Publication Date: November 30, 2010
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal
Pages: Paperback, 330pp
ISBN-13:978-0312532680
ISBN:0312532687
(Received for an honest review from St. Martin's Press)
Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, IndieBound
Cheyenne McCray on the WEB: website, facebook, twitter
Books in the Series: Demons Not Included (2009), Werewolves Not Allowed (2010), Vampires Not Invited (2010), Zombies Sold Separately (2011), Vampires Dead Ahead (2011)
CoverArt: Click the picture to see a larger, clearer image of all of the covers in this series.
Excerpt from Vampires Not Invited
Synopsis:
Vampire attacks are on the rise in the city that never sleeps. So why is half-human, half-Drow private eye Nyx tracking down Sprites? Sure, these "young bloods" are causing mischief all over town - like painting the Statue of Liberty's toenails neon pink. But it's not until Nyx finds herself at the Pit, the city's hottest nightclub for paranorms, that she understands what she's really up against...
Seems Master Vampire Volod has a plan - and the Sprites are in on it. By targeting the weaknesses of every paranorm in the city, from Elves to Shifters to Zombies, Volod and his fang gang aim to rule the night once and for all. Over Nyx's dead body. she loves a good challenge - and she will seduce danger at every turn to throw Volod off course. It's time for Nyx to enter the beating heart of this dark conspiracy... before driving a stake through it.
Thoughts:
I recently reviewed, Vampire's Dead Ahead which is the fifth book in the Night Tracker series by Cheyenne McCray shortly after it's release date and really enjoyed it. Vampire's Not Invited is the third book in the series, which means we are going back in time a little bit to pick this one up. This book can be read as a stand alone like the other books in the series, so it wasn't too difficult to figure out what was going on and where it fit in with the other books in the series.
McCray's heroine in the Night Tracker series, Nyx is a very interesting gal. She is half-human and half-drow. A drow being a dark elf. When I first figured out what Nyx was from reading the back of one of the books in this series, I was really excited because I thought this background would make a great character and it does. Nyx has her quirks of course. She has purple skin at night, she is dating a lowly human, she has a bunch of sprites pulling pranks all over New York, and sneaky suspicion that there's a lot more going on than meets the eye. But she's also tenacious, stubborn and very loyal. New York is her home and she will defend it with everything she has in her and I respected that in her character. I found that there was lots of things about Nyx revealed in this book that I didn't know when I read the later book in the series. McCray's development of the character is fun to read, as she grows and changes throughout the book.
Master Vampire Volod is of course the bad guy in this one as well as Vampires Dead Ahead. He just can't seem to get it through his head that the vampires in McCray's world are sort of the underdogs, having lost their power over a century ago. But he's not one to give up and in this one, he's on to something that could shift the balance of power in New York. Using the sprites and their crazy antics to keep the Night Tracker's bogged down and busy with other thing, Volod's master plan is to steal files that detail the weaknesses of the other paranormal races, which he plans to subjugate when takes over the nocturnal world. I love this villain! He reminds me of a villain from those old cartoons that was kind of bigger than life. Full of himself and maybe not the sharpest tool in the shed. I liked the kind of slap stick quality that he adds to the book and thought McCray did a great job with him.
All of that being said I did have some issues with this book. As opposed to Vampires Dead Ahead, Vampires Not Invited seemed quite rushed. The characters were less developed the action was somewhat contrived and there were some editing errors that I found distracting and unnecessary. After reading the book I noticed that the author mentions that she was under a tight deadline with this one and I believe that may have led to most of the issues I found with it.
I kind of felt about this one what I sometimes feel about the first book in a series. It is just the beginning. There is potential, but it didn't quite make it out of the gate. Which is kind of harsh since this is book three. I'm very glad that I read book five before this one because I found that I really did like the characters and wanted to know more about them. Let's face it not every book in a series is perfect and this one falls a little short. But it's very nice to know that the series definitely gets better.
I liked it, I just didn't love it! But I still think it is a necessary book in the series and brings out some very good points about each of the main characters and Volod as usual is one of the villains that resonates with me for some reason, so I'm definitely going to read more of this series and I recommend it to those who are McCray and Nyx fans.
Vampires Not Invited is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.
I'm giving this one 3 out of 5 apples from my book bag.
Chey is the author of multiple award-winning novels. Vampires Not Invited is the third in Cheyenne's thrilling new Night Tracker urban fantasy series.
Cheyenne has three sons, three dogs, a messy house, and she will do anything to get out of cleaning, which may be why she writes so much.
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