Apr 2 2009
REVIEW: Immortal Danger by Cynthia Eden
Dear Ms. Eden:
Thank you for sending me an ARC of your book. You had sent me the first one Hotter After Midnight but I didn’t get around to reading it so I appreciate your persistence in following up with me. I’ve written recently that I’ve been suffering paranormal malaise of some kind. While Immortal Danger isn’t terribly different in the world building of other urban fantasy books, it does have a very fast past plot and a strong heroine.
Maya Black was a girl with a bad background who grew up to be a cop. She lives in a world full of monsters – vampires, shifters, demons. One night, alone in an alley, Maya was attacked by a vampire. She fought him fiercely, but in the end, a human is rarely a match for a vampire.
The vampire lunged for her, grabbed her hair and jerked her head back. His
black eyes were rimmed with red. Tears of blood leaked down his cheeks.His teeth ripped across her neck, but she didn’t scream. Didn’t have the strength to scream anymore.
Her finger jerked on the trigger, firing again, again, again-’
But he didn’t stop. Didn’t stop biting her, drinking from her, killing her.
So this is what death feels like.
…
The man’s face turned completely white as the color bleached from his skin.
"Wh-what are you?"
As his heartbeat filled her ears, that tempting, wonderful beat, her canines
lengthened, burned.And Maya realized she hadn’t survived her attack.
No, she hadn’t survived it at all.
She becomes a vampire herself. She becomes death herself, killing vampires, demons, and anyone else she perceives is a threat. After five years, Maya has killed enough that even demons fear her. Adam Brody has been watching her for days because he’s been told that she can find his stolen niece, a girl taken by a powerful group of vampires.
Maya tells Adam that his niece is dead, that she isn’t a helper, and that he should move on but Adam won’t stop until he recovers his niece. Maya can’t turn her back on the nine year old girl and Adam provides both compelling proof that his niece is not dead and a reason to pursue her.
It’s kind of funny because as I was reading Immortal Danger, I worried that eventually Maya would become defanged. She was so competent, so strong in the beginning of the story. I wondered if you wouldn’t feel the need to emasculate her in order for Adam to be Maya’s equal. Fortunately this was never the case. Maya stayed strong and competent throughout the entire story, always one step ahead of the bad guys using both her brains and her strength to get Adam and her to their destination.
I was also impressed that Adam’s character was equal to that of Maya. I never felt like she overpowered him, either by her physical skill set or her personality. They seemed right for each other. However, (isn’t there always a however), I felt the character of Adam was very inconsistent.
To some extent, Adam’s reactions were manipulated by the authorial hand to achieve a certain response from the reader. For example, he seeks out Maya for her help and her specific knowledge and expertise, yet often second guesses her decisions. It appeared that this was done so that the reader had uncertainty about Maya’s abilities, to create tension and conflict. Would Adam, a man so desparate for help that he would seek out another “sick fuck” to save his niece, only to disregard the vampires’ advice?
When he first appears on the scene, he hates vampires (with good reason); yet he shows near immediate possessiveness toward Maya. His internal conflict shifts from hating vampires to worrying that he couldn’t ever show her his beast. I didn’t feel like you allowed him to do enough to protect his niece. In keeping his identity a secret, from the reader, you didn’t elaborate on his past in much of anyway making him read incomplete at the end of the story. I wasn’t certain why his bodyguards were so ineffective initially and why he would trust that they would be effective in a second go around? Why did he dither around and not simply exert his power to save them all? In other words, if you wanted Maya to be the one to save people (and I certainly did), I didn’t feel like an adequate excuse was given for Adam not being able to help when he was so powerful.
I questioned the insertion of sex scenes. Every day that passed was one more day the little girl would be exposed to the danger of the vampires. Would they really take time to have sex and argue? While the scenes were sexy, I still found them to be intrusive. I wanted to know more about the story and how the two were going to succeed at their task.
Still, the story was compelling and the action fast paced and I’d definitely pick up another Eden book. C+
Best regards,
Jane
This book can be purchased in trade paperback from Amazon. No ebook format
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Apr 02, 2009 @ 11:58:26
I think that I, too, have Paranormal Ennui. A new author has to be damn good to catch my interest at this point. On the other hand, I do love strong female protagonists.
I’ll hop on over to Ms. Eden’s homepage and see if there’s an excerpt to nose at.
Apr 02, 2009 @ 12:40:37
Hi, Jane! Thanks for reviewing my story! I’m glad that you enjoyed Maya’s character. She was fun to write.
Apr 02, 2009 @ 12:58:39
Haven’t read this one yet – but I do love Cynthia Eden’s writing voice. She has great strong heroines and male characters to match them. Hotter After Midnight is a particular favourite.
Apr 02, 2009 @ 16:01:13
Is it weird that even after I read this review, the only thing I wanted to know was why the vampire who bit Maya was leaking bloody tears from his eyes? Was he sad? Do all vampires in this story have leaky tear ducts that bleed? I get that some vampire myths say they cry blood, but why would a vampire who is attacking the main character be crying blood when he’s biting her throat and drinking her blood? I know, it’s a weird point to focus on, but it stuck out like a sore thumb to me.