A Girl's Guide to Vampires: The Dark Ones, Book 1

Smarmy lead guy with antiquated language "Baby" this and "Baby" that. Really idiotic leading female whom all the men in the story inexplicably fall head over heels for. One lonely vampire almost as an after-thought? This is a Vampire story. Where are the sexy Dark Ones?

This book is nowhere near the level of the books later in the Dark Ones series. I really enjoy Katie MacAlister. I think her writing is irreverent and down right laugh out loud funny. Maybe this book was written before she really developed her style.

If you've never read the Dark Ones before, start with a newer one. (I started with Zen and the Art of Vampire, because that was what Audible had before the first three were re-issued.) Then come back and get the first ones just so you can find out how some of the characters end up with their beloveds.

A smarter, more mature female lead. I read/listened to some immature, idiotic female characters before but Joy takes the cake.

Emma Galvin or Kristine Hvam. They're both awesome.

It was a fun story.

The best friend Roxy was also really annoying.

It's a VAMPIRE book and the vampire is not even one of two main charaters!

The premise of the series is supposed to be a vampire finding his one true mate. Except that's NOT what happens. It felt like a waste of time and money when you expect to get a vampire romance, and then don't get that!

I liked her performance fine.

If I could play editor, this book wouldn't have gone in this direction at all, or would have been returned to be rewritten.

If you name a book A Girl's Guide to Vampires, I expect one of the two main characters to BE a vampire.

I love to read - but it is a pleasure to listen to a story that has a good plot, romance, intrigue and makes you laugh out loud.

CJ Dante! Handsome 900 year old dark one with a conscious first and Roxy, the life long best friend who tells it like it is!

When Joy and Rafael realize he didn't enter her mind or visit her early I the evening.

Time weighs heavy for the Dark One....and then... beloved.

I first started listening to Ms MacAlister with the "Dragon Series". I thirsted for each book as it came out. Always pleased with the product, I came back time and again for more. Those series (Green, Silver, Light, Black, etc.) were witty in dialogue, well characterized in number of distinct personalities, broad in storyline and worthy of the public acclaim that they achieved.

Then, having no more in that series to read, I started with some of her "other" Vampire books only a few of which were carried by Audible (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Fang, etc.) and found the surprisingly good as well.

When these 3 books came out in 2013, I was so eager to feed my habit that I did not even listen to a sample of the books, I just purchased them. These books, apparently all in the "Dark Ones" series (but neither labeled nor numbered that way except for this first book) are little more than formulaic with flat characters, shabby storylines and a blind of overly descriptive sex scenes that neither arouse nor deceive the listener into believing that this is up to the previous Ms MacAlister's writings. If these were her first works, I could allow that, as a beginner, she could in time grow to be the KM we all know. However, that is not the case and it appears that these works are merely trying to "cash in" on her previous legacy.

Needless to say I will not be following this series.