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The Midnight Work
Christmas is a time of forgiveness -- so when Sophie Aubrey's date, a sexy and mysterious artist named Olivier, turns her into a vampire, she decides to forgive him. Especially since being a vampire is just as cool as she always thought it would be. But there are a few drawbacks she never expected, like zombies, sleazy French alchemists, inexplicable and contradictory fairies -- and her one has abandoned Chicago and her cat for the Fairy Lands, and the other reacted to vampirism by embracing it with both hands (and fangs) and gorging herself on human blood. Ick-o-rama.
Plus, Olivier seems to believe that Sophie is his true love from a thousand years ago. Sophie can forgive that too, because when Olivier touches her, the whole world falls away -- but what she can't forgive is that he didn't tell her the whole story, like how a crazy death fairy has a vendetta against her. This has Sophie vacillating between entertainment at the fairy's pretensions and being scared out of her mind that someone who calls himself the God of Death has got it in for her soul.
With the help of Olivier -- and the sleazy French alchemist, who turns out to be a vampire's best friend -- Sophie thinks she can defeat the death fairy. And if she can't, not only will she and Olivier have no future, she's pretty sure that the whole world is doomed.
Who says holidays can't be fun?
Plus, Olivier seems to believe that Sophie is his true love from a thousand years ago. Sophie can forgive that too, because when Olivier touches her, the whole world falls away -- but what she can't forgive is that he didn't tell her the whole story, like how a crazy death fairy has a vendetta against her. This has Sophie vacillating between entertainment at the fairy's pretensions and being scared out of her mind that someone who calls himself the God of Death has got it in for her soul.
With the help of Olivier -- and the sleazy French alchemist, who turns out to be a vampire's best friend -- Sophie thinks she can defeat the death fairy. And if she can't, not only will she and Olivier have no future, she's pretty sure that the whole world is doomed.
Who says holidays can't be fun?
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 2005
4 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 3, 2013
Oh where to begin!
For starters, I should warn you that if you plan to read this book, then please have a dictionary handy. I was not impressed with Sims' style. She could have done a better job with how she organized her story. What seemed to be part of the storyline, was actually a shift in time fortold through dreams. It was annoying at first, but I was able to anticipate it and made it easier for me to keep up. She also has a way with unique phrases. Now, at the risk of sounding ignorant, most of the time I kept rereading the passage to see if there was a deeper meaning or if there was any relation to the plot, but no, it was mostly an attempt at some sort of prose. It was probably this that kept this book longer than it should have been. There was also a lot of repition with the word "know" and all its possible tenses: "he knew", "she knew he had known", "does she know", "I know he knows." and amazingly is given away by a single expression. Seriously?!?
Now on to the characters! Olivier is the hero and sired Sophie, the heroine, who in turn sired Norah. Right off the bat, it was evident that the hero was not an alpha, in fact not even beta! in fact, Luc pretty much summs it up with:
"Oliver refused to act until he was at sword point or his d@#! ached, and luc found that to be his worst personaity trait in a personality full of flaws. Olivier's actions were always dictated by physical need or odd caprice; he wasn't a planner."
Both "fledgings" or baby vamps were rude to him and walked all over him. Then he was the one who was sorry for the mistakes they made out of ignorance because he claims he could have done a better job at axplaining their new situation and so it was his mistake, not theirs. Hello!!! they never let him finish before either would walk out on him or switch topics and he just let them!! I can't like a male hero if his character is not beta at best, but alpha preferred!! The characters were immature and, lack for a better word, stupid. They had the tendancy to laugh or giggle when in a dire situation. Their basic attitude was "oh I manged to help release a force of nature responsible for the crusades out into the world again, oh well someone will take care of it or I'll deal with it later after I take a nap." Really?!? Sophie's an educated person working towards her PHD in religion, but has no common sense, is selfish and needy, and is even more stupid than the others. Her motivation and overall relations with others stem from abandonment issues. She exhibits common phsychological responses but does not show any character growth.
About the only think I liked was to concept of seing people as a food source only, the jaded outlook of life from the vampires' pov, and some cute moments with Satham the cat.
You should also know that the story is left unconcluded, yet did not finish with a cliffhanger, if that makes any sense. I believe there may be part two in the works and believe me, I will not be following up.
I really need to work on my compulsion to finish a book once I start it.
For starters, I should warn you that if you plan to read this book, then please have a dictionary handy. I was not impressed with Sims' style. She could have done a better job with how she organized her story. What seemed to be part of the storyline, was actually a shift in time fortold through dreams. It was annoying at first, but I was able to anticipate it and made it easier for me to keep up. She also has a way with unique phrases. Now, at the risk of sounding ignorant, most of the time I kept rereading the passage to see if there was a deeper meaning or if there was any relation to the plot, but no, it was mostly an attempt at some sort of prose. It was probably this that kept this book longer than it should have been. There was also a lot of repition with the word "know" and all its possible tenses: "he knew", "she knew he had known", "does she know", "I know he knows." and amazingly is given away by a single expression. Seriously?!?
Now on to the characters! Olivier is the hero and sired Sophie, the heroine, who in turn sired Norah. Right off the bat, it was evident that the hero was not an alpha, in fact not even beta! in fact, Luc pretty much summs it up with:
"Oliver refused to act until he was at sword point or his d@#! ached, and luc found that to be his worst personaity trait in a personality full of flaws. Olivier's actions were always dictated by physical need or odd caprice; he wasn't a planner."
Both "fledgings" or baby vamps were rude to him and walked all over him. Then he was the one who was sorry for the mistakes they made out of ignorance because he claims he could have done a better job at axplaining their new situation and so it was his mistake, not theirs. Hello!!! they never let him finish before either would walk out on him or switch topics and he just let them!! I can't like a male hero if his character is not beta at best, but alpha preferred!! The characters were immature and, lack for a better word, stupid. They had the tendancy to laugh or giggle when in a dire situation. Their basic attitude was "oh I manged to help release a force of nature responsible for the crusades out into the world again, oh well someone will take care of it or I'll deal with it later after I take a nap." Really?!? Sophie's an educated person working towards her PHD in religion, but has no common sense, is selfish and needy, and is even more stupid than the others. Her motivation and overall relations with others stem from abandonment issues. She exhibits common phsychological responses but does not show any character growth.
About the only think I liked was to concept of seing people as a food source only, the jaded outlook of life from the vampires' pov, and some cute moments with Satham the cat.
You should also know that the story is left unconcluded, yet did not finish with a cliffhanger, if that makes any sense. I believe there may be part two in the works and believe me, I will not be following up.
I really need to work on my compulsion to finish a book once I start it.
April 11, 2020
Ok, I’m calling Time of Death on this one at 7:15pm April 5th, 2020 on page 278. I know, I know. I’m in the home stretch. Why not finish it? I just can’t. Really. This book is a hot mess.
Spoilers + Rant ahead:
The main character has just put together that the big bad is in **** and they are just his play things. But instead of coming up with a plan to defeat that baddie she’s going to go get Olivier and shop for a Christmas tree and presents for children from the angle tree. The world will be destroyed, but by golly those kids will have presents! Lol. Right before reading this section my bookmark fell out and as I skimmed to find my place I know that Sofie and Olivier also get down and dirty before they deign to rescue her best friend. Maybe even twice.
What does anything in this story have to do with anything else? I have the feeling this author is a pantser and then didn’t bother to go back and make sure everything was cohesive. This thing will happen and then this thing will occur and oh yeah I should throw in some steamy moments and that roommate that is just kind of there well now she’s the best friend and the one that we made you think was the best friend is just a good friend/roommate and she’ll serve a small part that did nothing for the story except as bait and she walks you through fairyland and shows you all the crazy stuff that has nothing to do with the story and the leading man is just there for the steamy bits and their backstory is just lost in it all and and and...I’m done.
Woo! That was a good rant!
Spoilers + Rant ahead:
The main character has just put together that the big bad is in **** and they are just his play things. But instead of coming up with a plan to defeat that baddie she’s going to go get Olivier and shop for a Christmas tree and presents for children from the angle tree. The world will be destroyed, but by golly those kids will have presents! Lol. Right before reading this section my bookmark fell out and as I skimmed to find my place I know that Sofie and Olivier also get down and dirty before they deign to rescue her best friend. Maybe even twice.
What does anything in this story have to do with anything else? I have the feeling this author is a pantser and then didn’t bother to go back and make sure everything was cohesive. This thing will happen and then this thing will occur and oh yeah I should throw in some steamy moments and that roommate that is just kind of there well now she’s the best friend and the one that we made you think was the best friend is just a good friend/roommate and she’ll serve a small part that did nothing for the story except as bait and she walks you through fairyland and shows you all the crazy stuff that has nothing to do with the story and the leading man is just there for the steamy bits and their backstory is just lost in it all and and and...I’m done.
Woo! That was a good rant!
March 23, 2025
I tried really hard but this book is a hot mess. Unsure who wrote they synopsis on the back of the book because it has nothing to do with what I've read thus far and for those of you that rated this five stars I need to point you in the direction of some actual authors because this is just crap. The characters are horribly written, they have not depth nor do they show any growth, the plot, if there even is one because I've yet to find it was just bad.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 10, 2020
I could not get through this book and I really tried . This is truly saying something for me since I love to read anything as long as it can keep my attention .
This was cheesey and to much cliche vampire book . Girl turns vampire turns best friend and they throw moral compass out the window and say let's do what we want .
This was cheesey and to much cliche vampire book . Girl turns vampire turns best friend and they throw moral compass out the window and say let's do what we want .
August 1, 2020
Entertaining but the characters didn't really draw me in.
September 4, 2014
Christmas is a time of forgiveness -- so when Sophie Aubrey's date, a sexy and mysterious artist named Olivier, turns her into a vampire, she decides to forgive him. Especially since being a vampire is just as cool as she always thought it would be. But there are a few drawbacks she never expected, like zombies, sleazy French alchemists, inexplicable and contradictory fairies -- and her roommates: one has abandoned Chicago and her cat for the Fairy Lands, and the other reacted to vampirism by embracing it with both hands (and fangs) and gorging herself on human blood. Ick-o-rama.
Plus, Olivier seems to believe that Sophie is his true love from a thousand years ago. Sophie can forgive that too, because when Olivier touches her, the whole world falls away -- but what she can't forgive is that he didn't tell her the whole story, like how a crazy death fairy has a vendetta against her. This has Sophie vacillating between entertainment at the fairy's pretensions and being scared out of her mind that someone who calls himself the God of Death has got it in for her soul.
With the help of Olivier -- and the sleazy French alchemist, who turns out to be a vampire's best friend -- Sophie thinks she can defeat the death fairy. And if she can't, not only will she and Olivier have no future, she's pretty sure that the whole world is doomed.
Plus, Olivier seems to believe that Sophie is his true love from a thousand years ago. Sophie can forgive that too, because when Olivier touches her, the whole world falls away -- but what she can't forgive is that he didn't tell her the whole story, like how a crazy death fairy has a vendetta against her. This has Sophie vacillating between entertainment at the fairy's pretensions and being scared out of her mind that someone who calls himself the God of Death has got it in for her soul.
With the help of Olivier -- and the sleazy French alchemist, who turns out to be a vampire's best friend -- Sophie thinks she can defeat the death fairy. And if she can't, not only will she and Olivier have no future, she's pretty sure that the whole world is doomed.
January 10, 2011
this turned out to be a good book. I have a habit of reading the reviews on Amazon before I read a book and this particular book was given a lot of 1*, so I was a little reluctant to start it but when I did it was worth it.
Sophie Aubrey has been speaking with Olivier via email and she was quite excited when the time came to meet him, but he turned her into a vampire and her world changed. She straight away turned her roommate and best friend Norah into a vampire also because she did not want to be one her own, but there was more to it than that. Olivier believes she is his reincarnated first love Phillipa who burned a few centuries ago but he doesn’t get around to telling Sophia what he believes before she and Norah are pulled into Fairyland where she discovers who she was and what has to be done to put things right.
I was hoping for a romance, and though there is romance, it’s not often, everything pulls together at the end.
Sophie Aubrey has been speaking with Olivier via email and she was quite excited when the time came to meet him, but he turned her into a vampire and her world changed. She straight away turned her roommate and best friend Norah into a vampire also because she did not want to be one her own, but there was more to it than that. Olivier believes she is his reincarnated first love Phillipa who burned a few centuries ago but he doesn’t get around to telling Sophia what he believes before she and Norah are pulled into Fairyland where she discovers who she was and what has to be done to put things right.
I was hoping for a romance, and though there is romance, it’s not often, everything pulls together at the end.
January 23, 2016
This book is inexplicably listed in the paranormal romance genre...But its not really romance. The hero and the supposed heroine don't even have scenes together half the time. They have quickie sex in the hallway of a club and from then on there is virtually no contact, no conversation, no romance, no nothing except murder and mayhem. The Hero turned the heroine into a vampire...then she turned her friend and they go on a blood-letting crime spree for the rest of the book. I will admit the book was amusing at certain points but I can't say that I liked it overall. The characters were unlikable and crazy. The plot just meandered...people just wandered around and ate people, knocked over jewelry stores, etc. I can't recommend the book.
May 24, 2016
I have to be honest I couldn't finish this book. I only got a few chapters in and I disliked the main characters so much that I had to stop. How can you like main characters that go around murdering humans like its just a part of everyday life? Especially when they were human only like a day before. One of them actually speculates out loud about how babies would probably be juicy sweet. I'm sorry but I need to at least vaguely like the main characters in a book in order to finish it. These ones just creeped me out and made me want to see them staked through the heart.
did-not-finish
April 21, 2014I made it to page 177 before calling it quits. This was just too confusing and not holding my attention in any way. The characters were aggravating and unlikable. I was having to force myself to pick it up. I'm sure everything clicked together in the author's mind nicely, but not for me.
Read
August 1, 2016ETHROSDEMON PUBLISHED A FEW HARLEQUINS DIDN'T SHE? DID ANYONE EVER READ THEM?
THEY WERE PARANORMAL ROMANCE, THE ONLY I HALF READ WAS A RUBBISH VAMPIRE ONE. IT WAS STANDARD TRASHY VAMPIRE ROMANCE NONSENSE.
THEY WERE PARANORMAL ROMANCE, THE ONLY I HALF READ WAS A RUBBISH VAMPIRE ONE. IT WAS STANDARD TRASHY VAMPIRE ROMANCE NONSENSE.
September 27, 2009
Meh.. I just can't get into this book. I think its going in the take to Half-Priced Books pile. Sounded interesting, but its just not getting there.
March 7, 2010
Have tried twice to make it through this book. It can't hold my attention.
August 26, 2009
Really funny, unique, & bizarro. Not your typical romance. These vampires aren't conflicted, either. It's like, shrug, "shit happens."
September 12, 2010
The worst book I've read so far.
The summary seemed interesting, but after reading the first 3 chapters, I gave up. I wasted my money on this one :(
The summary seemed interesting, but after reading the first 3 chapters, I gave up. I wasted my money on this one :(
January 7, 2011
I couldn't get into this book at all. I tried so hard to like it.
January 7, 2011
Awful book! Im not one to put a book down forever. I figure if I paid the money for it, I will finish it. I couldnt put myself through that with this book. So bad!
February 16, 2011
kinda weird, actually found a typo ha! good fun story minus all the sex "scenes"
April 19, 2012
My favorite dirty book ever! x1 lol
January 29, 2013
This book is BORING. I almost fell asleep few times, that's a BIG sign. But I have a dumb thing that I MUST to complete the book. So happy to end the book. Ugh ugh ugh.
September 9, 2015
Horrible, bad writing, several grammatical errors through the book, and the story was never able to pull me in.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews