NOTE: I received this title from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

When I requested Dead of Night, I had no idea that it was the second installment in a series. Then I started reading it, and was still in the dark up till page fifty something, when it finally clicked. I considered dropping the book, since I had no idea what happened in the previous one, but then decided to go on and see if it was finishable.

Turns out it was. I not only finished it with no difficulty understanding any previous events, but I also enjoyed it. The story was interesting, though a bit too slow paced to my liking, and I can say with a hand over my heart that it deserved my rating.

Sure, it had its moments that brought it down from the five stars. Like the fact that there was no action at all. None. Zero. And I don't know why that was since it was a vamp novel and all. The story evolved waaaay too slowly to reach the culmination point, and then when it did reach it, it wasn't all that captivating. And last, but not least, the romance held no passion.

Let me expand a little on that last part. Nobody expects teenagers in love to be cool and lacking passion. One or two brief kisses from time to time seem so unrealistic to me, that I can't even register the concept in my head. Seriously, there was nothing beyond "and he kissed my forehead", or "he gave me a breathless kiss". SHOW, DON'T TELL. I want to see and feel exactly how breathless that kiss was. I want to feel brainwashed by it, you know? The kisses are the sweet parts in any YA romance, and unfortunately this one lacked in this department.

Still though, I liked the story, so my rating stands.

About the characters:

Catlyn was the story teller. We were in her head, so we knew exactly what was going on inside of her. She was a likeable character, though when the grand moment came, her abilities weren't shown. I honestly expected to see some cat action, but alas!, there was none. What sort of bothered me about her was that she was constantly angry with her brothers. True, they had their reasons for being overprotective, but hey, with no parents in the picture and all the loose vamps, I think they were right to be so.

Jesse was the most dispassionate boy-in-love whom I've ever read about. I didn't witness one single loving look, didn't feel any vibe from him at all. Sure, he was nice and all, but that's as much as I can say about him.

Trick, Cat's oldest brother, was a real pain in the butt. He messed with people's minds however he saw convenient. And he was so overprotective, I honestly wanted to slap him. But he was also cute about it.

Same goes for Grayson, the other brother.

So, to sum it up, Dead of Night has great potential, but sadly it wasn't developed to reach it. The story was intriguing, but other parts were missing - like real passionate teenage love and some much-needed action.

I do recommend it, but I can't bet my head that you'd like it. Happy reading ya'll! ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.

Quick & Dirty: While I had some problems with the family and romance dynamics, all in all it’s a predictable plot with unique (if sometimes unlikable) characters.

Opening Sentence: Most people have two lives.

The Review:

Remember Van Helsing? Well, turns out dusting vampires is a family business of sorts — kind of like the Italian Mob. You don’t get to leave the family business, yet somehow that’s exactly what the Youngbloods have managed to do. Staying one step ahead of vampires and their extended family, the Youngbloods are living in secret in Lost Lake.

And Cat’s living super secret. Lying to her brothers about remembering a solid two months of her life — everything from the first day of school to that fateful Halloween in After Midnight — Cat’s spending this holiday season trying to make her relationship with Jesse work and her brothers from wiping her memories again. Jesse’s parents, the wealthy Ravens of Lost Lake, don’t want a Van Helsing and their son together any more than her brothers do, which might be the only thing they’ll ever agree on.

In this novel, the plot’s rather simple, which makes sense because it’s a rather short book. Girls who look like Cat are going missing from Lost Lake. While she and Jesse are pretty certain they know who’s behind it, they can’t figure out the why or the where. If they want any chance at finding those girls alive, they need to work fast — and they’ll probably need her still-mysterious Van Helsing skills to do it. (And the ending—ah, suspense! Yet not a cliffhanger…)

I love the Van Helsing concept, but the way Viehl introduces it only at moments of convenience is really off-putting. The Youngbloods have a family dynamic that at times is forced, most of the time is cliché, and the rest of the time is spot on. They banter, they made me laugh, but sometimes I didn’t believe them and wanted to chuck my nook at the wall. They were over-protective to such an extreme that I couldn’t believe Cat wouldn’t be mad or annoyed about it. As individual characters I loved Grayson and Patrick — but as brothers? I didn’t like them.

Cat and Jesse’s relationship is healthier than most YA relationships I’ve read recently, but it felt shallow. They love each other to the moon and back, but I couldn’t figure out why. I’m a huge romance junkie, but it’s as if once they got together, Viehl decided to stop their relationship from changing, growing, or doing anything except letting our hero and heroine say they love each other. The same is true for their character development. Cat is a strong, kick-ass heroine who’s not afraid to go after the bad guy — but we know that already from the first book in the Youngbloods series. I had hoped to see more character growth.

Let’s take a moment to judge a book by its cover: Jesse looks like one of the Greased Lightning gang and Cat looks…like a cat. The fact is, nothing about this book is stellar. If you read the first of the series, this one’s a short, easy read, but as a whole I don’t recommend the series. There are other, stronger paranormal YAs out there.

Notable Scene:

A blur rushed at me from one side, and as I saw the hands reaching for my neck something hot and angry billowed up inside me. I brought up my arm and knocked away the hands before I grabbed my attacker’s upper arms and shoved as hard as I could.

Mrs. Johnson went down on her backside and slid four feet down the sidewalk. She scrambled back up and shrieked, “Where is Sunny? Tell me!”

“I don’t know.” As she came at me again, I made a gliding movement to one side, circling around her. How I did that, I didn’t know—my body was calling the shots, not me. “Mrs. Johnson, please, stop.”

She turned around, panting now. “I’ll make you tell me.” Her hands curled into fists. “I’ll beat it out of you.”

FTC Advisory: Llewellyn provided me with a copy of Dead of Night. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

Review based on ARC:

2.5 Stars

When I requested this book I didn't know that it was the second book in the series, but after reading this book....I have no idea what the first book could possibly be about.

Vampire Hunter Cat has a secret. She is dating a vampire. With her supernatural BF, they discover a mystery in hopes of stopping girls from disappearing.

As you can see from my rating, this book was just not my cup of tea. I did not find the plot engaging, nor did I understand what was going on for stretches of text. To be honest, I found myself glancing over pages because it seemed unnecessary. Nothing felt connected. We jump from Cat sneaking around with her boyfriend, to working at an old bookstore and to tending to horses with her family. There was no aspect of this story that I cared about.

In regards to the characters, they all fell flat. The most interesting characters, in my opinion, were Cat's brothers who struggle to give her a "normal" life. Cat was all over the place and Jesse had the whole "Edward" thing going it. He seemed to only live for Cat and that just does not make for an interesting love interest (if I'm correct...he lives in a cabin in the woods?).

The writing could have used some polishing, but I think my lack of interest stems from Cat's point of view. There was nothing interesting about her and I grew bored listening to her prattle on about her struggle between making her family happy and loving Jesse.

In short, this book was not for me. ( )

I kept seeing the book cover for Dead of Night by bestselling author Lynn Viehl in industry publications and it made me curious. When I read the publisher’s brief description, it sounded like a very different take on contemporary vampire stories so I snagged a copy. Everyone who’s read classic vampire stories knows the story of the Van Helsings and vampires but they don’t know this story. Read the rest of my review at http://popcornreads.com/?p=4276. ( )