AnjaIsReading

well, 2.5 stars be be exact

out of all the secondary characters in frost's night huntress series, vlad was my favorite (and ian xD). so i was thrilled when learned about the newest night huntress spin-off starring vlad tepesh. i couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. i mean, it's vlad - bad-ass, smug, sexy as hell vlad, the vampire on fire. what could possibly go wrong? apparently, since i'm sorely disappointed with this book, a good deal. at some point i was so disappointed that i considered to abandon the story but willed me to read on. i did not have the heart to let it unfinished.
i tried to love once burned. i wanted to love it. i really did, but for some reason i couldn't. it's hard to explain why, as, technically, there's nothing wrong with this book.
it brings action, romance, steamy scenes, funny scenes, a plot that could have been worse, good writing, an interesting setting, and vlad. but somehow "technically" is not enough to make me happy.

it might have been dumb to expect a shitload of night prince in a series called "night prince". but that's what i did. i wanted vlad... and got leila. there's nothing much to tell about leila, it's a slightly underdeveloped character. she's a young girl with special powers but no personality. at first i thought she might be kick-ass heroine material because she is comparatively strong and brave and savvy. yeah, well, no. i couldn't connect with her and it was exhausting to follow her trains of thought. eventually i was bored to death with her. her guilt-ridden self-berating was pretty annoying just as her pussyfooting around so called secrets and sins, or her self-bashing for lusting after vlad.

speaking of which: what the hell? o.O dear big ass vampire, who are you and what did you do with vlad? you're not the vlad i came to love. you're just some guy who stole the name. where was vlad's cocky self, his sardonic sense of humor, his playful and multi-faceted personality? there were only glimpses of the, erm, ~real nh world vlad. what i got with once burned was a cold, moody, and ruthless vampire who loves to impale everyone and everything. well, he's vlad the impaler after all, so he has to be dangerous and scary, but still. something was missing. i couldn't warm up to this version of dracula, not after falling for the vlad who took care of cat. (am i making sense here?)

the story itself was not so bad after all. nothing new, fairly predictable, sometimes a little slow, but ok. it had it's funny moments, like vlad making fun of twilight or social media, leila swooning over chris hemsworth, or bones's flying visit. biggest fun was maximus. it's not his fault... everytime he was mentioned i didn't see a blonde hot vampire, i saw him...

at least he's blonde, too xD

other than that i was not really impressed. the villain made me laugh instead of giving me the creeps. fighting him was too easy, too boring. leila marysued her way trough the showdown, vlad turned up with fire. done. blargh -.-
furthermore the whole ~romance thingy felt frakking wrong. there was no chemistry between vlad and leila, no sparks, no connection. they just decided to dance the ~mattress-tango. i don't get why they fell for each other. pheromones, maybe?
what else? oh well, redundant plot twists. the whole leila/maximus part was pointless, all the same with the overdone family issues. btw, leila's sister reminds me way too much of cat's mom.
and last but not least, the ending. i don't know what to say. just one thing: that's it? wft -.- the ending came too abruptly, it was so half-assed.

the bottom line is that i still love the night huntress world, bones will always be my hero ^^ once burned, however, was not my cup of tea. but i think, someone who never read the nh novels might have much more fun with the night prince than i had.