Jul 12 2006
REVIEW: Be Mine Tonight by Kathryn Smith
Dear Ms. Smith:
Unfortunately, your book is what inspired my post about the real deal paranormal authors and the posers. Your story features a hero vampire who believes his immortality is a curse and a heroine with cancer who would do anything to live. That’s it. That’s the entire story. There is one thread of a plot that featured some action which was discussed briefly and comes to a head in the MIDDLE of the book, but the rest is about whether the vampire would acquiesce Prudence’s desire to live.
The world building is virtually non existent. We know only that the vampire was greated by drinking of the blood grail. That he and his five comrades all drank from the Grail (they had a whole Three Musketeers bond going – one for all and all for one). What we don’t know is whether other vampires exist. How many people know of vampires. What special powers they have. How long can they go without drinking blood. Whether animal blood affects them differently. Who governs them or whether they are simply lawless? You give your vampire the ability to fly but don’t explain why or how that works. How far can he fly? Does he get tired?
Chapel was nothing more than a regency hero dressed up with fangs. He wasn’t a real vampire (he only eats once during the entire book less a couple of vials of blood). He was just a boring man who was filled with self pity.
Even though everyone called him on his self pity, he continued his act until the very last chapter. Enough is enough. I didn’t even understand where his self pity came from. The keystone point of his character was recounted by Chapel in a completely different manner than how it is discussed later on. I had to go back and read his original recollection a couple of times because of its erroneous characterization later in the story.
What furthered bothered me was the constant use of characters as setup for sequels. Brotherhood of the Blood? Puhleeze. JR Ward called and wants her series title back. Finally, you insert a public sex scene in the book for no other reason than for the tiltillation factor. Pru never evinces any desire for public sex or any sexual fantasy. How would she even know that is something that would excite her? This desire for public sex just pops up out of the blue on her list of “things to do before she dies.” What really killed the story for me, though, was the complete lack of action. The entire second half of the story is about wish fulfillment for Pru. It got to the point that I was hoping that Pru would die and we would just be done with the story. C-.
Best regards,
Jane
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Jul 21, 2006 @ 21:59:12
So Jane, I guess you won’t be buying the rest of the series? :-)
Jan 18, 2007 @ 12:06:08
Wow, what a cruel review. Everyoone is entitled to their opinion, but Geez. It is a novel, after all, not real life.
Jan 22, 2007 @ 16:20:32
I have to completely disagree. I don’t sit and analyze every little thing about a book because that destroys the pleasure for me. What I do is give my books a ranking when I’m through reading, based on how I felt when I finished. This is one of only 5 of the 136 books I read in 2006 that got a perfect rating of “1″ on my scale. For me, that means when I closed the book it left me sighing with satisfaction, perfectly pleased and wishing there was more I could read, waiting anxiously for the sequel. I pulled an allnighter reading it. It even got me teary eyed and very few books have that affect on me.
This book is first and foremost a romance with a paranormal theme, not a full-fledged paranormal. The focus is the relationship between the H/H, not the paranormal aspects, which is fine by me. I tend to skip over many scenes in typical paranormals. For readers who want the romance, not the gore, this is a great mix, just a little paranormal to be different but still a romance book. And a great one, at that.
Admittedly it’s been a few months since I read this one, but I got the feeling that the only vampires are the ones who drank from to grail, with only a few knowing of their existence. They fight the need to drink blood and only partake when necessary to stay alive, using the vials of freely offered blood if at all possible. I didn’t get the impression that they experiment much with animal blood because the general blood-drinking is abhorrent to them (at least to Chapel – there may be others that embrace their nature a little more). As for the rest of the rules, I’m sure we’ll get more as the series progresses, just as we have with Feehan and Kenyon. (Speaking of Sherrilyn, should she ask JR for her “Brotherhood” term back? She, as Kinley MacGregor, had Brotherhood of the Sword over a year before the Black Dagger Brotherhood came out. I don’t think anyone owns the term and felt that was a tacky remark on your part.)
Jan 22, 2007 @ 16:29:07
I’m glad that it worked for you, Denise.
Jan 22, 2007 @ 16:31:13
Denise, I’m glad you enjoyed the book. There other vamps out there, but my 5 are different because of the close connection to Lilith — think of vampirism as a trait that gets watered down as it’s passed. Hope you enjoy the rest of the series as well.
Jan 22, 2007 @ 17:06:33
A Lot of us enjoyed the book! Enough that it is in my top 5 for 2006. I just reviewed, and enjoyed, the follow up to it.
Thanks for the great stories – some of us really do get them.
Jan 22, 2007 @ 17:35:55
I couldn’t agree more with Kristal, Denise and Shannon…this book is fabulous! It was very emotionally satisfying and my absolute favorite book from 2006. I’ve read Night of the Huntress (which is also fantastic) and am eagerly anticipating the rest in this series! Thanks, Kathryn, for your wonderful stories!
Jan 22, 2007 @ 20:00:08
Looks like we’ve been invaded by Fangrrls-R-Us.
Jan 22, 2007 @ 23:52:03
Jayne, we are fangirls just because we loved a certain book? Are you a fangirl when you give a book an “A” rating? If I like a book, I will say so. If I don’t like a book I will also say so. I don’t frequent review sites, but when I hear about a book I loved getting bashed, I will usually comment to defend it. I thought you invited comments even if they don’t agree with the review. Everyone deserves to hear differing opinions.
Jane, thank you for your kind reply. It did work very well for me and a few others, it seems.
Jan 23, 2007 @ 10:04:48
I think the fangirl appellation came up because it was a rush of comments for such an old blog post (over 7 months ago). But if you liked the book, you liked the book. Different strokes and all.