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Vixen of the Night is billed as Book One in the Followers of Cain series. Unfortunately, I can't recommend this book to fans of either erotica or urban fantasy. The book is the story of Sandra, a female vampire "made" in Peoria in 1890, who, in the present day, lives in San Francisco where she seduces willing young men. Her first victim, Travis, seems entirely unafraid of having met a real-life vampire, and, after an oral-sex / feeding session with Sandra, decides to come back tomorrow with a friend.
In no time at all, Sandra and Travis discover true love with each other, Travis decides to become a vampire, and he's introduced to a "support group" of San Francisco-area vampires. This support group is attacked by a group of humans, including Larry, the same friend of Travis we met in Chapter 1. His motivations for this attack aren't very clear or believable to me, which I find is a common state of affairs in this story.
The human attack on the vampires is doomed from the start, and easily defeated, with all the nameless hunters killed and Larry hypnotized into believing he won a big stash of money gambling. This is followed by another subplot in which they meet Renee, an older and more powerful vampire who takes an immediate dislike to Travis. Presumably, their conflict will be the plot of Book Two.
Ms. Black writes in a third-person omniscient viewpoint, and switches between character's heads almost in the same paragraph, which I found both distracting and confusing. We are supposed to identify with the vampires, but we aren't given a reason to do so. The vampires never appear to be under any real threat from the humans, so there is no dramatic tension.
I am an author myself, and really wish I could find something I liked about this book. Unfortunately I can't. There's plenty of sex, but I found it not terribly erotic, which I think is because I didn't engage with the characters.
Copyright©2005-2008 TCM, Dr. Tami Brady. All Rights Reserved.
