Half-demon Jessie Garrett is searching for an evil vampire that's been preying upon children. She wants to claim the rogue vamp's soul and send it to hell. To find the dead man walking she must partner with another bloodsucker, Drake, even though she doesn't trust him. While Jessie works with Drake, she learns not all vampires are killers and discovers the cold-blooded vamp is a temptation too difficult to resist.
After the fiend abducts another child and Jessie has a near fatal experience with vampires, she turns to Jeremy, a demon she bumped into at a club, and makes a deal with him for his help. Drake disapproves, and Jessie soon finds herself wedged between two volatile creatures. When the chance comes to save the child's life and claim the evil vamp's soul, she must decide whom she can trust—a vampire who cools her feverish desires, or a demon hell-bent on seducing her.
Review:
I'm not sure what I was expecting but this book really surprised me and in some ways changed my mind about these smaller publishing houses! I've tended to avoid the smaller pubs and ebooks but I'm not sure why and this book made me think that I might be missing some really good authors. The main story of Claiming the Evil Dead takes place over the course of a week but don't let that quick pace bother you. Just suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride. I'd rate this as a solid C+ with the caveat that I see the potential for more. The erotic romance label might be slightly misleading for some and I would probably place it more in the romance category. Steamy sex, yes, but nothing terribly risque or out of the ordinary.
My only real concern was that in some places I'd say the descriptive words could use a boost. Slithered isn't exactly what I want a lover to do in bed, and I'm not sure having fangs dripping from his lip is a huge turn on. That might just be a preference thing and I could be way off but for me I would change a few word pairings around.
That being said, I did enjoy Drake and Jessie being together, the demon and the vampire, because they almost seemed to bring balance to each other. She's hot and he's cold. She's a demon soul sucker and he is an elder vampire. She often rushes into things and he carefully plans every nuance. They are yin and yang. These differences in personality are what makes them fun to read about, what gives their relationship some extra intensity. And the addition of Jeremy, a fellow demon, just cranked the complexity up a notch. He is hiding something, or carting around some serious secrets, and I just haven't pegged him yet. The next book (Catching an Evil Tail) is staying on my radar because I want to know how this love triangle plays out.
For more information about Claiming the Evil Dead and the other books in the Soul Catcher series stop by Mary Abshire's website or go over to Noble Romance Publishing.
*This book was sent by the author for review purposes.
*Reviewed by Anna Dougherty for Bite Club.
, and I will have details at the end of this post. So let's all welcome Mary Abshire *clapping and cheers*