Midnight's Daughter

I enjoyed this book more than Chance's Cassie Palmer novels set in the same universe. While I think I would have twigged to some bits more quickly if I had paid more attention to the earlier trilogy, this novel does stand alone (mostly). The references you don't get aren't truly necessary to understand the characters and the plot.

I did get rather annoyed at the characters who brought pain to themselves because of making too many assumptions about people around them, but I suppose poor communication skills are very common, even in fantasy worlds.

It took me a while to get into Dorina's story. Unlike the Cassie Palmer series, Dorina is a woman who knows how to fight and enjoys it. Being a dhampir she's subject to blackouts where she loses control in a fit of rage. The fight scenes are very creative, nothing quite like I have read before and the action while its not non stop is well placed and written. I did have problems with her overall attitude, I thought it was a bit over the top, being the stereotypical bad girl of the family doing drugs and every thing she can to annoy her vampire family. I also do not like the way women are treated in Karen Chance's worlds where the men make them listen and ignore them when they aren't. I think another reason I started enjoying the book more is due to the fact she drops the attitude Louis-Cesar, the main male protagonist, has towards Dorina. There needs to be more of a balance instead of a male supremacy over the women. I am interested in learning more about Dorina and the memories that were taken from her. That was a wonderful hook to place and has convinced me to continue the series.