"Excellent beginning of new series!"
In the city formerly known as Los Angeles, the vampires and
werewolves finally brought their epic battle public,
turning the streets red with the blood from humans, "fangs"
and "dogs". Now there is a tentative treaty between the
three factions: the vampires live in skyscrapers occupying
the sky, the humans live on the ground where they have
always been and the werewolves move in under the city.
Suddenly LA is the CRIMSON CITY. With the sudden and violent death of her half-brothers by a
Mech -- a creature that was created by the humans but
shouldn't exist, Fleur Dumont swiftly becomes the head of
her people: the primary vampires, or "fangs" as they are
called by the humans. This is a duty she hasn't been
trained for and therefore all she can do is prove she is
worthy of leading the vampires; whether it is in continued
peace or into war with the humans, rests on her shoulders. Dain Reston is an intelligence officer in B-Ops. He has no
memory past waking up in the hospital, his arms burnt and
finding out his beloved wife is dead at the hands of
the "fangs". So he beats the streets every night with his
equally emotionally unstable partner Cydney monitoring the
tension levels between the three groups. For several days
the city has been quiet until a curious blip appears on
their police scanner heading for the Dumont Towers. Going
in that direction, they arrive just in time to have a very
angry vampire land on the hood of their vehicle. With the peace treaty on the brink of disintegrating, Dain
and Fleur work together in order to find out who ordered
the Mech. With vampires getting killed, humans disappearing
and the evidence inconclusive, time is running out because
the humans have adopted the attack first attitude. Starting another multi author series, Liz Maverick doesn't
disappoint. CRIMSON CITY is full of action and intrigue. I
really enjoyed her twist on the vampire, especially having
them live high in the sky. There is enough politics
introduced in the beginning to bog down the brain, however,
everything is cleared up and clarified later. I also am
confused by Dains past, but the discrepancies turn the
story into a fantastic action romance. Once fancying herself in love, Fleur broke one of the
primary rules of the vampire: Never turn a human. It cost
her the ability to get trained to rightfully lead her
people instead of her half-brothers. So when she is
suddenly dealing with Dain, the epitome of everything that
could draw her to a man, she is out of her league on every
level: dealing with the "dogs", her wardrobe, struggling
with maintaining control of the vampires and now her
desires to bite another human. It is fascinating to watch
her grow from a pampered princess into a grown woman, er
vampiress, in full control. Dain: he is a mystery (even to himself). He is strong,
fearless and very loyal, but he has no past and feels
horrible guilt because he cannot remember is own wife who
he evidentially loved more than anything else. But now he
must deal with a vampire and he is finding that they are
broken into factions themselves. His loyalties are now
divided. Plus, his own boss has cut his top-level security
and he no longer has access to the Mech facility. CRIMSON CITY is an excellent book. I can hardly wait to see
what the other authors have in store for this series! Posted March 4, 2006
Reviewed by Cynthia Eckert
Posted December 3, 2006
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