on people? They could have been arrested for PDA or sexually public displays or some nonsense.
The plot had me stumped. Didn't she go to Las Vegas to find out about her possible sister or clone? What did she find out about said sister, other than her name? Nada. So what was her mission? What DROVE her to find the dead couple's identity.
The only thing this book had going was the world building. The author has a lot of creativity in that subject. It has the normal vamps and weres but there's ghouls, witches, warlocks, and half-weres too. It was also an interesting twist with the MCs' powers.
Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, lasses and lads, men and women I give to you 2.5 STARS!
The book started its charm on me by leaving me in the clouds because I had no clue what the hell was going on. I mean, was it a human corpse she was taping? Or something else?
Next scene left me thinking: if she never liked him, then why the HELL did she date him? If her damn gorgeous lily-white skin had ALWAYS incited vamps into chewing on her like a dog toy, then why did she date a freaking VAMPIRE? If she was going to date a vampire, she must have expected some blood to be involved?
(Not that I would have let Undead Ted anywhere near my veins, that arrogant, self-centered prick.)
Then our infallible heroine looses her dog, house, and job. Not necessarily in that order. But does the author tell us why her co-worker just up and blew her house down? No. (I mean, that weather-witch just didn't wake up that day and decided she was going to impersonate the wolf by huffing and puffing her co-worker's house down.)
The dowser. Our proverbial Latino love interest. This is where the author not only puts the chip on my shoulder but she's scrubbing it deeper. Because I'm a Latino girl born in USA, but I still know my Spanish. Maybe I had a REALLY bad edited copy because it seems like she didn't bother to open a Spanish grammar book or dictionary. AT ALL. I understand that Delilah, our protagonist, doesn't know Spanish so she pronounces it badly but really, the LATINO guy also says it wrong.
How do these lovers connect, you ask? Well, when they grind on each other in a PUBLIC park. Sure, blame it on the dead people underneath them but they still rub against each other like two squirrels in heat. I still don't get how there is no one in the park. I've been to Vegas and at night the streets are packed with tourists and people, SOMEONE was bound to see them. How come there are no patrolling officers checking up on people? They could have been arrested for PDA or sexually public displays or some nonsense.
The plot had me stumped. Didn't she go to Las Vegas to find out about her possible sister or clone? What did she find out about said sister, other than her name? Nada. So what was her mission? What DROVE her to find the dead couple's identity.
The only thing this book had going was the world building. The author has a lot of creativity in that subject. It has the normal vamps and weres but there's ghouls, witches, warlocks, and half-weres too. It was also an interesting twist with the MCs' powers.
Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, lasses and lads, men and women I give to you 2.5 STARS!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2016
Okay let me be fair here--the first...9 chapters are like listening to someone monologue their life. Its a bit repetitive, somewhat awkward and stiff, but interesting enough. Around Chapter 10 however, when Delilah lands herself in Las Vegas (for various reasons), it starts getting more interesting. We have much more interaction with people other then herself, the blossoming of her paranormal skills and heck its Las Vegas. That's interesting for me.
Unfortunately the narrative remains scattered and the plot keeps swerving back and forth. A lot is left to obvious plot devices to keep the 'action' moving and I swear to god if she had mentioned that she was vampire bait one more time I would have ax'ed her right then and there. In the span of one chapter she says it no less then six times, all variations on 'I have pale skin, black hair and vampires find me simply irresistible'. Well bully for you, but don't keep slapping us in the face with it.
What sucks though is I really like this premise, Delilah isn't so bad so long as she keeps her vampire bait comments to herself and the world itself is intriguing (if a little aimless). I came into the Delilah Street novels because of the short story from the anthology Unusual Suspects in which Delilah solves a CineSim 'murder'. That was so much fun! I'm starting to wonder though if perhaps the stories are better left as short fiction. Less cluttering of the narrative, less repetitious information. I mean I was a interested in the back story between the characters from the SS, but Carole managed to get the feel of the character across in way less space.
I am still intrigued by the set up and world, and thankfully I have book 2 awaiting me, but I'll have to think about wanting to read Book 3 (due out in the fall) if Book 2 doesn't pick up things and give it a firmer course.
Unfortunately the narrative remains scattered and the plot keeps swerving back and forth. A lot is left to obvious plot devices to keep the 'action' moving and I swear to god if she had mentioned that she was vampire bait one more time I would have ax'ed her right then and there. In the span of one chapter she says it no less then six times, all variations on 'I have pale skin, black hair and vampires find me simply irresistible'. Well bully for you, but don't keep slapping us in the face with it.
What sucks though is I really like this premise, Delilah isn't so bad so long as she keeps her vampire bait comments to herself and the world itself is intriguing (if a little aimless). I came into the Delilah Street novels because of the short story from the anthology Unusual Suspects in which Delilah solves a CineSim 'murder'. That was so much fun! I'm starting to wonder though if perhaps the stories are better left as short fiction. Less cluttering of the narrative, less repetitious information. I mean I was a interested in the back story between the characters from the SS, but Carole managed to get the feel of the character across in way less space.
I am still intrigued by the set up and world, and thankfully I have book 2 awaiting me, but I'll have to think about wanting to read Book 3 (due out in the fall) if Book 2 doesn't pick up things and give it a firmer course.
October 12, 2009
I found this book interesting and aggravating at the same time. Paranormal investigator Delilah Street is one of those females that something is always happening to - getting attacked by werewolves (more than once), getting kidnapped by werewolves, being held captive again by werewolves, getting arrested for no reason. It seemed like everyone wanted a piece of her whether it was sexual or not, she wasn't safe anywhere. It got annoying after a while.
The story seemed to drag on and on back and forth between the courtship of Delilah and Ric Montoya (a water witch who finds dead bodies) and the werewolves and vampire war from years ago. A little too much of everything just seemed to muddle up the works. Zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, half-breeds, fey and the werewolf mob who runs Las Vegas. And the many many references to old-time movie stars got on my last nerve. At one point, Perry Mason himself was her lawyer. I mean come on.
I enjoyed the storyline but IMO it had too much crammed into one story. This is a series, I think some of this stuff could have been worked into another book. Oh well, that's just my opinion.
The story seemed to drag on and on back and forth between the courtship of Delilah and Ric Montoya (a water witch who finds dead bodies) and the werewolves and vampire war from years ago. A little too much of everything just seemed to muddle up the works. Zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, half-breeds, fey and the werewolf mob who runs Las Vegas. And the many many references to old-time movie stars got on my last nerve. At one point, Perry Mason himself was her lawyer. I mean come on.
I enjoyed the storyline but IMO it had too much crammed into one story. This is a series, I think some of this stuff could have been worked into another book. Oh well, that's just my opinion.
August 10, 2016
I'll start off by saying that I am a avid Urban Fantasy reader and very rarely leave a book unread once started. With that being said I actually did finish this book but only because it has that certain train wreck quality. Most of the book's writing style is so strange that I was left feeling confused and lost after almost every paragraph. Besides the strange writing style there were so many bizarre concepts and metaphors tossed in that I really started to wonder if I was reading a novel where the main character was delusional, schizophrenic, and suffering from ADD. At about halfway through I had a hard time putting the book down, purely because I wanted it to be over with already. It wasn't until somewhere after three quarters of the way through that I was actually interested in how the story ends, which I might add this book fails on as well. I am now left with no way to regain the time spent reading this and no resolution to the story it provided. Sure I could probably pick up the next book in the series and I might gain some closure, however I don't fancy myself a masochist so I'll pass on that.
December 28, 2011
The main character is theoretically an investigator, but she spends most of her time trying on sexy vintage outfits and flirting. There are several mystery threads running through the book, but none of them are resolved by the end.
I want to gripe about the worldbuilding. Apparently it's possible to extract personalities from movies and impress them onto zombies. (But it only works with black-and-white movies? And the resulting zombies take on the black-and-white appearance of the original?) For some reason the resulting quasi-people get mostly used as butlers and doormen (and prostitutes, we're told). Wouldn't they be better employed as detectives?
Also, we're told that werewolves control the Vegas casinos because they "lose less time" than vampires. (Vampires sleep for 12 hours on average per day; werewolves are wolfy only a few days per month.) If skill as a CEO is determined by the percentage of time one is a functioning human, shouldn't the most effective CEOs be human? Or is there an unwritten assumption that werewolves never sleep?
I want to gripe about the worldbuilding. Apparently it's possible to extract personalities from movies and impress them onto zombies. (But it only works with black-and-white movies? And the resulting zombies take on the black-and-white appearance of the original?) For some reason the resulting quasi-people get mostly used as butlers and doormen (and prostitutes, we're told). Wouldn't they be better employed as detectives?
Also, we're told that werewolves control the Vegas casinos because they "lose less time" than vampires. (Vampires sleep for 12 hours on average per day; werewolves are wolfy only a few days per month.) If skill as a CEO is determined by the percentage of time one is a functioning human, shouldn't the most effective CEOs be human? Or is there an unwritten assumption that werewolves never sleep?
June 1, 2019
I really like Douglas's Midnight Louie mystery series and I like this new shift of hers. This first in what looks like will be an enjoyable series had a lot I liked: a great combo of urban fantasy, adventure, romance, alternate history, and mystery genres, it takes place in Las Vegas, new twists on vampires and werewolves, a female star with a lot of character and new, interesting magical abilities, a large, interesting supporting cast, and well written love scenes. I'm definately looking forward to the next one in this series. I checked this one out of the library to read but now I'm really tempted to go out and buy this one to add to my own collection.
did-not-finish
April 12, 2011Just couldn't do it. I made it through 6 chapters, less than 50 pages. I just didn't understand the point. Del apparently sees her doppelganger on CSI, and since her life in Kansas is going down the crapper she heads to Vegas. Weird I tell ya.
Also, I read the ending, and I wasn't that impressed with that either. I also skimmed and found a sex scene, and even that wasn't impressive. Overall, I'm glad I didn't waste much time on this book.
Also, I read the ending, and I wasn't that impressed with that either. I also skimmed and found a sex scene, and even that wasn't impressive. Overall, I'm glad I didn't waste much time on this book.
August 3, 2008
Not a very enjoyable read for me. I finished it as I liked the premise and always dig paranormal, werewolves, vampires, etc. This one was too jumpy for my taste. Author has posted to me on my blog that I perhaps don't like complex plots. Okie dokie.
October 23, 2014
Eminently forgettable, unfortunately. Not bad, but it's only been a couple of months since I read it & I had to read the description to bring back any real memory of it. So the writing wasn't terrible, but the story line wasn't that interesting, either.
November 11, 2008
See my review for "Brimstone Kiss" where I give a very short synopsis of "Dancing With Werewolves", the first book in the Delilah Street series that leads to "Brimstone Kiss". A complex blend of mystery, paranormal, romance, suspense, action, and Hollywood trivia!
July 14, 2009
theres good, bad, and ugly......this goes past ugly. Fugly???
April 19, 2019
Too much excessive flowery nonsensical sentences like "the camera zoomed in like a lover"
April 3, 2019
While it must be admitted that this is competent genre fiction, this book feels like the literary equivalent of gorging oneself on twinkies. One wonders how would could have better spent one's time even if what was made was competently (if not particularly gloriously) made. At many points this book crosses well over the line from paranormal mystery into self-parody, and while this may play well with fans who want to read post-apocalyptic novels about beautiful heroines who quaver for handsome (and ethnic) police officers while dealing with vampires, werewolves, and hordes of undead in the attempt to solve a murder mystery, I must admit that I was left with the distinct feeling that the author could do a lot better than she was. It seemed that she was slumming, writing something that was popular enough to earn her an income, a work that probably didn't take her much longer to write than it took me to read (somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour or two), and while I have read many worse books, I just found this one to be disappointing. Given the materials that the author had to work with, something much better could easily have been created by the author if she had wished to.
As far as plots go, this one is pretty much as throwaway as it gets. We are introduced to orphan girl Delilah Street, who survives the mean streets of Kansas in the aftermath of some kind of apocalypse where vampires and werewolves are discovered and proliferate, and she finds herself as a reporter working the beat in a Las Vegas that is run by a brutal werewolf mob. Naturally, as someone with spooky paranormal abilities, she finds herself attracted to handsome Mexican-American cop Hector and the owner of a large wolfhound who enjoys tearing apart half-were creatures who threaten the pack, and she finds herself having to deal with a corrupt cop who targets her as well as, more seriously, werewolves and vampires who wish to control her or dispose of her as she proves herself one immensely nosy young woman. There are a few set pieces, and some rather spooky scenes, such as Delilah's realization at one point that she has lost her shadow as well as a mysterious shapeshifting collar that she has around her neck, but for the most part this is a wild ride that isn't meant to be taken too seriously.
And that is perhaps the biggest problem that I have with this book as a whole. Delilah's response to Hector (and indeed, to many of the men she encounters in general) is that of someone having a belated but obsessive sexual awakening, described with all the solemnity of the Twilight series. In fact, this book is on the same level of literature as the Twlight books and others that are based on it, which is no particular compliment to the author, a successful writer of several series of novels. With the author's bad attempts to shoehorn various aspects of mythological terror and superficial understandings of religion (but not enough understanding to recognize the hostility of biblical religion to the paranormal), and the awkward and silly tone of the book as a whole, this book comes off as something that the author wrote on a lark and did not take nearly seriously enough to do it justice. As someone who has read compelling post-apocalyptic thrillers that deal with the material in such a better fashion than this [1], this book just ended up being a big disappointing despite the author's obvious skill.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2019...
As far as plots go, this one is pretty much as throwaway as it gets. We are introduced to orphan girl Delilah Street, who survives the mean streets of Kansas in the aftermath of some kind of apocalypse where vampires and werewolves are discovered and proliferate, and she finds herself as a reporter working the beat in a Las Vegas that is run by a brutal werewolf mob. Naturally, as someone with spooky paranormal abilities, she finds herself attracted to handsome Mexican-American cop Hector and the owner of a large wolfhound who enjoys tearing apart half-were creatures who threaten the pack, and she finds herself having to deal with a corrupt cop who targets her as well as, more seriously, werewolves and vampires who wish to control her or dispose of her as she proves herself one immensely nosy young woman. There are a few set pieces, and some rather spooky scenes, such as Delilah's realization at one point that she has lost her shadow as well as a mysterious shapeshifting collar that she has around her neck, but for the most part this is a wild ride that isn't meant to be taken too seriously.
And that is perhaps the biggest problem that I have with this book as a whole. Delilah's response to Hector (and indeed, to many of the men she encounters in general) is that of someone having a belated but obsessive sexual awakening, described with all the solemnity of the Twilight series. In fact, this book is on the same level of literature as the Twlight books and others that are based on it, which is no particular compliment to the author, a successful writer of several series of novels. With the author's bad attempts to shoehorn various aspects of mythological terror and superficial understandings of religion (but not enough understanding to recognize the hostility of biblical religion to the paranormal), and the awkward and silly tone of the book as a whole, this book comes off as something that the author wrote on a lark and did not take nearly seriously enough to do it justice. As someone who has read compelling post-apocalyptic thrillers that deal with the material in such a better fashion than this [1], this book just ended up being a big disappointing despite the author's obvious skill.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2019...
March 20, 2018
Written by Carole Nelson Douglas, Dancing with Werewolves follows investigative reporter Delilah as she moves to Las Vegas to confront the girl who played a corps on an episode of CSI who could be her twin. But really, Delilah is an orphan.
Until Delilah learns that her twin was actually dead in that shot, meets the mysterious Ric, oh, and by the way, all of the monsters and things in the night are out in the open after the Millennium.
Some information before we get into the Good and the Bad. I read this book YEARS ago and could not, for the life of me, remember what this was called. But it had this scene that always stuck with me, particularly as I have gotten more and more into dancing. AND I CAN'T TELL YOU ABOUT THIS SCENE UNLESS YOU GO BELOW TO THE SPOILERS/DISCUSSION SECTION! Gah. On to the good and bad.
The good: this is a very unique story and world. These creatures and powerful beings are different, in their own way that you do need to discover, from the traditional monsters we always read and watch. That is a big point to the author. I also actually like all of the characters and that they all have personalities that come through. I think if you like monsters, action and adventure, or urban fantasy, or romance (romance with a capital R).
The bad: the scenes are good, but the in-between is a little... blury. Vague. And the dialogue is odd because these characters who have never met all seem to have this secret codes with each other. I often had no idea what the characters were alluding to.
A lot happens in this book (it is a long book), and I will be looking for the next book in my library (GO LIBRARIES!), but mostly I am just happy to find this story again. And this author has written so many novels, and I don't know if I have ever heard of her before! Go, discover new books!
Until Delilah learns that her twin was actually dead in that shot, meets the mysterious Ric, oh, and by the way, all of the monsters and things in the night are out in the open after the Millennium.
Some information before we get into the Good and the Bad. I read this book YEARS ago and could not, for the life of me, remember what this was called. But it had this scene that always stuck with me, particularly as I have gotten more and more into dancing. AND I CAN'T TELL YOU ABOUT THIS SCENE UNLESS YOU GO BELOW TO THE SPOILERS/DISCUSSION SECTION! Gah. On to the good and bad.
The good: this is a very unique story and world. These creatures and powerful beings are different, in their own way that you do need to discover, from the traditional monsters we always read and watch. That is a big point to the author. I also actually like all of the characters and that they all have personalities that come through. I think if you like monsters, action and adventure, or urban fantasy, or romance (romance with a capital R).
The bad: the scenes are good, but the in-between is a little... blury. Vague. And the dialogue is odd because these characters who have never met all seem to have this secret codes with each other. I often had no idea what the characters were alluding to.
A lot happens in this book (it is a long book), and I will be looking for the next book in my library (GO LIBRARIES!), but mostly I am just happy to find this story again. And this author has written so many novels, and I don't know if I have ever heard of her before! Go, discover new books!
June 23, 2025
(FYI I tend to only review one book per series, unless I want to change my scoring by 0.50 or more of a star. -- I tend not to read reviews until after I read a book, so I go in with an open mind.)
2.75*
First time read the author's work?: Yes
Will you be reading more?: The author passed in 2021 :(. ---- Since I own the entire series, I read the end of the last published book (out in 2011) and it 'ends' with a couple of big plot reveals, and major things the MC needs to decide on, yet there was never another book published, though she seems to have other books out up to 2018. -- So I don't think I'll read the inbetween books or the rest of the last one, not having a proper 'ending' was annoying enough when I am not really invested yet in the characters.
Would you recommend?: No -- Just because the series has overarching plots and those are never finished.
------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)
All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked
Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)
2.75*
First time read the author's work?: Yes
Will you be reading more?: The author passed in 2021 :(. ---- Since I own the entire series, I read the end of the last published book (out in 2011) and it 'ends' with a couple of big plot reveals, and major things the MC needs to decide on, yet there was never another book published, though she seems to have other books out up to 2018. -- So I don't think I'll read the inbetween books or the rest of the last one, not having a proper 'ending' was annoying enough when I am not really invested yet in the characters.
Would you recommend?: No -- Just because the series has overarching plots and those are never finished.
------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)
All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked
Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)
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