First of all, let me explain my star rating. The first part of the book was extremely slow to the point where I was asking myself why I bothered to keep on reading, so 1 star. The second half of the book was entertaining, funny and exciting – 3 stars. Put them together and you get a 2 star rating. So as I said above, once I started reading this novel, I had difficulty staying focused on it. I found it irritating, and slow. I promised myself that I would give it a chance, at least until page 100, just because I hate giving up on books and because I have heard such great things about Meg Cabot’s books.I am glad I stuck it out. I really did enjoy the second half of the novel and apparently what the author was trying to do – poke fun at the vampire craze – came across much better in the second half. By then, I was looking for all the vampire references and giggling when I did find them. Someone is killing girls in New York City and leaving their drained bodies out in the open. This is against the vampire rules, so Lucien, the Prince of Darkness comes out to New York to investigate. He bumps into Meena, our heroine, late one night and rescues her from a swarm of bats. Meena finds that Lucien is different from other men. She cannot sense his death. This intrigues her. Meena (wasn’t there a Mina in Dracula?) is a writer for a soap opera called Insatiable. Meena has a special gift – she can tell when a person is about to die. Meena lives in a very nice apartment building in New York City with her unemployed brother Jon and her dog Jack Bauer. Yes, the dog is named Jack Bauer. And get this – Jack Bauer (the dog) can sense vampires (apparently Pomerians are good at this). Meena’s character is rather dull at first. She worries about her job. She worries about her friends. She covets a rather expensive tote bag that her boss Shoshana has purchased. Meena worries about strangers because she can sense their death. As the book progresses, Meena’s character changes into a spunky, kick ass heroine. There are many memorable characters in the book. Lucien made an excellent Prince of Darkness. Alaric was an absolutely crazed Palatine Guard who wanted to kill all vampires. Dimitri, Lucien’s half-brother, played the evil, power-hungry card very well. An enjoyable aspect of this book was the way that the vampires had infiltrated New York society, down to product placement in a soap opera. The vampire powers were interesting. Lucien could turn into a dragon when challenged. Once I got into the book, it was fun to catch all the references to other vampire stories and lore and to guess which book or series the author was poking fun at. The pacing of the second half of the book was very good. It was action packed, exhilarating, and at times, hilarious. I understand that this is the first of a series of books for these characters. I am not sure that I would run to buy the sequel.
