I received a signed copy of Lucinda Dark‘s Rest in Pieces in the December Supernatural Book Crate.

Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust. If vampires kill your entire family, vengeance is a must.

I can’t say my parents never warned me about vampires. I just never believed them. Not—that is—until six months ago when vampires broke into my home and killed my family. Thanks to all the skills my parents taught me, I managed to escape but I couldn’t save them.

Two vampires down and the rest of the world to go.

My bid for revenge is going to have to wait, though, because until I turn 18, I’m being placed in the loving care of Elizabeth and Jonathan McKnight—godparents I didn’t even know existed. The clock is ticking until I can get back to my goal of eradicating the vampire race. But something is amiss at my new high school. According to my parents, vampires can’t walk in daylight. So, why then, does Torin Priest? If he’s not a vampire, then what is he? Because unlike the obnoxious asshole, Maverick McKnight, who sees me as some sort of bloodsucking leech on his wealthy family, Torin Priest is most certainly not human.

To stake or not to stake, that is the question.

This book starts with a Joss Whedon quote and then continued it’s Buffy cos-play from there. I say that with a little bit of snark, but no real venom. I didn’t dislike the book. But I do think the Buffy comparisons are unavoidable (and probably purposeful). Unfortunately, Barbie is no Buffy.

I didn’t come around to enjoying this book until well past the half-way mark. But by the end I was ready to continue on to book two. I found Barbie needlessly prickly for the first half of the book, and most of the other characters over-wrought representations of their character archetype. In fact, that last point carried through. The bitchy rich girls stayed stereo-typically bitchy. The sex kittens stayed stereotypical sex kittens. The dude-bro jocks stayed assholes. The kind and loving parents stayed kind and loving. There wasn’t really much depth to any of them and cliches and stereotypes were the words of the day, apparently.

Past halfway, the book finally drags at least one wheel out of the familiar Whedon-esque “I’m a sarcastic badass with a bruised heart” to allow the plot to progress. And at this point I enjoyed my time with the book.

I do have to say that it feels like it’s all going to take a very Anita Blake turn, though. This book has some sexual tension, but only one real (fairly mild) sex scene. But if I had to guess the series’ direction, I’d guess it will be soft porn before too long—given the ending. Which is fine. Some people might take issue with the heroine being 17 and the book containing on page sex. But my only true issue with it was that the idea of 17-18 year old boys who look at sex with a goal of pleasing their partner and know how to do it was almost more fantasy than the vampires. Just sayin’. Well, I suppose it also really muddles the genre classification. I don’t know if this is meant to be YA, NA, adult UF/PNF. I don’t sense that the author knows either. It felt more like she’d just forgotten the age of her characters at some point. Honestly, this genre confusion starts even at the cover.

All in all, I don’t think I’d buy book two. But I’d read it if I could get it at the library or as a freebie, etc.

Other Reviews:

Paranormal Romance Guild Review: Rest in Pieces, Lucinda Dark

Audio: Rest in Pieces by Lucinda Dark