This is a debut novel, but the name Cassie Alexander seems very familiar, so I kept trying to shake the feeling I’d read this author before. It’s the first book in a trilogy. I like trilogies, because they don’t usually go off the rails like series can.
If you don’t want spoilers, don’t read on.
Being the first novel, it has the classic Urban Fantasy start of a character newly introduced to the fantasy world. There’s a reason this is so common – it gives a reason to explain everything. Ms. Alexander does a pretty good job here, not over explaining things, though I think less menace comes through than she’s expecting.
The main character, Edie, is a nurse which is one reason I picked up this book. I occasionally read nursing/medical blogs ( the crazy-patient story kinds ), so I figured I’d enjoy a book set in a hospital. The hospital scenes rang pretty authentic to me, with the same exasperated/exhausted tone I see in the blogs I read. In fact, they were my favorite part of the book.
I didn’t really bond with Edie or feel particularly concerned with her. Either things were too easy for her, or she was being taken advantage of. She sleeps around for a bit – at one point she gets worried she’s caught syphilis from a dragon and is embarrassed to go get tested. I’d think if you’re regularly picking up guys in bars you’d be getting regularly tested regardless of species, so this was just a moment of passively waiting for consequences to hit.
The reason she’s working in the ward is a mystical deal to get her brother the junkie cured. He’s got a bit part in the book, mostly to give her motivation, something to stress over, and as a source of things going wrong when he steals from her. I’ll admit I don’t usually enjoy books with addictive personalities, but this didn’t so much turn me off as make me go ‘bleh’. I’ve seen this sort of relationship written a lot better. Plus, losing all her furniture didn’t really seem to affect her, and she loves her brother because he’s her brother – no real sense of connection on that relationship.
After one of the most interesting scenes featuring her rescuing patients from the aforementioned dragon, she ends up with a german-speaking ghost haunting a radio/tape player. He doesn’t really have a role, his dialog isn’t translated and I’m still figuring out what the point of him is. She’s pretty blase about it. Oh gee, this patient had a ghost radio telling him fairy tales. Oh dear the radio was broken. Oh hey, here’s a radio that looks like that haunted one. Oh yay, the ghost is back. Oh darn, I can’t give it back to the kid cause his mom is there. Guess I’ve got myself a german speaking ghost! I kept waiting for her to at least pick up a german/english dictionary, but never happened.
Then there’s the romance. She has two men who risk death ect to help her. One is meant to be a little mysterious and shows up at just the right time in the climax, and they were basically a 2-nights stand. The second he insisted on so she could get her rocks off as she didn’t the first time.
The other is the zombie, who nearly immediately after meeting her provides her with all the resources ( scouting, money, werewolf friends willing to let their were-kids track dangerous creatures, ect ) she needs to solve her mystery. They’re all super-fast-in-love, she has a brief moment of doubt when she realizes he’s stolen someone’s face and arm ( though he did leave them alive! ) but gets over it super fast and then.. he leaves town to provide end-of-book angst.
There’s also a whole plot about a missing child vampire that could have been more interesting but ended mostly being ‘must find the girl’. Zombie guy, found the girl? Werewolves? Could you find the girl? Lawyer who keeps hanging up on me, can I have an update on my case? Oh look, she’s hanging out at my house! I’ll lure her in with blood. Oh she’s there. Oh she’s gone. Meh. I wish as much time had been given to her backstory as the search for her.
All in all, this felt like it had a lot of potentially good elements but not the execution it needed. The vampires were interesting, the shadows have potential to be intimidating, the zombie-romance thing could have been way richer, the little girl more anguished. It just didn’t tie together or feel cohesive.
So, re-read? There are a few scenes I’ll re-read, and when the next book comes out I’ll read them together, but I don’t think I’ll pick this up again anytime soon.
Buy more from this author? I’ll buy the next one.
Final Verdict: There’s potential, and I really enjoyed the hospital scenes/relationships, even if the main character seems a bit of a loser to me.
Recommended: I feel like it’s too early to tell if this good to recommend to anyone. Depends on what the sequel holds.
Ideas I’d like to have seen –more connection, more risk, way way more action on the part of the heroine
Author Website: http://cassiealexander.com/
Penguins and Kittens 