-->

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Blog Tour Review: Don't Blackmail the Vampire


Rachel Davis will do anything to get her sister out of a bad relationship with her fiancé. Even if it involves a few fibs, a little breaking-and-entering, and blackmailing the fiancé’s potential boss, Charles, for his help. So what if the handsome Charles happens to be a vampire?

Charles Wright has found the perfect way to trap the man threatening his brother’s wife: cozy up to him, get invited along on the skiing trip, and then search for incriminating evidence. How much better that audacious but gorgeous Rachel is just as eager to nail the bastard. As far as he’s concerned, there’s nothing wrong with a little blackmail between two consenting adults. Especially when it’s time for Rachel to pay up.

To catch everyone up--Rachel is the younger sister to Kristen, who for those who read Don't Bite the Bridesmaid, may remember her as the woman who stole her best friend Alice's fiancé Brent.  Alice made out much better in that little betrayal, but no one is really that surprised.  Charles is Noah's younger "brother" and is generally considered a laxidasial unreliable rogue by Alex, Noah and their "father" Kanehito.  Brent is the jerk allegedly threatening Alice and thus Charles was sent to figure that shit out and get it done with.

So we're caught up to now.  In which Rachel makes a bargain with a vampire.  Unlike Alice however Rachel is scared of what Charles is/can do (remember Alice's brother was jilted at the alter by his bride to be because she turned out to be vampire).  This leads to some amusing conversations in which Rachel tosses pop culture at him and Charles is like 'hahaha no.'

I found the dynamic between Rachel and Kristen to be interesting and the focus for me.  When contrasted to Charles' strong, but not particularly close or fuzzy relationship with his brothers it comes off odd.  Rachel knows, she knows and agonizes over, that what she is trying to do has the potential to seriously tank her sisterhood with Kristen.  She knows that Kristen may never forgive her.  And in the abstract she understands.  But Charles is relentless in trying to make her understand how much damage she should expect.  After all he understands, what with his brothers treating him as little better then a party boy.

I didn't buy as far into the romance at first either.  Noah and Alice had a thing you could tell.  Rachel and Charles, largely due to how she discovered his secret, made me feel a bit cautious.  She's actively afraid of him for a while, then she's actively distrusting.  Their "happy" moments as they fell in love were relatively few. 

The ending, and the resolution to the romance, felt...right.  It felt good.  I was just as upset with Rachel as Kristen was, it was meddling there really was no other word for it good intentions or not.  I kind of had hoped that Kristen would have come to the realization without prodding, but this wasn't her book so she didn't need to have the epiphany that Rachel did.

The threats against Alice took an unexpected turn at the end. And I hope that it means Allee is building towards something we've been hearing about. I really do. 


Make sure to check out my tour post (with $25 Amazon GC giveaway!) for more information on the tour!