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Vampire Babylon #1
Night Rising
Life proves stranger than the movies when a Hollywood underground coven of vampires comes to light-and gets targeted by the tough-as-nails daughter of a sexy screen siren.
Stuntwoman Dawn Madison hasn't been on the best of terms with her father since her movie star mother died. Still, he is her dad, and when he vanishes while investigating the bizarre sighting-caught on film-of a supposedly long-dead child star, she comes home to Tinseltown to join the search for him. Working with his odd colleagues, she discovers an erotic and bloody underground society made up of creatures she thought existed only on the screen.
336 pages, Paperback
First published February 6, 2007
43 people are currently reading
2729 people want to read
About the author
Chris Marie Green
44 books250 followersChris Marie Green, former school teacher turned full-time writer, gets out of the office by taking long trips to places such as Japan, Italy, and New Orleans. When she’s not causing international incidents, she enjoys yoga, movie-going and dabbling in firsthand research such as fencing, Krav Maga and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. She also writes under the name Crystal Green and Christine Cody
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
May 21, 2016
Dawn is a really strong MC. Her stunt woman qualities make her a super kick-ass heroin who takes no crap. What I loved about her was that she was kick-ass but not emotion less. She felt for others even if she didn't show it much, and she absolutely rocked the house if she entered.
The characters in the book in particular were very thorough and the way in which the they developed was fascinating to watch. They grew closer and found out very important secrets about themselves, which helped me as a reader to get closer to them.
A few parts of the book had me gripping my seat in the adventure, but in some parts, it was lacking in the gritty quality and I was wondering whether I should continue reading or not, but eventually it improved.
The main plot of the story was that Dawns father, Frank, who is a PI (personal investigator) has gone missing and Dawn has to travel to Los Angeles to save him after getting this info from his fellow PI's. In this book you get trapped in the dangerously alluring world of Holywood, and you learn how in the city of LA where anyone can become a celebrity, lies the nest of vampires who will do anything to win the war of secrecy. The story is also based on how the child star Robby Pennybaker is pulled into the underground world of vampires against his will, and how that destroys him.
This book creates a world of big betrayals and sad secrets that threaten to destroy the slow building bond of friendship between three distinctly different characters and how they fight to stay together and solve their lives out, along with a mysterious appearance of a long dead child star.
I totally recommend this book to anyone!! I'm also gonna start the next one right now!!!
The characters in the book in particular were very thorough and the way in which the they developed was fascinating to watch. They grew closer and found out very important secrets about themselves, which helped me as a reader to get closer to them.
A few parts of the book had me gripping my seat in the adventure, but in some parts, it was lacking in the gritty quality and I was wondering whether I should continue reading or not, but eventually it improved.
The main plot of the story was that Dawns father, Frank, who is a PI (personal investigator) has gone missing and Dawn has to travel to Los Angeles to save him after getting this info from his fellow PI's. In this book you get trapped in the dangerously alluring world of Holywood, and you learn how in the city of LA where anyone can become a celebrity, lies the nest of vampires who will do anything to win the war of secrecy. The story is also based on how the child star Robby Pennybaker is pulled into the underground world of vampires against his will, and how that destroys him.
This book creates a world of big betrayals and sad secrets that threaten to destroy the slow building bond of friendship between three distinctly different characters and how they fight to stay together and solve their lives out, along with a mysterious appearance of a long dead child star.
I totally recommend this book to anyone!! I'm also gonna start the next one right now!!!
April 27, 2008
I'm having a hard time formulating my thoughts on this book. I did like it and will read the next one, but there was just something off about the whole thing. Maybe because there were a bunch of loose ends at the end of the book than was necessary, but who knows. I didn't get the whole promiscuous thing, mostly because it didn't feel like it belonged in the book and really came out of nowhere; it felt like it was added for the whole "sex sells" concept. I mean that thing with "the Voice" was just plain weird and creepy. Quite few times I thought Dawn needed to get over herself and quit whining about her mother. She's twenty-four, she needs to act like it, not like some angsty teenager. I get it - it's hard to grow up with a beautiful mother who died too young and being compared to her when you're only average looking is hard (Although the cover model is above average looking. Marketing? I think so. :P), but deal with it already. I really didn't care about her and thought overall that Kiko was the best character of the bunch. Hopefully in the next book they are all developed better and Dawn grows up.
You can tell the author has taken some things from other medias: The Crow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, especially with Dawn being the "key" and probably from other things I haven't seen or read so can't compare. I think that detracted from the book because I don't want to compare the stories; I'd rather the book stood alone as it is.
Nearer the end it had me wondering about a certain character and if that was a hint to what's to come in future books. That's probably the main reason I'll read on, although there are some interesting concepts in the book too. The most interesting is the the vampire world, in which there are some varying degrees of good and evil - like humans - and they're just trying to survive without being found out - at least that's how I took it. All in all it was a decent read, but just an average urban fantasy book.
2.5 stars
You can tell the author has taken some things from other medias: The Crow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, especially with Dawn being the "key" and probably from other things I haven't seen or read so can't compare. I think that detracted from the book because I don't want to compare the stories; I'd rather the book stood alone as it is.
Nearer the end it had me wondering about a certain character and if that was a hint to what's to come in future books. That's probably the main reason I'll read on, although there are some interesting concepts in the book too. The most interesting is the the vampire world, in which there are some varying degrees of good and evil - like humans - and they're just trying to survive without being found out - at least that's how I took it. All in all it was a decent read, but just an average urban fantasy book.
2.5 stars
August 23, 2009
Oh, did I not like this book. The main character comes across as a humorless, nymphomaniac version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer who, upon meeting one of her future allies for the first time, drops into a martial arts stand for no reason. Even a sarcastic sense of humor would have benefited this book more than the nonexistent one. So, you go through 300 pages or so of an unlikeable protagonist who's destiny is to do something neat, but she's remarkably slow to pick up on obvious clues while at the end she picks up on what may be a major one for the next book in the series for no real reason whatsoever. She hates her father! She loves her father! She hates her mother who died when she was a month old! No, she thinks fondly of a woman she didn't really know! No, wait, she resents being a sex-symbol's daughter! No, she just wants sex! All the time! Bah. A couple plot points are left unresolved to get readers to move on in an obvious series, but I couldn't be bothered, even if the grammar teacher I am wasn't screaming inside due to all the sentence fragments.
Late in the narrative, the hero wonders to herself what the hell's going on. Literally. Twenty or so pages later, she thinks how nothing is making sense. You know what? She wasn't the only one thinking that. I will not be proceeding with this series.
Late in the narrative, the hero wonders to herself what the hell's going on. Literally. Twenty or so pages later, she thinks how nothing is making sense. You know what? She wasn't the only one thinking that. I will not be proceeding with this series.
February 27, 2010
I was completely unprepared for the decent quality of this story. Definitely not like most of the vampire oriented para’s I’ve read lately! A funky, gritty paranormal LA mystery, this story kicks off a great new and refreshingly different series which this reader fully intends to complete!
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Please visit my blog for the rest of the review!
http://yzhabellasbookshelf.blogspot.c...
I'd love for you to stop by!
January 30, 2019
17 points/100 (1 star/5)
A boy dead for 20 years showing up in a recent film. A missing father. A daughter looking for the truth. And vampires, attacking.
This will be spoiler heavy, because I can't talk about what I want to talk about without giving away a lot of spoilers.
Well, this was certainly a start to a series. I've read the first three books in this series years and years ago, before book four even came out. In a common enough story for me, I never actually got around to it again until now. Wow.
The good: They are looking for a child actor who has shown up on film after being dead for years. When this is the main focus of the story it is interesting. And kind of really horrifying. A child actor, 12 years old, being lead by his father who was a failed child actor. Night rising includes all the horror inherent in that scenario. Only, on top of those horrors, you have a father who had a vampire turn his son against the son's will. It is pretty awful. The poor kid just wants to be accepted and loved by his parents (even though he is technically in his 30s now).
Now for the not: This was betimes incredibly confusing. The opening itself makes very little sense. Nothing in it is actually explained with any amount of actual explanation. It just keeps moving forward and hopes you forget that. Other than the opening, there were many times in the book where absolutely nothing made sense. A few times I had to actually scroll back a few pages to figure out what was happening when I realised that they were spinning around in circles going on about....? Yeah, this story was not the most coherent thing I've ever read.
The main character, Dawn Madison, is angry and hostile to the entire world, to everyone else. She has two character traits: anger and sex (where she is angry and hurt anyway). She is a stuntwoman who made someone important mad and is on the outs with the industry. She has absolutely no skills outside of being a good ragdoll, yet somehow she is going to be important to this series?
This is just a precursor to everything else about this series, because it is completely focused on Hollywood. Everything about is focused on Hollywood. Everyone they talk to wants to be or is an actor. Her mom was an actress. Her dad was in the industry. Both of her new "coworkers" are or were actors. Even the "bad guys" (even though they really haven't established themselves as actually bad guys yet) are vampires who turn actors and actors who are stars and preserves them so they can start their career again at a later date.
Going back to the main character, though. To say Dawn has issues with her parents is an understatement. She is looking for her dad who has gone missing. Only, she hasn't even talked to him in a month. She doesn't even seem to like him, yet she is willing to "do anything it takes" to get him back. Guilt, I guess. Not uncommon. Her relationship with her mom is worse, and also why her relationship with her dad is bad. Her mom died when she was about a month old, and it sent her dad into a depressive spiral he only recently seems to have crawled his way out of. Her mom was an amazing, beloved, incredibly hot actress, and Dawn is always getting compared to her. Especially in her own mind.
All this leads somehow into the fact that Dawn is a sex addict. She uses sex to "make the world go away" for a bit. She uses it to sleep, she uses it to remain calm. She is constantly looking for her next fix, willing to come on to anyone in order to get it. It clouds her entire judgment. She was even willing to sleep around at whoever she picked up that night's house instead of getting a hotel, it is that bad. Only it gets worse. Every single person around her constantly judges her for her addiction and is vocal about it. And then she gets incredibly hostile because they brought it up. Every time. That isn't even the worst bit! She uses it to get back at her dad. She uses it to reaffirm that she is alive and her mom isn't. Every time sex comes up, it is also accompanied with "Can you do that, mom? No, you can't! Cause you're dead!" or something to that effect. I'm still not entirely certain if "constantly hostile when it is brought up" or "I think of my mom every time I want to have sex" is worse, to be honest.
This sex addiction is definitely going to get Dawn in trouble at some point. It will get her into danger as she decides to go off with someone she really shouldn't have. Dawn is somehow roped into being a PI with this company her dad worked with. The excuse is that one of the characters, Kiko (who I didn't realise was a dwarf for way too long), who is a psychic saw a vision where Dawn was critical to their mission succeeding. My problem with this? She has absolutely no training to be a PI at all (and I'm pretty certain that in the state of California you need a license to be a PI at all).
I can maybe accept her not having any training if she stayed at base making phone calls or doing research online or something. Only, that isn't the case. They take her out into the field. They let her take lead. They let her ask questions like she knows what she is doing. (To be fair, she does appear like she knows what she is doing but that is wrong, too. She shouldn't have a clue.) When they try and say maybe she shouldn't, she blows up at them and refuses to see reason!
And because this is a world with vampires, they eventually get attacked. Only, they never tell her what she is getting into. As you might expect, it is a very confusing time for her. They let her figure out for herself the world they run around in. They don't give her any way to figure out how to protect herself until after she has already been attacked, even in the middle of a fight they just give her a cross and expect her to know what to do with it. And then, when someone has the audacity to say maybe she shouldn't be in the field, everyone jumps up and says "But she did just fine! Everyone's first time is a trial!" Ridiculous.
The PI firm she has been roped into working with (for? though I don't think they worked out salary or contract, just dropped her off into the deep end) is "special". Kiko, I've already talked about. There is another character called Breizi (pronounced like "breezy"), who was an actress pushed out for being too old, and somehow has enough technical genius to help them. Then there is the boss. Dawn calls him The Voice because he refuses to tell her his name at first for no reason, and it doesn't get said until 70% of the way through the book. We know absolutely nothing about him - except that he doesn't seem to have a body.
Which is especially troublesome since he is the primary love interest for this book. Though, there is a sort of love triangle (save me). Dawn knows nothing about him, not even his name, the first time they have sex. (How does a being have sex without a body? Read and find out!) The second time they have sex, he admits openly that he is using it as an excuse to rummage through her mind. Then there is the secondary PI dude that is super hot for her, practically drooling. He keeps showing up everywhere, and is looking into her dad's disappearance, but refuses to say who hired him. He lies to her constantly. He even tells her Batman's backstory to try and create a sob story to her so she'll be sympathetic. Something is super fishy with this dude, yet she still wants to have sex with him. She is her own worst enemy.
Everyone wants Dawn! Both guys do. Kiko wants to at least be her friend. We are actually even told that she was maneuvered into place, into being there. We aren't certain why yet (though I do have theories). I just don't get why everyone seems to like her. She is so angry and she has no personality except that anger and wanting to have sex with every guy that is capable of doing it.
There is also the trouble that all the vampires seem to be able to use mind control and read people's mind. This is such an ethical dilemma that never actually gets addressed. Especially since one of those people is her boss! Especially since she is sleeping with him! When he is rifling through her brain during sex, he finds that she is repressing stuff. Nothing is actually revealed this book, though. A lot of stuff is left for the rest of the series to figure out later. Though, I will bring up "The Photo". There is a photo she finds at her father's house that brings up repressed memories. We don't know what it contains. It gets brought up a few times. We don't know! I'm annoyed at this. Also, Dawn is displaying some ability to do things with her mind that others just..aren't. Not to our knowledge, not without being a vampire.
This is essentially a Buffy fanfiction. Almost everything makes it seem like it is set in the Buffy world. The vampire bad guy is called "the Master". Vampires collapse into dust when they die. They don't have souls anymore after they are turned, apparently. Hell, even the main character's name, Dawn, is a callback to Buffy! There are more in this book than I even want to get into. However, there is even this conversation midway through the book:
“Actually, I thought I’d start you on some reading. Vampires, Burial, and Death, for one, and some writings by Montague Summers. He was this famous supernatural expert.”
“Can’t I just watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer?”
Kiko looked intrigued. “That might be surprisingly valuable. Maybe later."
Lastly, no one seems to know about the supernatural world. Though, I was a bit unclear on this for a while. It wasn't really well explained in the least. Dawn herself seems to be completely fine with it all at first, even acknowledging Kiko as a psychic at first. So, I thought my memories weren't right because it is all seemingly fine. Until it isn't. Then, Dawn oscillates between accepting it and then going "there has to be a rational explanation!" and everything. I was very confused.
That should be the theme of my reading this book: "I was very confused". I don't remember this being the best read, but I remembered it being better. I can only hope it gets better from here.
To read more reviews in this series and others, check out keikii eats books!
A boy dead for 20 years showing up in a recent film. A missing father. A daughter looking for the truth. And vampires, attacking.
This will be spoiler heavy, because I can't talk about what I want to talk about without giving away a lot of spoilers.
Well, this was certainly a start to a series. I've read the first three books in this series years and years ago, before book four even came out. In a common enough story for me, I never actually got around to it again until now. Wow.
The good: They are looking for a child actor who has shown up on film after being dead for years. When this is the main focus of the story it is interesting. And kind of really horrifying. A child actor, 12 years old, being lead by his father who was a failed child actor. Night rising includes all the horror inherent in that scenario. Only, on top of those horrors, you have a father who had a vampire turn his son against the son's will. It is pretty awful. The poor kid just wants to be accepted and loved by his parents (even though he is technically in his 30s now).
Now for the not: This was betimes incredibly confusing. The opening itself makes very little sense. Nothing in it is actually explained with any amount of actual explanation. It just keeps moving forward and hopes you forget that. Other than the opening, there were many times in the book where absolutely nothing made sense. A few times I had to actually scroll back a few pages to figure out what was happening when I realised that they were spinning around in circles going on about....? Yeah, this story was not the most coherent thing I've ever read.
The main character, Dawn Madison, is angry and hostile to the entire world, to everyone else. She has two character traits: anger and sex (where she is angry and hurt anyway). She is a stuntwoman who made someone important mad and is on the outs with the industry. She has absolutely no skills outside of being a good ragdoll, yet somehow she is going to be important to this series?
This is just a precursor to everything else about this series, because it is completely focused on Hollywood. Everything about is focused on Hollywood. Everyone they talk to wants to be or is an actor. Her mom was an actress. Her dad was in the industry. Both of her new "coworkers" are or were actors. Even the "bad guys" (even though they really haven't established themselves as actually bad guys yet) are vampires who turn actors and actors who are stars and preserves them so they can start their career again at a later date.
Going back to the main character, though. To say Dawn has issues with her parents is an understatement. She is looking for her dad who has gone missing. Only, she hasn't even talked to him in a month. She doesn't even seem to like him, yet she is willing to "do anything it takes" to get him back. Guilt, I guess. Not uncommon. Her relationship with her mom is worse, and also why her relationship with her dad is bad. Her mom died when she was about a month old, and it sent her dad into a depressive spiral he only recently seems to have crawled his way out of. Her mom was an amazing, beloved, incredibly hot actress, and Dawn is always getting compared to her. Especially in her own mind.
All this leads somehow into the fact that Dawn is a sex addict. She uses sex to "make the world go away" for a bit. She uses it to sleep, she uses it to remain calm. She is constantly looking for her next fix, willing to come on to anyone in order to get it. It clouds her entire judgment. She was even willing to sleep around at whoever she picked up that night's house instead of getting a hotel, it is that bad. Only it gets worse. Every single person around her constantly judges her for her addiction and is vocal about it. And then she gets incredibly hostile because they brought it up. Every time. That isn't even the worst bit! She uses it to get back at her dad. She uses it to reaffirm that she is alive and her mom isn't. Every time sex comes up, it is also accompanied with "Can you do that, mom? No, you can't! Cause you're dead!" or something to that effect. I'm still not entirely certain if "constantly hostile when it is brought up" or "I think of my mom every time I want to have sex" is worse, to be honest.
This sex addiction is definitely going to get Dawn in trouble at some point. It will get her into danger as she decides to go off with someone she really shouldn't have. Dawn is somehow roped into being a PI with this company her dad worked with. The excuse is that one of the characters, Kiko (who I didn't realise was a dwarf for way too long), who is a psychic saw a vision where Dawn was critical to their mission succeeding. My problem with this? She has absolutely no training to be a PI at all (and I'm pretty certain that in the state of California you need a license to be a PI at all).
I can maybe accept her not having any training if she stayed at base making phone calls or doing research online or something. Only, that isn't the case. They take her out into the field. They let her take lead. They let her ask questions like she knows what she is doing. (To be fair, she does appear like she knows what she is doing but that is wrong, too. She shouldn't have a clue.) When they try and say maybe she shouldn't, she blows up at them and refuses to see reason!
And because this is a world with vampires, they eventually get attacked. Only, they never tell her what she is getting into. As you might expect, it is a very confusing time for her. They let her figure out for herself the world they run around in. They don't give her any way to figure out how to protect herself until after she has already been attacked, even in the middle of a fight they just give her a cross and expect her to know what to do with it. And then, when someone has the audacity to say maybe she shouldn't be in the field, everyone jumps up and says "But she did just fine! Everyone's first time is a trial!" Ridiculous.
The PI firm she has been roped into working with (for? though I don't think they worked out salary or contract, just dropped her off into the deep end) is "special". Kiko, I've already talked about. There is another character called Breizi (pronounced like "breezy"), who was an actress pushed out for being too old, and somehow has enough technical genius to help them. Then there is the boss. Dawn calls him The Voice because he refuses to tell her his name at first for no reason, and it doesn't get said until 70% of the way through the book. We know absolutely nothing about him - except that he doesn't seem to have a body.
Which is especially troublesome since he is the primary love interest for this book. Though, there is a sort of love triangle (save me). Dawn knows nothing about him, not even his name, the first time they have sex. (How does a being have sex without a body? Read and find out!) The second time they have sex, he admits openly that he is using it as an excuse to rummage through her mind. Then there is the secondary PI dude that is super hot for her, practically drooling. He keeps showing up everywhere, and is looking into her dad's disappearance, but refuses to say who hired him. He lies to her constantly. He even tells her Batman's backstory to try and create a sob story to her so she'll be sympathetic. Something is super fishy with this dude, yet she still wants to have sex with him. She is her own worst enemy.
Everyone wants Dawn! Both guys do. Kiko wants to at least be her friend. We are actually even told that she was maneuvered into place, into being there. We aren't certain why yet (though I do have theories). I just don't get why everyone seems to like her. She is so angry and she has no personality except that anger and wanting to have sex with every guy that is capable of doing it.
There is also the trouble that all the vampires seem to be able to use mind control and read people's mind. This is such an ethical dilemma that never actually gets addressed. Especially since one of those people is her boss! Especially since she is sleeping with him! When he is rifling through her brain during sex, he finds that she is repressing stuff. Nothing is actually revealed this book, though. A lot of stuff is left for the rest of the series to figure out later. Though, I will bring up "The Photo". There is a photo she finds at her father's house that brings up repressed memories. We don't know what it contains. It gets brought up a few times. We don't know! I'm annoyed at this. Also, Dawn is displaying some ability to do things with her mind that others just..aren't. Not to our knowledge, not without being a vampire.
This is essentially a Buffy fanfiction. Almost everything makes it seem like it is set in the Buffy world. The vampire bad guy is called "the Master". Vampires collapse into dust when they die. They don't have souls anymore after they are turned, apparently. Hell, even the main character's name, Dawn, is a callback to Buffy! There are more in this book than I even want to get into. However, there is even this conversation midway through the book:
“Actually, I thought I’d start you on some reading. Vampires, Burial, and Death, for one, and some writings by Montague Summers. He was this famous supernatural expert.”
“Can’t I just watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer?”
Kiko looked intrigued. “That might be surprisingly valuable. Maybe later."
Lastly, no one seems to know about the supernatural world. Though, I was a bit unclear on this for a while. It wasn't really well explained in the least. Dawn herself seems to be completely fine with it all at first, even acknowledging Kiko as a psychic at first. So, I thought my memories weren't right because it is all seemingly fine. Until it isn't. Then, Dawn oscillates between accepting it and then going "there has to be a rational explanation!" and everything. I was very confused.
That should be the theme of my reading this book: "I was very confused". I don't remember this being the best read, but I remembered it being better. I can only hope it gets better from here.
To read more reviews in this series and others, check out keikii eats books!
January 19, 2011
4.5 stars
Read the entire review here: http://mybookishways.blogspot.com/201...
Dawn Madison is a stuntwoman laying low after a humiliating “incident” on the job. When she is contacted with the news that her father, Frank, has gone missing while investigating the sighting of a child actor that was supposed to be dead, she is drawn into a supernatural world she never knew existed.
Night Rising is just a fun, sexy ride of a novel. Dawn is tough and resilient, yes, but she’s also broken, and feels like she is constantly in the shadow of her sex symbol mother, who died when she was young. She teams up with Breisi, a beautiful techno geek(with a penchant for rather tacky teddy bear t-shirts) and Kiko, a short, sweet, and psychic actor, to find her father and solve the mystery of the supposedly dead child star.
Then there’s The Voice, Breisi and Kiko’s Charlie’s Angelesque boss, supposedly a talented hypnotist and a shut-in. Dawn never sees him, but she most certainly feels him, which serves as a nearly constant distraction for Dawn. How Ms. Green managed to make a disembodied voice sexy, I don’t know, but she did!
I liked Dawn. A lot. She grew on me more and more as the novel progressed. She uses sex as a balm, and as a way to escape from herself. She’s terrified of getting close to others and suffers from a near constant jealousy of the legendary beauty that her mother was in life. These weaknesses were what I liked most about her, because we all have insecurities, some more than others, and this vulnerability made me identify with her all the more.
Night Rising alternates between looking over Dawn’s shoulder in third person POV and taking us Underground, where a race of vampires hold the key to this mystery, and an aging Master and his second in command are trying to hold together the secret of their existence. Ms. Green did a great job at conveying the sensuality of the vamp race without resulting to gratuitous scenes, and I really enjoyed her rather fun and unique hierarchy within the vamp Underground, not to mention the different kinds of vamps that make up the vampire race, some of which are super nasty; the barbed tails and sharp silver teeth kind of nasty! The author’s writing style is smooth, and easy to keep up with, and she doesn’t clutter things up with info overload, rather weaving in details throughout the novel, keeping you reading and wanting to learn more about her quirky (and lovable) cast of characters.
A more perfect, and rich, backdrop could not have been found for this book, and Ms. Green mines it for all it’s worth! Hollywood glamour and the trappings of celebrity highlight the dark secrets that lurk just beneath the surface. Just when I’d had enough of vampires and didn’t think there was anything original left, I discovered Night Rising, and I’m so glad I did! I’m actually happy that I didn’t read this when it first came out, in 2007, because now there are five more books in the series, and I don’t have to wait to read them! I’m looking forward to learning more about Dawn’s past, not to mention getting more of Kiko, Breisi, and of course, The Voice!
Read the entire review here: http://mybookishways.blogspot.com/201...
Dawn Madison is a stuntwoman laying low after a humiliating “incident” on the job. When she is contacted with the news that her father, Frank, has gone missing while investigating the sighting of a child actor that was supposed to be dead, she is drawn into a supernatural world she never knew existed.
Night Rising is just a fun, sexy ride of a novel. Dawn is tough and resilient, yes, but she’s also broken, and feels like she is constantly in the shadow of her sex symbol mother, who died when she was young. She teams up with Breisi, a beautiful techno geek(with a penchant for rather tacky teddy bear t-shirts) and Kiko, a short, sweet, and psychic actor, to find her father and solve the mystery of the supposedly dead child star.
Then there’s The Voice, Breisi and Kiko’s Charlie’s Angelesque boss, supposedly a talented hypnotist and a shut-in. Dawn never sees him, but she most certainly feels him, which serves as a nearly constant distraction for Dawn. How Ms. Green managed to make a disembodied voice sexy, I don’t know, but she did!
I liked Dawn. A lot. She grew on me more and more as the novel progressed. She uses sex as a balm, and as a way to escape from herself. She’s terrified of getting close to others and suffers from a near constant jealousy of the legendary beauty that her mother was in life. These weaknesses were what I liked most about her, because we all have insecurities, some more than others, and this vulnerability made me identify with her all the more.
Night Rising alternates between looking over Dawn’s shoulder in third person POV and taking us Underground, where a race of vampires hold the key to this mystery, and an aging Master and his second in command are trying to hold together the secret of their existence. Ms. Green did a great job at conveying the sensuality of the vamp race without resulting to gratuitous scenes, and I really enjoyed her rather fun and unique hierarchy within the vamp Underground, not to mention the different kinds of vamps that make up the vampire race, some of which are super nasty; the barbed tails and sharp silver teeth kind of nasty! The author’s writing style is smooth, and easy to keep up with, and she doesn’t clutter things up with info overload, rather weaving in details throughout the novel, keeping you reading and wanting to learn more about her quirky (and lovable) cast of characters.
A more perfect, and rich, backdrop could not have been found for this book, and Ms. Green mines it for all it’s worth! Hollywood glamour and the trappings of celebrity highlight the dark secrets that lurk just beneath the surface. Just when I’d had enough of vampires and didn’t think there was anything original left, I discovered Night Rising, and I’m so glad I did! I’m actually happy that I didn’t read this when it first came out, in 2007, because now there are five more books in the series, and I don’t have to wait to read them! I’m looking forward to learning more about Dawn’s past, not to mention getting more of Kiko, Breisi, and of course, The Voice!
December 12, 2010
Synopsis: Stuntwoman Dawn Madison hasn't been on the best of terms with her father since her movie star mother died. (or did she?) Still, Frank is her dad, and when he vanishes while investigating the bizarre sighting of a supposedly long-dead child star Robby Pennybaker, she comes home to Tinseltown to join the search for him.
Working with his odd colleagues at Limpet & Associates, she discovers an erotic and bloody underground society made up of creatures she thought existed only on the screen.
Assisted by a psycho midget, Kiko Daniels, and a gorgeous tech guru, Breisi Montoya, Dawn begins to the hunt for Frank. This Hollywood is full of vampires who have undergone plastic surgery to maintain their youthful existence. Including, her own mother. These vampires hide underground, while slowly building an army.
You will have lots of questions about the mysterious Limpet, and why they can only hear his voice. And, why there are these mysterious paintings hanging on the walls that appear to come alive. We learn about the Underground through the eyes of the son of its creator and master vampire, Sorin, and the legendary Hollywood Eva Claremont.
I would recommend that if you read this book, you read the next 2 in series for they all tie in together.
Working with his odd colleagues at Limpet & Associates, she discovers an erotic and bloody underground society made up of creatures she thought existed only on the screen.
Assisted by a psycho midget, Kiko Daniels, and a gorgeous tech guru, Breisi Montoya, Dawn begins to the hunt for Frank. This Hollywood is full of vampires who have undergone plastic surgery to maintain their youthful existence. Including, her own mother. These vampires hide underground, while slowly building an army.
You will have lots of questions about the mysterious Limpet, and why they can only hear his voice. And, why there are these mysterious paintings hanging on the walls that appear to come alive. We learn about the Underground through the eyes of the son of its creator and master vampire, Sorin, and the legendary Hollywood Eva Claremont.
I would recommend that if you read this book, you read the next 2 in series for they all tie in together.
June 11, 2020
I'm feeling really, really generous as I write this review, so I am giving this book two stars.
I will skip the plot recap because it was wierd, but not in an interesting way, and I'm not really sure what the point was.
Essentially, the main character is a stunt woman who returns to Hollywood to search for her missing alcoholic father, with the help of his former PI coworkers. The catch is that the PI firm he worked for specializes in paranormal investigations and it looks like her father may have been made vampire.
The heroine has some strange sexual compulsion which makes her want to pick up skeezy guys in bars for meaningless sex and soon after the start of the book, she begins an intangible affair with her "ghostly" new employer. Confused yet?
I really didn't care for this book. The characters were weak and boring, the plot went nowhere, and I really had no interest in the main character.
I say skip it unless you have nothing else better to read.
I will skip the plot recap because it was wierd, but not in an interesting way, and I'm not really sure what the point was.
Essentially, the main character is a stunt woman who returns to Hollywood to search for her missing alcoholic father, with the help of his former PI coworkers. The catch is that the PI firm he worked for specializes in paranormal investigations and it looks like her father may have been made vampire.
The heroine has some strange sexual compulsion which makes her want to pick up skeezy guys in bars for meaningless sex and soon after the start of the book, she begins an intangible affair with her "ghostly" new employer. Confused yet?
I really didn't care for this book. The characters were weak and boring, the plot went nowhere, and I really had no interest in the main character.
I say skip it unless you have nothing else better to read.
January 1, 2011
Cool book! The vampire myth is taken to a completely different level in this book, and we're thrown deep into the underbelly of Hollywood and the many secrets that exist there. It was amazing! And there are so many wonderful and intriguing characters. One of which is Frank - the father that has gone missing.
Dawn is an excellent, real character with an attitude to boot. I knew I'd like her because Chris writes fantastic heroines. But don't get me wrong, even the secondary characters are interesting - from the smart-mouthed Kiko, to the harsh Breisi, and the mysterious Voice. Not to forget Matt, either.
Dawn is an excellent, real character with an attitude to boot. I knew I'd like her because Chris writes fantastic heroines. But don't get me wrong, even the secondary characters are interesting - from the smart-mouthed Kiko, to the harsh Breisi, and the mysterious Voice. Not to forget Matt, either.
April 8, 2012
This was an interesting book to read, I wasn't sure at first as the beginning seemed a little confusing and slow but that soon changed. I liked the vampire version of 'Charlie' from 'Charlie's Angels' - interesting twist that he's got a thing for Dawn and the same goes for her. Sex, lust and celebrates that want to live forever ... lost of twists and turns!
Its definitely a worth while read, with lost of action, adventure and the occasion sexual scene!
Its definitely a worth while read, with lost of action, adventure and the occasion sexual scene!
January 22, 2009
Probably really a 4 star, but I'm finally a little burned out on urban fantasy. It was quite a good book. The characters are different (a stunt woman, little person/actor and telenova star/science geek, plus a mysterious employer) and the vamps and creepies have an original concept. Leaves a lot of questions to be solved in the next books.
July 28, 2016
I had trouble staying interested in this book. I really didn't understand the vampire hierarchy. Dawn's "Mommy issues" were offputting to me. I'll not continue with this series.
February 11, 2019
Within the first 10 pages of this novel, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to connect with the characters, and that proved true. I fully expected to not continue the series, but for better or worse, my curiosity got hooked by the mystery of who and what is The Voice, and what is his true agenda, so I will continue to the next one.
This first novel in a three-novel story arch, presents an ambivalent view of vampires leaning more toward the very dark. Stuntwoman Dawn Madison returns to LA to search for her missing father and joins the strange P. I. firm her father had worked for at the time of his disappearance. Her search for her father and discovery that things that go bump in the night really exist also dredges up her own personal demons over mother Eva, a legendary ingenue film star who was murdered when Dawn was a baby, and her mourning, often negligent father Frank, whom she takes after physically. Her sidekicks in the investigation Kiko and Breisi prove good foils in drawing out Dawn’s character, and her boss The Voice is a tantalizing if creepy mystery. The other mystery is an outside P. I. Matt Lonigan who keeps showing up, agenda unknown, except for the mutual attraction between Dawn and him.
The central mystery about the appearance of a long-dead 12-year-old child star still looking the same, wasn’t much of a mystery, though it took some ugly twists. However, it served to introduce the Underground, a vampire haven that The Voice is determined to discover, and where Dawn may find the answers about her father’s disappearance. By the end, there were moments that moved me emotionally, but I still felt a lack of connection, with the exception of Kiko. While it was realistic, Dawn is too conflicted a person for her to know herself, and too defensive to allow anyone in, which left me unsure who I should be rooting for.
This first novel in a three-novel story arch, presents an ambivalent view of vampires leaning more toward the very dark. Stuntwoman Dawn Madison returns to LA to search for her missing father and joins the strange P. I. firm her father had worked for at the time of his disappearance. Her search for her father and discovery that things that go bump in the night really exist also dredges up her own personal demons over mother Eva, a legendary ingenue film star who was murdered when Dawn was a baby, and her mourning, often negligent father Frank, whom she takes after physically. Her sidekicks in the investigation Kiko and Breisi prove good foils in drawing out Dawn’s character, and her boss The Voice is a tantalizing if creepy mystery. The other mystery is an outside P. I. Matt Lonigan who keeps showing up, agenda unknown, except for the mutual attraction between Dawn and him.
The central mystery about the appearance of a long-dead 12-year-old child star still looking the same, wasn’t much of a mystery, though it took some ugly twists. However, it served to introduce the Underground, a vampire haven that The Voice is determined to discover, and where Dawn may find the answers about her father’s disappearance. By the end, there were moments that moved me emotionally, but I still felt a lack of connection, with the exception of Kiko. While it was realistic, Dawn is too conflicted a person for her to know herself, and too defensive to allow anyone in, which left me unsure who I should be rooting for.
January 29, 2018
Just completed three chapters. Can't read anymore of this ridiculous story. I seriously haveto ask who would go to some strange unknown plane because some nobody called and says your father is missing, with whom you don't have study relationship.? This I would like to know on what bases anyone do that in that position. Then characters introduced on these chapters? who are those people?
Then some faceless person mind raping you yet you readily agree to do anything, I mean anything to know more about said no relationship Father?
I am worried about author and the people who like this storyline.
Then some faceless person mind raping you yet you readily agree to do anything, I mean anything to know more about said no relationship Father?
I am worried about author and the people who like this storyline.
March 11, 2024
Started off a little slow and wasn't sure how I was going to feel about the series. For context I'm borrowing this series from a friend while she is currently borrowing my Blue Bloods Series. The irony is both series have a lot of twists and turns that you need a pin board to help keep track of. Starting book 2 today to see if my hunches are correct or if I'm being lead towards a certain direction to have it flipped over like a car accident.
October 26, 2017
This could be a very good series; but it will have to ramp up the supernatural a bit for me. We are introduced to vampires, but in this first book, I didn't feel like they were used enough, for a book about vampires. Hopefully, this gets better because I have the first 5 books of this series.
October 15, 2019
Love these books. Of course they are about Vampires but also Ghosts, and humans trying to help out with the situation. Dawn is amazing, throughout the books she gets stronger and smarter with all things Vampire. I would definitely recommend these books.
July 8, 2018
The concept is interesting and unique; but the story itself is boring and terribly executed.
September 29, 2020
Sure it has some issues but when you brush those aside it is a story that is different enough in the genre to worth the read.
May 22, 2021
I really like the ideas in this one.
March 16, 2024
Great book
This is a book that I got lucky with. It was recommended to me. I had never heard of it before today. It is a very good book. I am looking forward to book two
This is a book that I got lucky with. It was recommended to me. I had never heard of it before today. It is a very good book. I am looking forward to book two
August 13, 2015
Originally posted at The Book Nympho
From the book summary: Stuntwoman Dawn Madison hasn't been on the best of terms with her father since her movie star mother died.
Dawn's mother died not to long after giving birth. I think Dawn was like a month old. So clearly Dawn never met her mother but because the mother was a Marilyn Monroe type and Dawn was a total opposite, lived in her shadow. Ok I guess that could give a kid a complex but really I thought her mommy issues was a little over board.
The Voice
Dawn is working with her dad's co-workers to find him after he goes missing. Frank (Dawn's dad) is a PI and his boss, Mr. Limpet (But don't call him that for some reason. Yeah I didn't get why everyone kept telling Dawn not to call him by Limpet. Just another confusing thing.) Limpet is a paranormal version of "Charlie" from Charlie's Angels. Instead of a voice coming from a speakerphone, he's voice comes from a TV and he uses the TV to hear and see with but you don't see him.
Weird "Sex"
Dawn either has a really high sexual drive or she's a succubus and doesn't know it?! She hooks up with The Voice (Limpet) but they are not even in the same room. He gets her off with his pyschic ability. Ok I've read PNR with the dude can do that but he was always in the room with the chick and it was added into the physical act. Dawn kept thinking about how she need to recharge with sex. I don't know maybe in future books this is explained, like maybe Dawn's a succubus??
Night Rising was not exactly what I was expecting. The premise was interesting, I mean a stunt woman turned vampire slayer that didn't know that supernaturals were real sounds fun right? Khristine Hvam is what drawled me to the audio and the reason I continued to listen as long as I did but sadly even a favorite narrator could not make me care about the Dawn enough to want to finish the audio.
Disclaimer: I DNF Night Rising with about 4 hours left in the audio.
I've had the Vampire Babylon series on my radar for a few years now, even before I started blogging. I ran across the series in one of my Shelfari groups back in 2010. I marked it as "s0me day" series to read. Once I saw that the series was released on audio and narrated by one of my favorite narrators, Khristine Hvam, I knew I had to finally try Night Rising.
The best part of Night Rising was narrator, Hvam. She is the real reason I DNF it sooner. So why did I have issues with it?
From the book summary: Stuntwoman Dawn Madison hasn't been on the best of terms with her father since her movie star mother died.
Dawn's mother died not to long after giving birth. I think Dawn was like a month old. So clearly Dawn never met her mother but because the mother was a Marilyn Monroe type and Dawn was a total opposite, lived in her shadow. Ok I guess that could give a kid a complex but really I thought her mommy issues was a little over board.
The Voice
Dawn is working with her dad's co-workers to find him after he goes missing. Frank (Dawn's dad) is a PI and his boss, Mr. Limpet (But don't call him that for some reason. Yeah I didn't get why everyone kept telling Dawn not to call him by Limpet. Just another confusing thing.) Limpet is a paranormal version of "Charlie" from Charlie's Angels. Instead of a voice coming from a speakerphone, he's voice comes from a TV and he uses the TV to hear and see with but you don't see him.
Weird "Sex"
Dawn either has a really high sexual drive or she's a succubus and doesn't know it?! She hooks up with The Voice (Limpet) but they are not even in the same room. He gets her off with his pyschic ability. Ok I've read PNR with the dude can do that but he was always in the room with the chick and it was added into the physical act. Dawn kept thinking about how she need to recharge with sex. I don't know maybe in future books this is explained, like maybe Dawn's a succubus??
Night Rising was not exactly what I was expecting. The premise was interesting, I mean a stunt woman turned vampire slayer that didn't know that supernaturals were real sounds fun right? Khristine Hvam is what drawled me to the audio and the reason I continued to listen as long as I did but sadly even a favorite narrator could not make me care about the Dawn enough to want to finish the audio.
May 23, 2008
I bought this book off amazon based on the blurb and my expectations weren't that high. I was looking for a fun read and I liked the idea of a stunt-woman heroine, so I was midling hopeful that I'd enjoy the book.
And wow, was I disappointed. The first few pages in and I wanted the author to get her narratorial voice sorted out. She doesn't distinguish clearly between Dawn (or any other character's thoughts) and the general omnipotent narrator. Powering through that, and there were some potentially interesting characters, but they were let down by bad writing.
That's the thing, this book reads like badfic. Everything is expositioned, too many things happen with no sense of flow and often, no reason that's not as obvious as The Author Wanted A Sex Scene, The Author Wanted To Say This Statement, The Author...
Dawn is anguished. We hear this a lot. Many are her issues and it's not that these aren't shown, but then they're also explained right after.
As an example?
Dawn gave up. "Kik, she's a starlet. They're here today, gone yesterday. What's the use?"
Even as she said it, she knew she was being too harsh. But excuses were so much easier than getting down to the truth: the anguish of knowing that her mother had been one of them. The fact that the gorgeous masses, like Eva, made life hard for the average girl in America by creating an impossible standard of beauty to compete with.
What? Firstly, the gorgeous masses? Secondly, Hello there, Author! Nice of your to take time to speak to the audience directly about how the media-promoted ideas of beauty are bad. Thirdly, Dawn knows she's being unfair and she choses to be unfair because it's easier.
Dawn kind of sucks.
And it's all like that. The dialogue is clunky, you're never left in any doubt of someone's motivations because it's all explained to you and, just in case you forgot, the text will remind you of Dawn's anguish. Again.
"So you think... a vampire... killed your parents?"
"The police reports said it was some raging psycho who belonged in the mental ward. But they didn't see the guy, his bared teeth, the inhumanity of him. That's why I decided that they were full of crap and I was going to work my way around the system."
[...]
His clear-cut reminder of a parent's death weighed her to the spot. But it also linked her to him, because they were both struggling to shed a child's misery and loss.
It's just-- the book is bad, and it's not even bad the way a lot of paranormal romantic (or erotic) books are, because the characters are so damn cliché, although that is part of it. It's bad because it's badly written, because the book should have had an editor go through it and point out that the readers aren't stupid, that dialogue should sound natural and that knowing when it's the character thinking instead of the author is pretty damn important.
Aside from that, the plot is predictable, which isn't that surprising, but does mean that it's even less worth fighting through the prose.
And wow, was I disappointed. The first few pages in and I wanted the author to get her narratorial voice sorted out. She doesn't distinguish clearly between Dawn (or any other character's thoughts) and the general omnipotent narrator. Powering through that, and there were some potentially interesting characters, but they were let down by bad writing.
That's the thing, this book reads like badfic. Everything is expositioned, too many things happen with no sense of flow and often, no reason that's not as obvious as The Author Wanted A Sex Scene, The Author Wanted To Say This Statement, The Author...
Dawn is anguished. We hear this a lot. Many are her issues and it's not that these aren't shown, but then they're also explained right after.
As an example?
Dawn gave up. "Kik, she's a starlet. They're here today, gone yesterday. What's the use?"
Even as she said it, she knew she was being too harsh. But excuses were so much easier than getting down to the truth: the anguish of knowing that her mother had been one of them. The fact that the gorgeous masses, like Eva, made life hard for the average girl in America by creating an impossible standard of beauty to compete with.
What? Firstly, the gorgeous masses? Secondly, Hello there, Author! Nice of your to take time to speak to the audience directly about how the media-promoted ideas of beauty are bad. Thirdly, Dawn knows she's being unfair and she choses to be unfair because it's easier.
Dawn kind of sucks.
And it's all like that. The dialogue is clunky, you're never left in any doubt of someone's motivations because it's all explained to you and, just in case you forgot, the text will remind you of Dawn's anguish. Again.
"So you think... a vampire... killed your parents?"
"The police reports said it was some raging psycho who belonged in the mental ward. But they didn't see the guy, his bared teeth, the inhumanity of him. That's why I decided that they were full of crap and I was going to work my way around the system."
[...]
His clear-cut reminder of a parent's death weighed her to the spot. But it also linked her to him, because they were both struggling to shed a child's misery and loss.
It's just-- the book is bad, and it's not even bad the way a lot of paranormal romantic (or erotic) books are, because the characters are so damn cliché, although that is part of it. It's bad because it's badly written, because the book should have had an editor go through it and point out that the readers aren't stupid, that dialogue should sound natural and that knowing when it's the character thinking instead of the author is pretty damn important.
Aside from that, the plot is predictable, which isn't that surprising, but does mean that it's even less worth fighting through the prose.
June 20, 2009
Great plot, Multiple Mysteries, Bizarre & Endearing Characters, Relevant to Current Hollywood Stereotypes/Lifestyles and Intriguing World - Worth Reading...But...
I gave this book four stars because it was difficult to get through the first 60 or 70 pages (which is less pages than any Anne Rice book where you have to get through at least the first 150 pages):O). The author spends a lot of time on 'world building' in the beginning - it is always necessary to give the reader some background and understanding of the world in which the story takes place (especially when the book is meant to be part of a series as this one is) - but in this book the author spend too much time up front on descriptions and has a weak voice at the start.
However and this is a BIG however - the story and world itself are quite intriguing which is what kept me reading. I started and stopped reading it several times in the week after I bought it - but finally said to myself "okay, just sit down and read to the midway point (page-wise) of the book and if you still don't like it give up and give it away". With that said I sat down and ending up reading the entire book in 1 DAY! After getting past those pages it was great. I couldn't put it down (which my Hubby was none-to happy about). One other thing that irked me about it was that the end is something of a cliff-hanger. Of course with almost any book that is predetermined to be part of a series there is always something left unfinished but in this case there were to many things left unresolved.
I am not usually interested in reading stories from a Vampire Hunter point of view - because I Love Vampires - but it was a good book overall and leaves you not quite certain whether it is about Vampires vs. Hunters or a Vampire vs. Vampire War. So I will keep reading the series for now - meaning I will read the next on and if it doesn't blow my mind I won't keeping reading the series - if it does and/or explains who at least some of the major players really are then I will keep reading the series. Read it and you will see what I mean.
I gave this book four stars because it was difficult to get through the first 60 or 70 pages (which is less pages than any Anne Rice book where you have to get through at least the first 150 pages):O). The author spends a lot of time on 'world building' in the beginning - it is always necessary to give the reader some background and understanding of the world in which the story takes place (especially when the book is meant to be part of a series as this one is) - but in this book the author spend too much time up front on descriptions and has a weak voice at the start.
However and this is a BIG however - the story and world itself are quite intriguing which is what kept me reading. I started and stopped reading it several times in the week after I bought it - but finally said to myself "okay, just sit down and read to the midway point (page-wise) of the book and if you still don't like it give up and give it away". With that said I sat down and ending up reading the entire book in 1 DAY! After getting past those pages it was great. I couldn't put it down (which my Hubby was none-to happy about). One other thing that irked me about it was that the end is something of a cliff-hanger. Of course with almost any book that is predetermined to be part of a series there is always something left unfinished but in this case there were to many things left unresolved.
I am not usually interested in reading stories from a Vampire Hunter point of view - because I Love Vampires - but it was a good book overall and leaves you not quite certain whether it is about Vampires vs. Hunters or a Vampire vs. Vampire War. So I will keep reading the series for now - meaning I will read the next on and if it doesn't blow my mind I won't keeping reading the series - if it does and/or explains who at least some of the major players really are then I will keep reading the series. Read it and you will see what I mean.
January 12, 2011
The other one and two star reviews hit the nail on the head. There are so many things wrong with this book that I had to give it a one star rating even though I finished it and enjoyed a bit of the beginning. First, the heroine. As others have said she is not very likable, she's a bit slutty, and she is very hard to relate to. She is forced to investigate the disappearance of her father after being summoned by a investigative agency. I say forced because I don't believe that she actually wants to find her father. They weren't close, she rarely demands answers from the PIs that are strangers to her, and lets the investigation go off on long tangents without wondering about her father at all. The flashbacks to memories with her father didn't feel heartfelt, and I didn't believe she cared for a second. At least she isn't super tough and strong like other heroines, but unlike many other UF leads she is very hard to relate to and is plain unlikable.
My second issue was the vampires and the "voice." The characters take their directions from a boss they have never met, who is probably a vampire. They trust the "voice" though they have no reason to. He is not really forthcoming with information, yet all of the characters, our heroine included, believe everything he says. The chapters from the viewpoint of the underground vampire society are boring and don't add much to the plot. The baddies are stereotypical and flat and remind me of the lessers from the Black Dagger Brotherhood books.
I arrived at a point fairly early in the book where the dialogue bothered me, the characters irritated me, and the plot failed to keep my attention. I continued because I wanted to know what happened to the heroine's father, and I wanted to know more about the mysterious voice. Now I feel like I wasted a few hours of my time. I wouldn't recommend this book to urban fantasy fans. The story is not cohesive, the characters are irritating and flat, the mystery is not exciting, and some events are just plain weird.
My second issue was the vampires and the "voice." The characters take their directions from a boss they have never met, who is probably a vampire. They trust the "voice" though they have no reason to. He is not really forthcoming with information, yet all of the characters, our heroine included, believe everything he says. The chapters from the viewpoint of the underground vampire society are boring and don't add much to the plot. The baddies are stereotypical and flat and remind me of the lessers from the Black Dagger Brotherhood books.
I arrived at a point fairly early in the book where the dialogue bothered me, the characters irritated me, and the plot failed to keep my attention. I continued because I wanted to know what happened to the heroine's father, and I wanted to know more about the mysterious voice. Now I feel like I wasted a few hours of my time. I wouldn't recommend this book to urban fantasy fans. The story is not cohesive, the characters are irritating and flat, the mystery is not exciting, and some events are just plain weird.
August 21, 2019
Why I only gave 1 1/2 - 2 stars:
I didn't understand why a grown 21st century women, who relieves stress by sexual release, wouldn't 'help herself' or have a electronic device to do so, rather than play Russian routlet with strangers & STD's. Why does a self reliant person rely on others, it's not in keeping with who they are? I did really enjoy Kiko & what little there was of Matt BUT...
Even thou it's fiction, the main character could have been depicted as realistic in their reactions & personality, or at least reasonable, stable &/or likeable. Every relationship the female MC, who is the narrator in the book, has is extremely hot & cold. She likes the person platonically/sexually (to the point where she wants to cry/tear their clothes off) then she hates &/or mistrusts them (& wants to kill/hurt them). She overreacts ALOT, for eg she goes from hysterical & wanting to kill someone/something, to having a sexual experience with them.
Little SPOILERS:
She also killed a vampire (who they wanted info from, particularly what he knew about her father) because she didn't want him to do something her boss has done, & is still doing (to train her how to deal with it).
The main character was incredibly quick to accept everyone & everything that happened. Strange because she's portrayed as a loner who's anti-establishment & they were telling her unbelievable things such as vampire's exist. Also in the beginning when she wasn't getting any answers from her fathers' boss or co-workers, she seemed happy to just go along for the ride. I don't know why she didn't go looking for her dad directly herself, let his people do their job as PI's (ie look into his last unfinished case). She only interviewed/talked to one drunk who knew him, she didn't look thru his stuff until much much later, she didn't talk to neighbours etc, this is where she grew up & looked after her dad - she should know of the people/places.
I didn't understand why a grown 21st century women, who relieves stress by sexual release, wouldn't 'help herself' or have a electronic device to do so, rather than play Russian routlet with strangers & STD's. Why does a self reliant person rely on others, it's not in keeping with who they are? I did really enjoy Kiko & what little there was of Matt BUT...
Even thou it's fiction, the main character could have been depicted as realistic in their reactions & personality, or at least reasonable, stable &/or likeable. Every relationship the female MC, who is the narrator in the book, has is extremely hot & cold. She likes the person platonically/sexually (to the point where she wants to cry/tear their clothes off) then she hates &/or mistrusts them (& wants to kill/hurt them). She overreacts ALOT, for eg she goes from hysterical & wanting to kill someone/something, to having a sexual experience with them.
Little SPOILERS:
She also killed a vampire (who they wanted info from, particularly what he knew about her father) because she didn't want him to do something her boss has done, & is still doing (to train her how to deal with it).
The main character was incredibly quick to accept everyone & everything that happened. Strange because she's portrayed as a loner who's anti-establishment & they were telling her unbelievable things such as vampire's exist. Also in the beginning when she wasn't getting any answers from her fathers' boss or co-workers, she seemed happy to just go along for the ride. I don't know why she didn't go looking for her dad directly herself, let his people do their job as PI's (ie look into his last unfinished case). She only interviewed/talked to one drunk who knew him, she didn't look thru his stuff until much much later, she didn't talk to neighbours etc, this is where she grew up & looked after her dad - she should know of the people/places.
January 1, 2011
Dawn Madison is a stuntwoman who has returned to LA to find her estranged father, a PI who went missing. In order to do so, she teams up with his firm, Limpet & Associates. In doing so she finds out that there is a whole other part to LA, one filled up with vampires, psychics and invisible forces. Dawn must learn to navigate this new world if she is to find her father in time.
Author Chris Marie Green has created a very confusing book. The bones of this story are very good. Our angry heroine who is the less beautiful daughter of a famous, and tragically dead, Hollywood starlet. There is a very interesting (and someone unique) system of vampire creation. The boss of Limpet and Associate is a very mysterious voice who can do amazing things. I particularly like the three portraits that could act as guardians.
The problem is how Green brings all these individual details together. There is something missing. Maybe it is because the author has a very sparse style. Which can be nice, because it leaves a lot to the imagination, but it is also troublesome because you don't have all the details. Maybe it is because she leaves so many questions unanswered, clearly setting up for the next book. The problem with that is there are story threads started that she doesn't finish. Maybe the problem is her story telling speed. Dawn just meets the mysterious boss, and the two are doing it before the end of the book.
Overall the book felt rushed, like the author was running us from exciting moment to exciting moment, in order to get all her great ideas into the book. In doing so, she left out the gentler story telling bits that usually weave the exciting bits together. Had she chosen to do less this book or been given another hundred pages, she would have had a much stronger book,
Author Chris Marie Green has created a very confusing book. The bones of this story are very good. Our angry heroine who is the less beautiful daughter of a famous, and tragically dead, Hollywood starlet. There is a very interesting (and someone unique) system of vampire creation. The boss of Limpet and Associate is a very mysterious voice who can do amazing things. I particularly like the three portraits that could act as guardians.
The problem is how Green brings all these individual details together. There is something missing. Maybe it is because the author has a very sparse style. Which can be nice, because it leaves a lot to the imagination, but it is also troublesome because you don't have all the details. Maybe it is because she leaves so many questions unanswered, clearly setting up for the next book. The problem with that is there are story threads started that she doesn't finish. Maybe the problem is her story telling speed. Dawn just meets the mysterious boss, and the two are doing it before the end of the book.
Overall the book felt rushed, like the author was running us from exciting moment to exciting moment, in order to get all her great ideas into the book. In doing so, she left out the gentler story telling bits that usually weave the exciting bits together. Had she chosen to do less this book or been given another hundred pages, she would have had a much stronger book,
January 23, 2012
This book is about 24 year old, stuntwoman Dawn Madison who returns to the Hollywood town she grew up in to find her missing father. In order to do so she teams up with her father's co-workers at the PI agency where he had been employed. Only it turns out that this PI agency deals in the supernatural, a world that Dawn never knew existed. There is Kiko,a little person with psychic abilities and aspirations to become a movie star, and Breisi, a techno geek and former telenovela star who has aged out of stardom at the ripe age of 31. Oh, and there's the boss or, as Dawn likes to call him, The Voice. The boss is never seen by anyone so think of this as a supernatural version of Charlie's Angels.
This is okay as a first book. The characters are likeable enough and the world of the vampires in the Underground provides an interesting angle though I suspect that future books will reveal more. As it stands by the end of this book I'm not entirely sure why the vampires' plans pose any real threat to the human world. The Boss/Voice is another mystery that remains by the end of this book. I'm curious to know just what and who he is. It should also be noted that Dawn uses sex as a way to unwind from a hard day, and since joining up in the search for her father she's having more hard days than usual. That said, there is not really a whole lot of sex in this book. There is however the rather interesting way that The Voice um...reaches out to Dawn.
All in all it's not a great book but it's not bad as far as first books go. It's not told in first person POV, which is not what I'm used to reading in UF these days so that took some adjusting on my part at first. I liked it enough to move on to the second book if for no other reason than I want to see if we ever get to meet The Voice in person...or whatever he is.
This is okay as a first book. The characters are likeable enough and the world of the vampires in the Underground provides an interesting angle though I suspect that future books will reveal more. As it stands by the end of this book I'm not entirely sure why the vampires' plans pose any real threat to the human world. The Boss/Voice is another mystery that remains by the end of this book. I'm curious to know just what and who he is. It should also be noted that Dawn uses sex as a way to unwind from a hard day, and since joining up in the search for her father she's having more hard days than usual. That said, there is not really a whole lot of sex in this book. There is however the rather interesting way that The Voice um...reaches out to Dawn.
All in all it's not a great book but it's not bad as far as first books go. It's not told in first person POV, which is not what I'm used to reading in UF these days so that took some adjusting on my part at first. I liked it enough to move on to the second book if for no other reason than I want to see if we ever get to meet The Voice in person...or whatever he is.
December 3, 2009
WARNINGS: Just a few precautions to anyone who may want to read the book: There is cussing through out the book. There are a few..sex? (read the book and you'll understand the question mark) scenes in the book, but they aren't that bad, in my opinion of course.
There was one thing that I absolutely loved about this book: the tone changed from serious, funny, sarcastic, happy, sad, whatever, but you get my point. The book didn't seem...hmm...monotone during the course of the book. It was alive with emotion in the words, even it wasn't dialog, it was there. And I loved it.
Dawn reminds me a little bit about myself. Bad relationships with our fathers even though we love them to death and want to fix the problems. We both try to compete with a family member, for her it was her dead mother. Dawn is tough and can handle herself. She doesn't like having to have someone help her. I really liked Dawn and liked being about to connect with her.
I liked how you, in some tiny or huge way, could connect with any of the characters. I liked how every character stood out and apart from everyone else; no one was the same. I didn't like however that the one incident in the end of the book made me wonder *^(%)$)# (you can't see because of a possible spoiler and you would probably be confused) and then it ended a few pages later and I don't know if my suspicions are correct!
One last thing that I liked was that the vampires were pretty much traditional vampires. They didn't come out in daylight, etc. And that was actually new to me and I liked it a lot.
Addict's Last Words: Night Rising is a very good book and I think many of you will enjoy it. I can't wait to read the next one.
There was one thing that I absolutely loved about this book: the tone changed from serious, funny, sarcastic, happy, sad, whatever, but you get my point. The book didn't seem...hmm...monotone during the course of the book. It was alive with emotion in the words, even it wasn't dialog, it was there. And I loved it.
Dawn reminds me a little bit about myself. Bad relationships with our fathers even though we love them to death and want to fix the problems. We both try to compete with a family member, for her it was her dead mother. Dawn is tough and can handle herself. She doesn't like having to have someone help her. I really liked Dawn and liked being about to connect with her.
I liked how you, in some tiny or huge way, could connect with any of the characters. I liked how every character stood out and apart from everyone else; no one was the same. I didn't like however that the one incident in the end of the book made me wonder *^(%)$)# (you can't see because of a possible spoiler and you would probably be confused) and then it ended a few pages later and I don't know if my suspicions are correct!
One last thing that I liked was that the vampires were pretty much traditional vampires. They didn't come out in daylight, etc. And that was actually new to me and I liked it a lot.
Addict's Last Words: Night Rising is a very good book and I think many of you will enjoy it. I can't wait to read the next one.
May 19, 2016
Stunt woman Dawn Madison is the daughter of the late movie star: Eva Claremont. When her father goes missing in L.A., she flies there and joins forces with the mysterious Limpet and Associates whom her father had worked for, to try and find him. L&A is nominally a paranormal PI business, but has an underlying secret mission.
There are three members of L&A. Limpet himself whom Dawn only knows as ‘the Voice’ since he’s never seen. Kiko Daniels: a little person with the dream of being a star. And Breisi, a young woman with a secret in the basement: literally. It takes almost the whole book for Dawn, Kiko and Briesi to feel comfortable together. And as for Limpet we get very little more than hints as to what/who he is.
Yes, there are vampires in this. They are definitely the bad guys, have most of the traditional vampire traits and have a very interestingly detailed background (the scenes between Sorin and the Master are fascinating), but this story is mostly about the members of L&A and how they cope with an ongoing vampire situation as they search for Dawn’s father.
Going by this book, the series promises to be interesting, if it keeps to the main premise and doesn't go off the deep end like some do after 4 or 5 books.
The inevitable relationship triangle is there already: Limpet, Dawn and Matthew. Dawn & Limpet’s is creepily sensual, while Dawn & Matthew’s is more normal and comfortable. Dawn herself adds an offbeat ingredient to the relationships. Not sure how I want that to go yet.
Quick Thoughts: 1) I love how Dawn ‘handles’ the Voice.
2) This has elements of Anita Blake, Dark Shadows and Charlie’s Angels.
Fave Scenes: the starlet at the fencing studio, the box under the floor, fight with Bobby in the office and Briesi’s gift to Dawn.
There are three members of L&A. Limpet himself whom Dawn only knows as ‘the Voice’ since he’s never seen. Kiko Daniels: a little person with the dream of being a star. And Breisi, a young woman with a secret in the basement: literally. It takes almost the whole book for Dawn, Kiko and Briesi to feel comfortable together. And as for Limpet we get very little more than hints as to what/who he is.
Yes, there are vampires in this. They are definitely the bad guys, have most of the traditional vampire traits and have a very interestingly detailed background (the scenes between Sorin and the Master are fascinating), but this story is mostly about the members of L&A and how they cope with an ongoing vampire situation as they search for Dawn’s father.
Going by this book, the series promises to be interesting, if it keeps to the main premise and doesn't go off the deep end like some do after 4 or 5 books.
The inevitable relationship triangle is there already: Limpet, Dawn and Matthew. Dawn & Limpet’s is creepily sensual, while Dawn & Matthew’s is more normal and comfortable. Dawn herself adds an offbeat ingredient to the relationships. Not sure how I want that to go yet.
Quick Thoughts: 1) I love how Dawn ‘handles’ the Voice.
2) This has elements of Anita Blake, Dark Shadows and Charlie’s Angels.
Fave Scenes: the starlet at the fencing studio, the box under the floor, fight with Bobby in the office and Briesi’s gift to Dawn.
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