*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.**
In case you haven't read this one or missed the release blitz post on 6/14, here's a quick recap:
Kayel Cleary is a phone sex operator. All she wants to do is get through law school, and if that means late-night phone calls with men who think she’s something she’s not, then so be it.
That is, until one of her long-time clients is murdered – and she hears it all.
Lathan only wants one thing: a seat on the vampire council. He’s worked his entire unnatural life for this moment, only to have it fall apart when his biggest supporter ends up dead. Now, Lathan has to find and work with the only witness. And she happens to be a phone sex operator.
Thrust into a world she never knew existed, Kayel must help Lathan find the murderer and stop the impending war, all while fighting her attraction for the undead man she loves to hate. If she can’t learn their ways and figure out who killed Marco, then she may lose more than just her life … She may spark a war that would spell disaster for vampires and humans alike.
***
“Hotline to Hell” seemed like it would be a fresh, interesting take on the world of vampires, including their internal politics. I wanted to like it, a lot, but I struggled to connect with the characters and stay interested in the story. There ended up being too many issues for me.
Unfortunately, I found Ms. Cyr's characters to be pretty bland. Kayel was okay, though she had one personality quirk that drove me up a wall. Her made-up expletives were cute and funny for about a chapter, but she uses them CONSTANTLY AND they started to grate on my nerves to the point I just wanted her to shut up already. She didn't grow all that much as the story progressed, just sorta scrambling to take what was thrown at her, Lathan was flat, with emotions flying form one extreme to the other, and his actions/reactions/treatment of those around him was rather melodramatic.
Ms. Cyr had a really good and interesting idea when she drew up this story. The conflict between made and born vampires, their rules, and their interactions with humans could have been a breath of fresh air to the genre if she'd been able ot pace it right. As it was, the storyline was quickly bogged down in tedious explanation, too many characters who played minor parts, and a lot of internal monologing. When things DID finally start progressing in a meaningful way, the outcome was satisfying and I appreciated the ending.
This book could definitely have used an editor, as there were typos all over the place. Sometimes it was missing words (usually articles), sometimes it was words in the wrong order, and sometimes it was a lack of punctuation. I'm not sure if the author hired an editor for this, but if she did, they should be fired. The sheer number of mistakes added further distraction to a story I was already struggling to engage wtih.
Bottom line: "Hotline to Hell" was mediocre, getting boggeddown by a slow pace and bland charactes. There was, however, a lot of potential for it to be great. Ms. Cyr seems like an author to watch, just one who needs a little more practice and honing of her craft.