Dancing with the Devil (Nikki & Michael, Book 1)
by Keri Arthur
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Book Summary Information
Author: Keri ArthurEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-03
ISBN: 1893896595
Number of pages: 248
Publisher: ImaJinn Books
Book Reviews of Dancing with the Devil (Nikki & Michael, Book 1)
Book Review: didn't live up to a promising start
Summary: 3 Stars
Back when I enjoyed Laurell K. Hamilton's books, several people highly recommended this one as a read-alike. It took me a while to track it down, but it's been sitting in my TBR pile ever since.
Psychic private investigator Nikki James has been hired to find a missing teenage girl. She finds her, but she also finds herself in the middle of someone else's hunt: vampire Michael Kelly is hunting the evil vampire that the teenager's in thrall to.
It's a great conflict: that vampire had killed his brother, and Michael intends to stop him at any cost, even if it costs the teenager her life--she'd made her choice, and she's probably too far gone, anyway.
Nikki has lost one person to the monsters, however, and she's not about to lose another, even if it makes the fight harder.
Because of her psychic powers, Nikki isn't as susceptible to vampires, and between that and her strength and goodness, Michael finds her irresistible.
I absolutely loved the first half of the book. Then it kind of fizzled. Michael, rather than being an equal partner, became more ineffectual, with Nikki as his savior. I don't like the alpha-male-saving-the-helpless-female plots, but I don't like the reverse, either. He wasn't a wimp, but he didn't hold his own, either. And then there was the ending...
This book is a perfect illustration of what I mean when I say that I don't require romance in my books (which really should be obvious), but that if there is a romance, I expect it to make sense. The ending (I'm not going to get into details, but I'm not going to sidestep the issue, either--I think the warning is more important than completely avoiding spoilers here) feels artificial and abrupt, as if it were designed either to thumb its nose at romance readers, or to entice readers to pick up the next book. If it was the latter, it failed--with this reader, at least. It's not the lack of a happy ending. I've loved plenty of books without HEA endings. And it's not that the ending was a surprise--I love surprise endings. It's that the book made a promise, and waited until the very end to reverse direction. There are good surprise endings--you're surprised, but it makes sense, and if you look back, you can see the hints in that direction even if you didn't notice them at the time. That wasn't the case here.
So, instead of discovering a new series I expected I'd love, I got annoyed, and I won't be looking for more.
Summary of Dancing with the Devil (Nikki & Michael, Book 1)
Private Investigator Nikki James grew up on the tough streets of Lyndhurst and believes there's nothing left to surprise her. All that changes the night she follows teenager Monica Trevgard into the shadows-and becomes a pawn caught in a war between two very different men. One fills her mind with his madness, the other pushes his way into her life-and her heart. Nikki knows how dangerous love can be, but if she wants to survive, she must place her trust in a man who could easily destroy her.Michael Kelly has come to Lyndhurst determined to end the war between himself and another brother of the night. For 300 years he has existed in life's shadows, gradually learning to control the life from death cravings of a vampire. Nikki not only breaches his formidable barriers with her psychic abilities, but makes Michael believe he may finally have found a woman strong enough to walk by his side and ease the loneliness in his heart. But will his love be enough to protect her from a madman hell-bent on revenge? Or will it drive her into his enemy's deadly trap?
Only together can they overcome the evil threatening to destroy them both. But the secrets they keep from each other might prove to be the greatest threat of all.
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