Thursday, May 3, 2007

Touch the Dark by Karen Chance

Cassandra Parker can see the future and communicate with spirits - talents that make her attractive to the dead and the undead. When the bloodsucking fiend mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with vengeance on his mind, she's forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection. The undead senators won't help her for nothing, and Cassie finds herself working with one of their most powerful members, a dangerously seductive master vampire- and the price that he demands may be more than Cassie is willing to pay...

This book was really good. I mean, it surprised me with it's ability to hold my attention and keep me engaged. Karen Chance has created a likable character in Cassie, and her exploits definitely left me yearning for more. I appreciate a female character that can kick butt without being annoying, and Cassie will be one that I'll remember for awhile. But beyond the well thought out and organized world Chance has created, the characters around Cassie are also great ones. Tomas and an old friend (a male one that is oh, so fine) named Mircea are enough to keep all the girls interested. Yet beyond nice bodies, the male characters in this book are intelligent and just strong enough to give our heroine a run for her money. Wonderful! I was also really impressed with the way that Chance wrote erotic scenes that were just that - erotic. She wasn't overly explicit and didn't use stereotypical language about bulges and panting. Instead she wrote believable and arousing passages that deginitely left me excited about what would happen between her characters next. As a big Laurell K Hamilton and Charlaine Harris fan, I have come to expect a lot from newcomers to the paranormal romance field, and Chance pulls it off nicely and has me looking forward to the next book in this great series.