Dark Brethren #1: Night's Cold Kiss Review

Title: Dark Brethren #1: Night's Cold Kiss

Author: Tracey O'Hara

Date of Publication: August 25, 2009

Formats Available: Paperback, E-Book

Synopsis: After witnessing the murder of her mother when she was only a child Antoinette Petrescu has violently hated the vampire race. Part of a group of humans who dedicate their lives to killing vampires who kill their prey, Antoinette has only begun to unleash her vengeance on the monsters who killed her family. When a violent string of murders takes place, and all clues point to her mother's murderer, Antoinette is forced to accept the help of vampire Christian Laroque to catch the culprit. The more time Antoinette spends around Christian the more she begins to accept her growing attraction to him and begins to accept his help. With the assistance of Christian, Antoinette is able to capture the man who killed her mother, and get her revenge once and for all.

My Review:

With an interesting story line but weak characters Night's Cold Kiss is an entertaining but forgettable urban fantasy. O'Hara shows a lot of potential in terms of great story telling and a creative take on vampires but her characters just fall flat and are difficult to relate to. While this novel was a fast read and an entertaining enough way to spend an afternoon I finished the book without much to show for it.

Antoinette was a stereotypical urban fantasy heroine, with 140 vampire assassinations under her belt, a tendency to hit first and ask questions later, and a predictable thirst for revenge there was nothing new with her character. Likewise Christian was a boring male counterpart, dark and brooding with the mind of a teenage boy most of the story from his perspective centered around sex, which got old extremely fast.

Even though Antoinette has killed numerous vampires and Christian was also a proclaimed killer the two of them managed to get their friends killed and themselves captured quite a bit. They were constantly crying over someone who died or letting the killer get away, which seemed a little ridiculous for two people who were so famous for their killings. Another thing that bothered me was their instant romance it felt forced and rushed leaving them with a shallow relationship that did nothing for the story.

The plot presented a slightly unoriginal but interesting view on vampires, the "good" vampires called the Aeternus and the "evil" vampires called the dreniacs. With a murder mystery thrown in surrounding the dreniac who killed Antionettes mother there was plenty of action to keep me turning pages.

O'Hara shows promise because of her interesting writing and entertaining plot but she still has some way to go. Die-hard fans of urban fantasy may want to try this one out but I would suggest waiting for future novels with stronger characters.

3/5