TALL, DARK AND UNDEAD is a sweet romance: kisses only, no sexual content.Gutsy, kick-ass Suzanne James has no intention of complicating her life by falling in love…especially with a vampire. But it’s hard to stay objective when a drop-dead gorgeous male rescues her from three assailants in a dark alley. All but unconscious, she could swear her hero has glowing red eyes and two sharp, pointed … sharp, pointed teeth.
Adrian Caine has spent the past hundred years, in vampire parlance, a vegetarian. When he rescues a beautiful blonde in a dark alley, it takes all of his formidable control not to backslide. Attraction turns to desire. Even though it’s not in Suzanne’s best interest, he can’t stay away.
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Susanna gets attacked by three men but is saved by a handsome man who has red eyes and fangs. Adrian save this human and forms a bond he can’t shake it explain. While trying to protect this human someone sets him up for murdering her attackers . Then a blast from the past come to light that might tear em apart . Good book one best vampire books I’ve read for a while.
Sweet but not Saccharine
Tall, Dark and Undead is a wonderful paranormal romance with just the right balance of action and romance to make it work. It features a kick-ass female protagonist…literally.
The Opening
The opening is action-packed and delivers a strong hook. It immediately introduces the two most important characters in the story and tells us something about their personalities.
The Characters
Suzanne is an interesting character with her love for kickboxing and her relationship with Kess. It is her care for Kess that establishes her as a sympathetic character and helps the reader to like her as a person. However, we didn’t get to learn much about her life beyond the plot. She also doesn’t have meaningful conversations with other named female characters, so she fails to pass the Bechdel-Wallace Test.
Kess is my favorite character. I love his paternal patience and kindness. I would have liked to have seen more of a happy ending for him and maybe a significant other who was not a sugar-daughter figure. Even though he is not one of the love interests, we learn more about him than any other character. We know about his friendships and acquaintances across the town, about how all the other people he works with think about him, about his competence at work, his family background and losses, his interests (poker, movies, etc).
Royce was an interesting character but would have benefited from more depth. We didn’t really learn anything about his interests beyond the plot. Although he had conversations with Suzanne, they turned “telling” rather than “showing” as soon as they turned to their actual interests, so we didn’t learn much about his background.
What I mean is that the conversation is told along the lines of they talked about movies, books, and stuff, but the movies, books, and stuff are not shown using dialogue and specific titles raised along with reasons for liking them. Compare that with Twilight where Edward and Bella have different opinions about the book Wuthering Heights and talk at length about their feelings.
Adrian is a better-developed character. We learn about where he lives, the people he works with, his family background, and his past activities. I would like to have heard more about his current interests, though. What music he likes, if he likes sports, does he like fast cars, is he a Republican or a Democrat, how does he feel about the potential for a manned mission to Mars…anything that’s beyond the immediate plot.
The Plot
There is a lot of great action in this story that begins in the first scene and continues throughout. There is also no shortage of conflict to keep the tension high.
The relationship plot follows the difficult choice trope found in some paranormal romance stories where the protagonist must choose between two possible lovers who each have their own merits and flaws. For example, in Twilight: Eclipse, Bella is forced to choose between Edward (who cannot give her children and a life growing old with her family) or Jacob (who can give her these things and is her best friend).
As the story progressed, I felt that the difficult choice wasn’t as difficult as it might have been. I would have liked fewer flaws to appear for the losing character and more redeeming factors so that the choice was more of a struggle for Suzanne.
The resolution is somewhat satisfying, but I felt a little cheated in the end. As soon as the resolution was completed, the novel ended, and I needed more. I wanted to see the unsuccessful suitor’s reaction to ongoing events after the resolution. I also wanted to see how the paternal figure dealt with changes to the dynamic and in the workplace.
There were two minor characters that were not utilized toward the end, and I would have liked to have seen them play a part. These were a potential third-choice character and an assistant to the antagonist. Specifically, while reading the story I wondered if they might be the same person, and it would have been interesting to see if they were.
I was quite disappointed that the assistant antagonist was left out of the final action scene. It would have been interesting to see him there, and even more interesting if he’d had to struggle with Suzanne.
The Setting
The setting was clear and quite interesting. However, I would have liked a little more about the pub. It might have been nice if Adrian had spent some time explaining the family crests to Suzanne, using them to explore his family line and show more about his background.
Similarly, I would have liked a little more detail inside the police station. Dressed up for a date as she was, did Suzanne worry that the police officers might think she was a working girl arrested on the street? Did it smell of despair? Anything.
The Prose
This story was well written. I was never confused about what was happening and didn’t stumble across any major errors.
My Opinion
Overall, I enjoyed reading Tall, Dark and Undead. I found the journey entertaining and the ending satisfying. However, I would have liked the decision to be more difficult and the ending to be less abrupt.
I would really have liked to see how Kess and Suzanne’s relationship developed after the resolution. I was disappointed not to see that. And I hated that the third choice character was developed so well in the middle only to completely drop off the radar.
I’m going to rate this as 8 out of 10, which will translate to 4 out of 5 on Goodreads and Amazon. It was a satisfying read, but it could have been better.
Adrian, the vampire and Suzanne, the human whom he saved, share a sizzling chemistry. More than that it is the world created in the story which I found enjoyable. The dialogues were fun to read too. Light, fun reading.