The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Even from the beginning, that was the problem. People liked pretty things. People even liked pretty things that wanted to kill and eat them.

I will start by saying that I was drawn in by both the summary of the book and the cover.

I was very intrigued by the setting, it seemed a refreshing take on the vampire universe. The idea of the vampires co-existing with humans through these “coldtowns” was a nice touch. I've had some problems with the logistics of it all, but I decided to just go along with it.

The beginning was pretty shaky. I wasn't very fond of what went down before they reached the Coldtown. Tana's character wasn't particularly likable or relatable. I couldn't understand her affection for Aidan, whom I absolutely loathed, or her outrageous lack of basic reasoning and self-preservation. To be honest, I just saw her as dumb as rock. There I've said it. Hold your tomatoes! I eventually warmed up to her throughout the book, but my opinion was definitely justified by a lot of her actions and reactions. Her inner monologue was not that fascinating, either. Her back-story, tough, was quite griping and I enjoyed reading those snippets from the past. She did mature a bit, eventually. She even became quite brave, truth be told, in a primitive sort of way, but that's still better that nothing.

The love angle was just ridiculous. It was a very predictable & boring insta-love. I saw it coming from miles away and I would've appreciated at least a tiny bitsy element of surprise. I wish she'd been more weary of Gavriel. She was barely afraid of him and barely doubted anything he was saying. It wasn't due to their “magical connection”, but because of her inability to use her brain. Also that kiss was way too steamy for two people who just met each other. Let alone the other scene, with the blood sucking... Rolling my eyes

Gavriel, Gavriel. Why, oh why? Of all the Russian names, this is what was best for this story? I've just had it with these stupid names in YA books. It might as well have been Dracula instead. Right about now Edward sounds amazing to me. Other than his name, he didn't bother me too much. He was just the stereotypical blindingly handsome, brooding, yet sensitive bad boy. The kind you find in 90% of YA and romance books. I mean it's not all bad. At least he wasn't a misogynistic douche. He had that polite, back-in-the days gentleman-like way about him. He was a complete psychopath, but the redeemable kind. Sort of reminded me of Stephan, Damon and Klaus from Vampire Diaries (which is a guilty pleasure of mine). He's a combination of all three.

If I think about it that's why I ended up enjoying this book. After they set foot in the Coldtown I kept making connections with The Vampire Diaries episodes. Barely anything makes sense in that show, but for whatever reason, I find it entertaining. Tana was pretty much like Elena, when she was human. I hated her guts in beginning because she was always so impulsive and getting herself into trouble by ignoring thinking. I got used to her, eventually, and just amused myself watching her perfect the art of being annoying.

As for rest of the characters in this book, they either irritated me or I just did not care for them. I found it very unrealistic that most of them lacked almost any fear of vampires. Those creatures were so dangerous, yet people barely flinched. Which is completely unnatural. I hated Aidan because he was such a train wreck of a human being/newborn vampire. So sleazy and manipulative. I was hoping someone would put him out of his misery, but he lived to tell the tale. Raising my arms to the sky Same feelings about Midnight. And then there's Tana's little sister... So messed up at such a young age. So sad.

This book has been so hyped up in reading community that I expected it to be so much better. Unfortunately, it wasn't that good. Too many things bugged me about it. Nonetheless, the writing was pretty decent and the plot was mildly entertaining so I'm not too upset that I picked it up.