First Drop of Crimson

5 Responses to “First Drop of Crimson”

1. Carol Bua says:

   August 25, 2010 at 10:42 pm

   As with her additional books – this is sooo much fun. Causes massive speed reading. Awesome characters!!!!
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
2. K. Thompson says:

   August 25, 2010 at 10:52 pm

   I loved this adition to the series. Frost is a fantastic leader. I am brimming with excitement for the next book in the series.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
3. Dee18 says:

   August 25, 2010 at 11:56 pm

   I’ve got to admit, I wasn’t overly excited to read this book (*gasp* *egads*!). Reason being that I was sort of indifferent to Spade as a protagonist. Don’t get me incorrect, I’ve got nothing against Spade – it’s just that I find Mencheres, Vlad, Tate, Juan and Ian more appealing than him. I was also pretty `meh’ about Denise as leading lady – once again, nothing against her character but I’ve never really paid much attention to her over the course of the `Night Huntress’ books.

   So I went into `First Drop’ with low expectations, and finished the book with a slight smile on my face.

   The book delves into Spade’s past; as a Baron-born nobleman who finished up on the First Fleet bound for Australia’s penal colony. Spade has a very appealing background, perhaps even more appealing than Bones’s prostitute turned gift-hunter (if that’s possible?). Spade also has a very sad tale to tell, about how he lost the like of his life during the Napoleonic Wars. I really appreciated all of the history on Spade, considering he’s permanently been in the background of the Cat & Bones books. Frost does a fantastic job of feeding bits and pieces of information on Spade – building him into a puzzle piece for readers and Denise to figure out.

   Denise is a mediocre leading lady. I didn’t despise her, but I didn’t like her either. I reflect it’s a case of if you compare Denise to Cat – who is so vibrant, self-deprecating and wisecracking – she pales in comparison. Denise sometimes had a witty comment to make, but they were far and few between. I didn’t expect Denise to be a very appealing heroine, and I reflect I was right in my presumption.

   I did like Spade and Denise’s romance – especially considering the romantic history of these two and the various prejudices/heartaches they each had to overcome. That being said, I reflect Spade’s feelings for Denise were a small rushed. We learn early on that Spade, having previously met Denise, did find her attractive and was `drawn’ to her. But it felt like after only 60 pages or so Spade had made up his mind to turn Denise into a vampire so they could be together forever. It really felt like he came out of left meadow: in one moment protesting his feelings for a human and then suddenly deciding to spend eternity with her.
   
   Regardless of the rush-job, I was rooting for Denise and Spade – and they are reasonably a sweet Night Huntress couple;

   There is smut. But to place it in perspective so that Frost fans can gauge the level of smuttiness – I’ll just say that the sex scenes in `First Drop of Crimson’ are not as smutty as the (now infamous) chapter thirty-two of `One Foot in the Grave’.

   One complaint I had with this book was the lack of Mencheres. His book (the second Night Huntress spin-off) is `Eternal Kiss of Darkness’, and will be unrestricted July 27th this year. Because Mencheres’s tale is up next, I thought Frost would whet reader’s appetites and have him in a lengthy cameo. Not the case. Mencheres is in a `blink and you’ll miss him’ appearance toward the end. If I didn’t know better, I would have guessed that Ian would be the next Night Huntress spin-off tale. I like Ian, and I was very pleased that he has such a lengthy cameo in `First Drop’. I reflect his tale will be incredible, especially because his character is a bit of an enigma – at once grubby and power-hungry, but absolutely loyal to his friends and willing to help when needed. But I also like Mencheres, and I was disappointed that he didn’t play a larger role in `First Drop’. I’m really frustrated because Ian did play such a huge and fantastic role in this book, but Frost doesn’t know if she’s going to write a spin-off for him!

   One more tiny complaint – the various international settings are superfluous. Spade and Denise go jet-setting in this book; from St. Louis to England and Monaco. But whereas Frost spent time depicting the city of New Orleans in ‘Destined for an Early Grave’, she completely skips over the finer points of these cities in ‘First Drop’. There’s no descriptions and therefore no sense of ‘place’. She could have just as easily kept the tale in St. Louis and it would have made no difference.

   I didn’t LOVE ‘First Drop of Crimson’. I liked it. I’m more looking forwards to ‘Eternal Kiss’, purely because I reflect Mencheres is a fascinating (and sexy) character. And I am really hopeful for an Ian book.
   Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
4. S. McCullough says:

   August 26, 2010 at 2:38 am

   My favorite genres are urban fantasy and then paranormal romance. Far too regularly paranormal romance novels forget the paranormal storylines and are just a bunch of non-human creatures falling in like. The BEST paranormal romance tales have the ‘like tale’ front and center but never forget how valid the surrounding tale is to keeping a reader’s interest. Let me see these characters as the fall for each additional, yes, but let me see how their like shows as they fight out the dark and stark fundamentals that surrounds them…or should surround them seeing how this is a ‘paranormal’ romance. This is especially nice for persons readers, like me, who delight in urban fantasy as well. “First Drop of Crimson” is a stand out. This tale makes sure to keep all the intensity, humor and underworld dealings that we have come to know and like in the “Night Huntress” series and yet it remains an honest to goodness romance. Frost also gets a huge A+ for her characterizations. I fell for Spade straight away. He wasn’t whiny when he realized he loved Denise, he didn’t spend a lot of time internally struggling with it. Some additional reveiwers didn’t seem to care for Denise but I did like her and I loved how human she was, and yet her sass could still spark up and that was permanently fun. There is humor galore here such as the scene where Spade goes unconscious and wakes to find himself surrounded by people who reflect he (really) is dead. The four star as a replacement for of five is for a couple of reasons. I thought the like scenes were a small standard fare, and we all know Jeanine can write some crazy fun like scenes. Also, I didn’t like how quickly Denise seemed to be able to place Randy out of sight out of mind. This is a fantastic couple and a fantastic tale but it would have been better served a small further down the line in the “Night Huntress World” romances, maybe allowing a small more time for Denise to grieve. The last point is that the tale’s whole set up is based on a demon who has a terrible business deal with one of Denise’s ancestors. Therefore the demon is killing Denise’s family tree members. One dies before her eyes. Again, there is such a downplay of grief here…this is a glaring mis-step in a novel where so much else blossoms. That said, this book was a fantastic new entry into my library and I keenly look forwards to any more books that come out by Jeaninene Frost. She has proved herself.
   Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
5. Candie says:

   August 26, 2010 at 4:12 am

   I did not have high expectations for this book because Spade and Denise were not my favorite characters in the Night Huntress novels and I didn’t reflect they could top Bones and Cat. I chose to read it anyway and I was pleasantly surprised. I do like the Night Huntress novels better, but I really did delight in the book. Jeaniene Frost is such a fantastic leader and can get you hooked within the first couple of pages. I highly recommend this book!
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5