THE LAST OF THE RED-HOT VAMPIRES

Author: Katie MacAlister ISBN: 0451220854 4/2007 PARANORMAL Publisher: SIGNET ECLIPSE

Physicist Portia Harding's life is grounded in facts. There's nothing that can't be explained by logic and science...until she travels with her best friend to England and accidentally summons an ethereal virtue who bequeaths her gift of weather control to Portia. Now Portia is walking around with a literal cloud over her head, and a heart stoppingly handsome maniac trying to kidnap her. But Theo North is no run-of-the-mill lunatic. He's a nephilim—the son of an angel—who needs Portia's help to change his fate. Problem is, Portia's down-to-earth attitude frustrates beings from both heavenly and hellish realms, and gets Theo turned into a vampire. But at least he has Portia to satisfy his newfound hungers...and possibly save his soul.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

This is a very different take on the vampire story. This book isn't as much about the vampires—or Dark Ones—as it is about Portia, Theo and the Court. Theo is a nephilim—the son of a mortal and an angel who is a member of the Court. As a nephilim he is not a full member of the Court, but in Portia, Theo sees his opportunity to change his status. When Portia is bequeathed her powers, she has to pass several tests to become a full member of the Court, and once she becomes a full member, she can grant Theo access to the Court as well.

Portia, on the other hand, is a physicist who does not believe in any paranormal activities or beings, so she spends most of the book disbelieving everything she sees.

First off, I'm not sure why this book is called THE LAST OF THE RED-HOT VAMPIRES. Vampires play almost no part in this book. There is some discussion of the Dark Ones and rules surrounding them, around the time Theo gets turned, but most of this book centers around the Court and the rules for becoming a member of the Court.

For me, this book was just... "eh." It didn't hold my attention very well, the interaction between Portia and Theo was tepid, the storyline seemed a bit all over the place—it seemed like, to me, there were too many distracting secondary stories and characters thrown in and not enough development of what was going on—which may be part of why I didn't really connect with the characters.

For example, there is an encounter with the devil that could have had so much potential, but it felt rushed, like all of the other ideas had to be put into the book, so there could be no dwelling on any one part for too long.

All in all, I didn't connect with this book. but I can't wait for the next Aisling Grey!

April Luth