Succubus in the City, by Nina Harper

Welcome to part two of our paranormal romance series, featuring reviews of the second installment of a young adult vampire series and a book about the exciting lives of New York succubae. Enjoy, dear readers!

Succubus in the City, by Nina Harper

Lily has been a succubus for three thousand years, and there are a lot of things to love about her job. Working for Satan has its perks: Lily is fabulously rich, thin, and beautiful, she can eat and wear whatever she wants, and she gets to spend eternity hanging out with her three demon BFFs. But all this hedonism comes at a price, and Lily’s getting a little tired of seducing revolting guys and delivering their souls to Hell. Just once, she’d like to have sex with somebody without waking up to a pile of ashes....

Succubus in the City has a lot going for it: succubae aren’t as clichéd as vampires or werewolves, the mystery subplot running throughout the book is absorbing, and Harper’s chatty, quip-filled style matches her subject matter beautifully. Unfortunately, it’s tough to get past the fact that Harper’s heroine is constantly killing people. Sure, Lily says she prefers to rid the world of truly evil men—abusers, molesters, etc—but most of the guys she sends to Hell just seem like selfish, unpleasant losers*. Lily spends ninety percent of the book acting like a normal young woman, so the handful of scenes featuring her having horrible sex with a random guy, obliterating him, and then vacuuming up his remains with her Dust Buster are disconcerting and, frankly, totally gross.

*There’s a scene where she picks up a pretentious, arrogant dork at a Werner Herzog movie. You’d think being a Herzog fan would be punishment enough.


Frostbite, by Richelle Mead

It’s winter break at St. Vladimir's Academy, but Guardian-in-training Rose Hathaway is not in a holiday mood. Lissa, Rose’s vampire best friend, has abandoned her for quality time with her new boyfriend, and a nearby attack has the school on high alert. Plus, none of the men in Rose’s life are behaving the way she wants them to: her friend Mason is crushing on her, her beloved tutor Dimitri is acting colder and more distant than ever, and there’s a new guy on the scene sending out some very strange signals. But when three students run away from the school’s holiday ski trip, Rose sets her personal troubles aside and follows them, determined to bring them back safely. Sadly, even Rose’s good intentions seem to have disastrous consequences, and she immediately finds herself neck-deep (and sinking!) in danger.

Frostbite is obviously part of a series: readers will have no idea what’s going on if they haven’t read 2007’s Vampire Academy, and all major plot resolutions are saved for future books. Still, this fast-paced novel offers plenty of violence, romantic intrigue*, and tantalizing character development, and fans of the series will be left eagerly awaiting the next installment.

*Seriously, the fanfic writers will be drooling.