Gwen’s review of Wicked Is the Night by Catherine Mulvany
Contemporary paranormal romance released by Pocket Star 25 Nov 08
I’m not a terribly picky reader. I’ll read almost anything if it’s fiction – contemp, historical, erotic, romance, science-fiction, suspense, fantasy, urban fantasy, or any combination of all of the above. You name it, I’ll read it. This book is a combination of contemporary, paranormal, and romance. And, you know what? I think it only needed two of the three and it would have been oh so much better.
Wicked delivers on the contemporary front – the hero is a former race car driver and the heroine is a pretty amnesiac who is running from some bad guys but isn’t sure why (yes, that semi-trope) and is rescued by the hero. It delivers on the romance front – sort of – we actually get two romances for the price of one. But the paranormal? Not so much.
In fact, I didn’t understand why the author felt she even needed the paranormal bits. I think the book would have been fine without it. In fact, I think it would have been considerably better without the distraction of the vampire baddies – they were silly and the vamp-ness add nothing whatsoever to the plot.
The characters were okay – I liked the secondary characters better. The setting was interesting. The premise of the plot was a little tired but readable. So it wasn’t an awful book, but neither was it very good. If only the author knew when to leave a subgenre behind…
Here are my notes on the book right after I read it: Okay story. Didn’t really believe in the main romance. Believed in Marcello and Britt’s [secondary characters] romance more than Trick and Nevada’s [hero/heroine]. Most of the paranormal elements felt like an afterthought. The vampire angle ruined what would have been a perfectly good romantic suspense. Took too long to resolve the mystery of Nevada’s identity in the characters’ knowledge. Would have liked more of an ending.
This one wasn’t horrible, but I’ve read much better. I can’t recommend this to anyone except those who are a fan of the author.
Grade: D+
Summary:
They’d erased her past. Now they were trying to erase her future.
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Desperate to discover her true identity, Nevada Smith, a.k.a. Subject 111, escapes from the research facility where she’s been forced to play guinea pig for the last five years. She hitchhikes across the country, determined to follow up on her only clue, an anonymous address in San Francisco.
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But someone else is just as desperate to prevent Nevada from unlocking the secrets of the past. That someone sends two blood-sucking demons to track her down.
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They nearly succeed, too, until she joins forces with gorgeous former race car driver Trick Granger. Together, Trick and Nevada delve into her past.
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But the closer they come to solving the mystery, the more Nevada fears she may not want to know who-or what-she really is.
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Daylight can be dangerous, but in a world full of secrets…Wicked Is the Night.Read an excerpt here.
