Also, slow motion cigarette smoke will be filmed until it dissipates.

30. A Dozen Black Roses – Nancy A. Collins

One warning about this, when I was doing some research to refresh myself on the book, I found that there is a revised version of A Dozen Black Roses out that apparently does not contain the crossover elements of World of Darkness. I did not deal with World of Darkness so I don’t know what’s now missing – and I read the first edition of this so I read the crossover elements without knowing; but I do have a problem with these revised editions because I like to know beforehand if I’m reading something that’s been altered so I can find the original edition if I want. Like when I read Daughters of Eve. I do not care for the insertion of cell phones and modern technology, so I made sure I was reading an unaltered edition. Next, I may yell at a cloud about these revised editions.

Anyway, reading Sonja Blue novels out of order and at random is sort of like catching The Crow on TV halfway through. Nostalgic. It’s a wet, gritty world and the soundtrack is good and scratchy. The reflection of the dingy lights of a bar off somebody’s pleather jacket is a welcome sight and there better be blood everywhere at some point, especially covering synthetic fabrics that will never recover. Also, there will be some relatively orphaned young person and an anti-hero who will be vengeful, but still interested in helping at least two people because they’re not a completely emotionless monster. So, if you’re looking for that “isn’t this wet oil puddle in the gutter beautiful” sort of charm, with vampires, inquire within.

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Thorfy has no clue what I’m talking about, even though he was found on the streets. He is that orphan. He probably does know what I’m talking about and just won’t admit it to me. Adorable little jerk.