As Daphne searches for a new Team Darkwing member in the secret vampire underworld to help her rescue the kidnapped daughters of New York's elite from terrorists, she is tempted into a risque liaison her human boyfriend may never forgive. Original.
LUCY FINN is a fulltime fiction writer who also owns an antique store, the Big Red Barn.
Under the pen name, Savannah Russe, she is the author of the bestselling vampire series called The Darkwing Chronicles: Beyond the Pale, Book One (June 2005), Past Redemption, Book Two (April 2006), Beneath the Skin, Book Three ( February, 2007), In the Blood (November, 2007), and Under Darkness (June 2008).
She lives in an old farmhouse near Noxen, Pennsylvania where her mother's family settled in the 18th century. Her ancestor, James Patton, died in the Civil War at the battle of Spotsvania Courthouse.
Lucy, who carries spiders outside in a cup rather than kill them, shares her farm with three dogs, many cats, and upteen wild creatures.
First off, put this book down and go buy Jennifer Rardin's Jaz Parks series as it seems this series is based on Ms Rardin's series and Ms Rardin's series does it infinity better.
Second: great concept, terrible execution. The heroine's 'personality' reads like a D&D character sheet but she is even less interesting or accurate. Despite supposedly being one of the smartest people in the world, from a family world famous for treachery & cunning, heroine is easily led, and anything but intelligent. She is a clothes happy harlot in heat. And the depiction of her mother, much less the idea that vampires give birth...so improbable as to be completely unbelievable.
Thirdly: I am not a fan of first person narrative but it can be done in an unobtrusive manner. That is not the case here. The constant repetition of 'I' and 'me' was obvious and unwelcome. It also made the book read like a grocery list or to do list.
Again, skip this series and go read about Jaz Parks.
Team Darkwing‘s latest assignment is to the rescue the captive daughters of VIPs from Iraqi terrorists.
But they are down to only three members: Daphne, Benny and Cormac. So they actively begin a search for new recruits and find two very questionable ones.
Fave scenes: Daphne leaving a phone message for Fitz, the flavors of blood, D&C at the 911 memorial and finding Gunther.
This was an okay read. I really enjoyed the first two books in the Darkwing series but have been a little disappointed in the last two. The author seems at times to be experimenting with her writing style. There were moments in this book that were just too poetic and flowery. The storyline was okay. We know that this author takes on modern day problems and the storyling involves an Al Queda cell in New York City, which could be believable. But the way that she interjects Daphne's emotional baggage into the plot ruins it for me. I mean Daphne has been through so many men in this series that I can not keep up. Oh well, I will continue to read the series as she has a new one coming out in May of 2008; 'Under Darkness'. Hopefully she will stick with the spy part of her writing and stay away from attempting to put so much emotion and sex into the books. It just doesn't work.
Enjoyable series. Vampires are portrayed here as huge batlike creatures that can fly when transformed, reverting back to appearing human with many abilities like eating food, feeling warm when fed, and on rare occasions, able to conceive. They suffer pain and take some time to heal, even though they cannot be killed by anything other than sunlight, silver bullet to the heart or wooden stake. Crucifixes do cause pain and they don't like garlic. And they seem able to fall in love. Finally, they can be spies and operatives in black op situations.
Really liking this series. Decadent, but with good intentions. The relationship(s) bother me sometimes, when I want them to develop faster or more slowly... or to just LAST, but Daphne definitely struggles in that department. Must order the other books in the series immediately to find out if she ever gets it right.
I love Daphne, I laugh with her, I cry with her and I feel all the intense feelings she has. She doesn't want to be a monster and works so hard to do right. In this book we meet two new Darkwing members: Rogue and Audrey. I liked Rogue most of the time, Audrey is a nerd and very likeable. This moved at a good pace. Highly recommend it.
You know, I'm not gonna talk about this book. All I've got to say is that I loved it! This is one awesome series. Actually, it's definitely one of my most favourite. :D And I can't wait for the next one...
More of UF, which I am not totally used to. I can't decide what kind of an ending that I want Daphney to have, but I think a HEA would be nice with all that she's gone through.