Tracey O'Hara - Night's Cold Kiss

Book description


The tension between the Aeternus, an ancient vampiric people, and humanity has been mounting for over a century. But when rogue vampires begin to drain humans in order to achieve an illegal blood-high, all bets are off.

After the death of her parents, Antoinette Petrescu devoted her life to becoming one of the top Venators, the elite hunters who destroy the rogue Necrodreniacs. Her kill count is legendary and her skills superb.

But now the serial killer who killed her parents has returned. And to stop him Antoinette must join forces not only with the Aeternus, but also their most legendary killer. One that is both dangerously attractive, and involved in buried secrets of her past. More dangerous still, a dark attraction grows between them--one that could doom both races.

Summary

When Antoinette Petrescu was a child she witnessed the death of her mother by a Necrodreniac vampire. This experience made Antoinette feel resentment to all vampires. This resentment fuels her motivation to hunt down criminal vampires, as part of an elite Venator corps. However, Antoinette may have finally met her match when she realises her mother’s murderer may still be alive and hunting her. Helping her is Christian, a sexy Aeternus vampire.

Review

Nights Cold Kiss has a dark serial killer plotline that incorporates mystery with romance, action and good world building.  To counter the dark plotline, Victor, Christian’s best friend was successfully used to lighten the sometimes dark feeling of the book and bring about humour, witty conversation and one-liners. In fact, I loved the Victor character.

Christian and Antionette have a lot of differences that make them an unlikely match. Christian’s grief over the murder of his wife and father influenced him to kill many humans in his search for their killers, enough to gain the title of the crimson executioner. In comparison, Antionette hates any type of vampire (Aeternus and Dreniacs) since the death of her mother and sister.  However, there was instant chemistry between Christian and Antionette. Both characters are drawn to the other despite their denying it to themselves and each other. Their relationship is often fiery with lots of sexual tension and suspense. However, I would have liked a little more romance.

Excluding Victor, the character portrayal was probably the weakest area of this book. Christian and Antionette were not always the most likeable characters. There were moments where Christian could be domineering and aggressive (in an unattractive way) and moments where Antionette could be headstrong and rude. In addition, I felt the characters lacked character development. I think there could have been a bit more subtlety and more depth.

I really enjoyed the twists and turns of the mystery element of the plotline. There were times when I thought I had it all figured out and that it was maybe even a bit obvious but then I would be surprised with a great plot revelation. I also really enjoyed the action scenes. In fact, I thought the plotline, in general, was really good.

In summary, I think you could tell the book was Tracey’s debut book but it was enjoyable anyway. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series and seeing how she progresses as a writer. 

My rating out of 5

3/5