Vampires. Oh vampires. They have completely taken over pop culture ever since Twilight, and every time I think they're about to go away, they come back again. Of course, those are new school vampires. They can go out in sun, they sometimes sparkle, they're universally beautiful and love-worthy, etc. Crimson Kiss isn't like that. It predates Twilight. The vampires here don't abide by all the vampire "laws" of old--they're bothered by garlic because of super senses, not because it repulses them for magical reasons, and they can touch crosses--but they still suck blood and kill people (some of them) and some of them are downright hideous. And they can't go out into the sun.This was my read for the "dark romance" category in the Unapologetic Romance Readers' challenge for 2017, and it delivered. It starts with heroine Meghann learning that the vampire who made her into one, Simon, is alive when she thought he was dead--and he's still one sadistic bastard, and he's coming after her. From there, the story jumps back in time to how Meghann met Simon, became a vampire, and escaped his hold.
The writing here isn't much to marvel at, really lacking emotion and finesse. But the depravity present in this book isn't to be sneered at. I was supposed to read a dark romance, and I got one. This is the first part of a trilogy, and so maybe it will wrap up happily with someone who is not Simon--but this one is all about Meghann and Simon, until the very end. Even when Meghann thinks Simon is dead, she's still wrapped up in him even though she doesn't want to be. She can't commit to another, more positive relationship because her bond with Simon is still there, in her head even if it's not in her heart. Baker does make an effort to show that Meghann isn't really in love with Simon--that it's magic and the bond and lust talking, and not actual emotions. But Meghann heself stubbornly insists she loves Simon, and that bothered me so much. I know she was in an abusive relationship, but she didn't act like one in personality. She didn't blame herself, she knew she had to get out, she just didn't know how, because Simon was a powerful vampire. And it seemed like, with that in mind, she should have known that she wasn't in love with him. There was just some disconnect in the logic there.
I also didn't really like any of the characters in this book. Some of them, like Simon, weren't meant to be likable--but I will say that Simon was interesting, whereas I didn't think everyone was. I thought Meghann was actually pretty boring. She had such promise--vampire psychologist who can only see patients after dark!--but the book never really dug into any of that instead just went into a Simon-spiral. Alcuin had the promise of being sort of the Dumbledore of vampires, but that went down the drain pretty quickly once Simon showed up. Jimmy was a pretty shitty love interest; he had his own issues, to be sure, which were also vampire-related and could have been interesting, but he went from "You're a vampire! I hate you!" to "I love you and want to be with you!" in literally the space of a few sentences, so that was a dud for me. And then he was pretty darn stupid when dealing with the Simon situation even though he really should have known better.
Overall, if you want a darker vampire book, I would say this is for you. And I do mean darker. There's repeated rape and torture in this book; it truly abounds. But if you want a romance, it's probably not the best choice, and the writing isn't anything special.
2.5 stars out of 5.
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