Ante Up

This book is pretty good, but I didn't love it. One of the leads, Peter, really irritated me, with his constant one-liners. I think that's my problem, though; I'm sure many readers would like his style of humor, but I don't usually like smart-ass characters.

I like the point-of-view character, Ante, much more. He's a vampire with principles, and a lot of his introspection in this book has to do with his own moral code. Peter's abilities make him a bit morally gray, too. But somehow, I never really fell in love with either of these characters, although they're never difficult to sympathize with.

The world this is set in is really great, with lots of supernatural beings. I've been reading this author's Bones series, which this book alludes to a couple times, but the supernatural stuff is much more in the forefront here than in that series. I really liked the part with the ghosts, and I wish they had played a bigger role in this story.

I appreciate that Kim Fielding often includes background queer characters in addition to the main pairing. I also like that even her villains usually have interesting backstories and reasonable motivations.

This was my first time reading a Dreamspun Beyond title and I'm willing to try another, but I'm not super enthusiastic about it. I would gladly read more stories set in this world, though!