I was told that A Taste of Crimson was the best of this series and that the rest were stinky but, of course, I didn't listen to my wise friends and went ahead and read this one. And were they ever right.

This book is about a young woman, Claudine (Claudette? Sorry her name escapes me) who at 25 is a cop, a mother of a 10 year old daughter and lives in a world where vampires and werewolves are commonplace. While investigating a crime scene she becomes entangled with a demon who brings her to his world. Soon she discovers her daughter has been kidnapped by the demons as well because Claudia (I think that's the name) is able to "open the portal" between the worlds. Why her and how do the demons know, anyway? Don't ask me. Fortunately for her she has very big breasts, huge brown eyes and a gorgeous, ancient vampire is on her side and helps her slay the demons. Some girls have all the luck.

Though this book didn't grab me with its wit or imaginative plot it sure as heck managed to annoy me. The dialogue is awful, the characters very substandard and the plot sketchy and difficult to follow. The heroine's daughter has been kidnapped but I felt nothing as there's very little in the way of character development and Claudine is far too busy lusting over gorgeous demons (who woo her with mind tricks) and vampires to dwell on the fact that her daughter may be suffering atrocities (after all, she is being held by lusty demons). Hilight text for spoiler rape rant A little way into the book the heroine is raped by a demon (in a nice-y romanc-y way of course - blech - it's still rape all the same) and a day or so later she's all ready to have sex with her vampire savior because he's hot. After all of the sex she realizes "whoops we didn't use protection" and asks him if he has "swimmers", him being the undead and all, well you never know. Never mind the fact that a demon had sex with her and his demon "seed" was all over her legs. The rape has simply escaped her empty head. Ugh, ugh, ugh. It was at this point that I gave up all hope of ever connecting with this woman.

This books worse sin, however, is the fact that it's boring. Most of the story features the vampire and the forgetful heroine running for their lives from demons, in between pauses to reflect on how beautiful they think each other are. It just plods on and on. Not at all recommended unless you're stuck in a room with people you wish to avoid and only have this book as a means to escape them . . .

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