Half-vampire. half-human. 100% Badass.Now, let’s see if her new boss loves jailbirds.Chloe Hunter can’t seem to stay out of trouble. Incarcerated by The Bureau after running amok for a century with a gang of vampires, grifting and terrorizing humanity, she’s ready to make up for her dark past. Luckily, when The Bureau would rather see her at the end of a wooden stake, in comes her new … new straight-laced boss, Ethan Raines who’s got other plans for the enthralling ex-con.
An enigmatic vampire who finds Chloe’s hybrid blood and sexy street prowess too irresistible to pass up, Ethan requests The Bureau to release her into his custody to protect the streets of New Orleans. Now, her debt to society is to punish other supernaturals who break the law and bring them to justice.
When Chloe’s old gang involves her in a plot to unlock a mysterious box of woe, she’s forced to make some hard choices that threaten to betray the trust of the man who’s given her a second chance at life and love. Ethan may have his work cut out for him in Tall, Dark & Deadly, the first steamy blockbuster in the Agents of The Bureau series!
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From the beginning I love Chloë! She is spunky, sarcastic & dangerous! She is also all about the ends justifies the means and asking for forgiveness instead of permission. My kind of girl!
Ethan is stuff, bossy and totally by the books. She is her boss and despite being super hot she is off-limits and obviously not interested, right?
See what evil comes about and where things go with this well written story!
Can these polar opposites come together?
Paranormal romance is one of my favorite categories in the whole genre. There are so, so many great reads there—books that I’ve read and reread so many times it borders on obsessive. But sadly, it’s also the category that I find it most difficult to find new reads in. For every great PNR read, there are 5 craptastic ones. I open each new-to-me series with equal parts excitement and dread. Will THIS be my next binge read? Will THIS be the next series that I pimp to my followers until they get sick of hearing me talk about it? But it’s with a heavy heart that I tell you that Tall, Dark & Deadly didn’t make it to my keeper shelf. I had LOTS of problems with this one.
First of all, I need to admit that I only made it to about 10% of the book before I quit reading. Some of you might feel like that makes me unqualified to review, and that’s fair. But since there were enough things that irked me in the first 10% of the story that I was able to write LOTS of words about it, I’m gonna go ahead and rant and review. (Plus it’s my blog and no one is the boss me, so…yeah. There’s that.)
Let the ranting begin…
Head hopping:
Head hopping, for those of you who don’t know, is when the author hops from one character’s point of view to another within the space of a paragraph or page. Now, that’s not to be confused with a dual point of view story. Most authors who tell dual point of view stories switch points of view every chapter—and a bunch of them clearly call out which point of view each chapter is told from in the chapter headings. But head hopping is much less common, and WAY more headache inducing. Only super talented authors can pull it off successfully. (Nora Roberts can do it, for example) And in the case of THIS book, I’m not entirely sure the head hopping was an intentional stylistic choice. I think it might have been an error, which is a totally rookie writing mistake that an editor should have caught before publication. There shouldn’t be 2 different points of view represented in a single paragraph ever, and I noticed it happening several times within the first 10% of this story.
Speaking of editing:
And while I’m on the topic of editing, this one has LOTS of grammar and spelling errors. There are parts where I’m pretty sure the French text used in dialogue is wrong, too. It should be said, also, that I’m not a grammar Nazi. I only point out spelling and grammar errors when they’re egregious, so for ME to notice that the editing in this one was lacking…well, imagine what’d happen to a grammar nerd who gave this one a read. (*head exploding*)
Damsel in distress:
Even in the first 10% of the story, Chloe needed Ethan to rescue her, only she never admitted it. She insisted (stubbornly) that she had everything under control, even though she CLEARLY didn’t. I have no problem with a heroine who needs help from time to time, but a good heroine admits when she needs help and THANKS the person who helps her. A craptastic heroine pouts when she’s rescued and snaps at her rescuer for daring to interrupt a situation that she wanted to handle on her own. (*cough*Chloe*cough*)
Odds and ends:
1. There are multiple Buffy and other pop culture mentions, but then a made-up show, The Vampire Journals, is discussed. Why mention Buffy and Rambo and a bunch of other real pop culture icons, and dance around The Vampire Diaries?
2. Chloe “grimaced” several times in the first 6% of the story. Can we get some different facial expressions?
3. “Ethan looked less than pleased at the phone.” Is Ethan upset with the phone’s behavior? Because that’s how the sentence reads. I’m guessing the author meant he was less than pleased by something that was said on the other end of the phone, but that’s not how it read. That just seems like sloppy writing to me, and if I’m seeing sloppy writing at 6% of the story, I don’t even want to think about what I’m going to find in the middle of the book.
4. “There wasn’t a lot out there about the legendary Ethan Raines.” If he’s a legend, doesn’t that mean there would be lots of stories and info out there about him? Again…sloppy.
5. Chloe is whiny. She’s a wannabe badass, not a real badass. Kate Daniels is a REAL badass. You never hear HER whining about anything.
So, long-story-short, I couldn’t bring myself to finish this one. There was just no way I could overlook the problems I found so early on in the story. If I’d read the whole thing, I imagine the resulting review would’ve been 10 pages long and REALLY grumpy sounding. I didn’t want to subject y’all to that. You’re welcome.
Full disclosure: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I am a huge fan of the paranormal/urban fantasy genre I am always on the lookout for stories that has a unique and refreshing take, so when Tall, Dark, and Deadly came on my radar I could not resist. From the moment I started this book, I knew that this would be an interesting read.
Tall, Dark and Deadly tells the story of Chloë Hunter a hybrid vampire (Dhampir) and Ethan Raines a 3000-year-old vampire. Chloë attracts trouble like steel to a magnet. She was once part of a gang of rogue vampires, but now she works for the Bureau. Her working for the Bureau was due to Ethan coming to her rescue, and saving her from possible execution and besides, they could use her unique skills. (The Bureau is like federal agency for supernatural beings). Chloë possessed the strength of vampires but none of their weaknesses. Sun nor silver has any effect on her, as a result, she was a target for rogue vampires. Her telekinetic powers made her a force to be reckoned with. She considers herself a freak because of her half-breed nature. Humans want nothing to do with her and vampires either cursed her or wanted to exploit her.
Her working with the Bureau meant she could not afford to go to her old ways; however, a situation involving her old gang arose placing her in a difficult situation. She needed to honour her pledge to the bureau, but at the same time to save an innocent life she had to do the bidding of her former gang.
Ethan who so happens to be Chloë’s boss is a man of mystery. He is attracted to Chloë; however, he kept his feelings hidden, because he felt he did not deserve to be happy. In addition, he felt that revealing how he felt would ultimately lead to Chloë getting hurt. He came off as formal and uptight, but as the story progressed we see that there was more to him. The author’s portrayal of Ethan was engaging and I enjoyed discovering what made him tick. There were so many layers to him. His focus has always been work and governance, but all that change when Chloë entered his life. He now had someone and something worth fighting for, so when Chloe confided in him about her situation he helped her to conceive a plan as for how to approach this dire situation without involving the Bureau. Will their plan succeed?
The start was engaging. At this point, the pacing was fast, but then the story slowed down somewhat as the focus of the story was on the development of Ethan and Chloë’s relationship. It maintained that pace until around 40% the story when Chloe and Ethan found themselves in an untenable position. This aspect of the story had me on the edge of my seat. I could not wait to find out if the rogues would achieve their diabolical plan or if Chloe and Ethan would be able to stop them before they did.
Chloë is impetuous making her the complete opposite of Ethan, but despite their differences, they were great for each other. I loved that they trusted each other both professionally and personally. I loved the pace at which their romance developed. It was not an insta-love connection. Their feelings for each other grew overtime which proved that what they had was the real deal. The supporting characters played their part in making the story enjoyable.
Overall, this was a good story and I cannot wait to read the next book in the series. ‘Tall, Dark and Deadly is a well-written story that will keep you glued to the pages from start to finish. If you love paranormal romance then you will love this book.
N.B: This can be read as a stand-alone.
Tall dark and deadly. In a world where “Supes” work together in councils, and bad guys can be a number of scary rebels, Chloe the half- vampire finds herself an outcast.
She seems like a bit of a rebel looking for a cause, able to Daywalk, and not quite able to follow all the Bureau rules.
Really, she seems to want to keep humans and her Cajun friend out of trouble, when trouble runs into her, in the form of an ex trying to take advantage of her skills, and his Family, looking to capitalize on her connection to the Bureau to retrieve a cursed box that could be a huge threat to the Fae folk.
Hunky Ethan is full of surprises, including his identity as an Ancient, and shaper of many of the rules he and Chloe break trying to keep her out of trouble and the Fae from dying. His secret attraction to Chloe was one of the bigger surprises, though perhaps I should’ve seen that one coming.
A sometimes dark, sometimes steamy read, fun adventure with a paranormal romance thrown in.
I volunteered a review after reading an arc copy.
Am really looking forward to the next Supe adventure with these fun characters.