Crimson City by Liz Maverick

I only managed to finish two books this long weekend and I didn't enjoy either one. Crimson City is the first in a series about futuristic Los Angelos now inhabited by vampires, humans, and werewolves living together in an uneasy peace. When I first read the synopsis on this series it sounded so original and seemed to have potential for an exciting series. However, this first book didn't live up to my expectations.

Dain Reston is human and a leader for B-Ops (Battlefield Operations) in charge of keeping the peace between all the conflicting species. Fleur Dumont is vampire and heir apparent to the Dumont family bred to lead the vampire people but after a youthful mistake when she turned a human to a rogue they no longer trust her. Her two half-brothers take over leadership. But when her half-brothers are killed the vampires have no choice but to make her their leader even though they still don't trust her. Dain and Fleur are forced to work together after a rash of vampire killings to try to discover who and what group is behind the murders.

Worldbuilding in paranormals can sometimes be confusing for me since I read so few of them. Crimson City had many different species and sub-species to keep straight: Vampires, humans, werewolves, rogues that are vampires that have been made from humans, and mechs that are humans with mechanical limbs. Vampire (fangs) control the sky, humans control the surface, and werewolves (dogs) control the underground. Most of the time I was able to follow all the rules but not always.

But aside from that this book seemed to have several problems, the greatest being the uneven pacing. Some scenes were gripping, dark and intense but others were ho-hum and still others were just confusing. It's always a bad sign to me when I have to flip back several pages repeatedly to figure out characters, dialogue, and worldbuilding details that I must have missed. I don't know anything about the publishing world but it seems to me that this book could have used a good editing job.

I did like Dain and to some extent, Fleur, even though I thought she was a bit weak. But I never really bought their love story. It seemed a little forced. The most intriguing characters were actually Cyd, Dain's partner, and Hayden, the rogue vampire that Fleur had 'made' in a rash moment. I am hoping that these characters appear again in the series. I have heard that the next book in the series A Tase of Crimson is better so it's on my TBB.

My Grade: C

For those who like covers, here are some of the covers for the rest of the series:

A Taste of Crimson by Marjorie M. Liu (released Aug. 2005)








Through a Crimson Veil by Patti O'Shea (October 2005)








A Darker Crimson by Carolyn Jewel (November 2005)








Seduced by Crimson by Jade Lee (March 2006)








(No cover available) Crimson Rogue by Liz Maverick (April 2006)