Kismet Knight’s in for a new world (The link is for the review of the 2012 re-write; below is the review for the 2007 version)

I'd say this book was a solid start to this series. The main character, Kismet Knight, is a young clinical psychologist who specializes in helping those that believe in all things paranormal. She recently decided to take on a client who believes in vampires. Of course, like anyone else, Kismet herself doesn't believe in these things, and she often struggles between maintaining her professionalism to analyze their situations scientifically and her internal natural thought process that just wants to knock sense into these people. That is, until she's thrust into this world herself.

We spend quite a good deal of the book with Kismet denying that vampire exist, even though all of the strange happenings add up to it. I guess that's a realistic response, but that did annoy me ever so slightly. We meet some really cool vampires. I like their powers. I'm happy they don't sparkle. I'm even happier that they have fangs...and boy are they used...

Like many paranormal romances, we get a love triangle. Kismet's somewhat torn between an FBI agent and the vampire Devereux, who takes her as his mate of sorts. I'm sure it's not difficult to determine who I rooted for the whole time, haha.

I gotta say. Normally with these kinds of series I usually can't stand it when the main character falls in love with the guy in 10 pages. I don't connect with that whatsoever as a reader which is why I generally am selective about my paranormal romances. But for some reason, I didn't mind it in this book. That is probably because there is something special about Kismet. She's not some ordinary woman that an 800-year-old falls in love with, something I cannot STAND in many series. I just for the life of me don't grasp how something that old can become so enamored considering they've probably seen that same personality trait time and time again throughout the centuries. But I digress...

The villains are evil and beautiful, evil and ugly, and evil and crazy. I was seriously creeped out in a couple of scenes and scared for Kismet. This author definitely doesn't mind exposing the reader to disturbing situations.

I'm not quite sure whether or not I'd consider the ending that much of a cliffhanger or not. At least it helps that you can easily move onto the next book and see what happens next. I know I will.

*Review also posted to Amazon