C. S. Wolfe

Fire and Ice: The Secret Vampire Society
By C.S. Wolfe

A copy of this book was received from the Member Giveaways Program of LibraryThing.

Let me state that I think this could have been more than one book. I felt it had really several stories wrapped into one colossal story.

A muralist, Carmen is invited to paint the lobby of a commercial building and meets the owner one night and can not believe her luck when the handsome, wealthy and mysterious Adrian starts to court her.

As she falls in love, she learns that Adrian is a vampire and second in command of a secret society. Forsaking her ordinary life, she follows Adrian into his world but soon learns that she too has some unexplainable skills that will become very useful to her love.

For a first time author, I thought C. S. Wolfe’s book is very entertaining and gives a different slant on the “vampire” theme. You will have many enjoyable hours reading about Carmen and Adrian and how they face their adversaries and win the trust and support of each other.… (meer)

If I could I would make this a 2.5 stars.
I had a really hard time debating what rating to give this book because I found the writing choppy and I really disliked the behaviors of the characters I kept reading and actually got through this book pretty quickly. So I feel bad giving it such a low rating. The main reason I did so was while I could get past the writing style there were many parts of the plot where I was telling myself “Come on. Really? Why do you believe that or why did you do that?”

I started off liking Carmen but by the end of the book even though she is supposed to be this strong character I thought as a fighter yes but other than that no. She constantly gives in and blames herself when she makes Adrian mad even when he is obviously in the wrong. I wanted her to grow a spine. Oh you guys were going to kill me? Don’t worry about it. All water under the bridge. Really? You forgive them that easily?

Again I liked Adrian a the beginning but as the story went on I kept thinking if he really loved Carmen he would have more faith in her. It seemed that with even the slightest provocation he immediately doubted her, berated her and would grow angry with her. Then she would just lap it up and forgive him. I can see him ignoring her opinions once but once she proved she knew what she was talking about I thought he should have taken her future instincts a little more seriously.

The other thing that bugged me was everything was just too easy and fell neatly into place. There were quite a few cliches and the plot was pretty predictable. I am also surprised that the Amazon description says this is for those 13 and older. I really think it was targeted more for an older audience.

One thing I did like was the reasoning behind why vampires don’t normally go out in the sun light. For a second I thought it was going to be because they sparkled and decided if that was the case I would put the book down. But it was something else that really made sense.

Wow, after rereading what I wrote I feel really bad but this is honestly how I feel. To be fair I did see some really positive, 5 star, reviews for this book on Amazon so it might just not have been my cup of tea.… (meer)