Blurb
There are far worse evils than jazz and lipstick–
By day, Allegra Chase lives among the artists and eccentrics of 1920s Greenwich Village, in search of adventure. By night, she haunts the city’s back alleys and seedy speakeasies, driven by a more primal hunger. Here, amid the glitz and unrestrained morals of jazz-age society, even a vampire can fall prey to the temptations of the flesh. One look into the golden eyes of the dashing Griffin Durant, and Allegra knows she’s not dealing with just a man….
Though their kind have been enemies for centuries, Griffin has never encountered a vampire as independent, uninhibited or eager for his touch as Allegra. Yet their newfound desire is threatened by a jealous vampire master, and a race war seems inevitable. Griffin and Allegra must struggle to stay out of harm’s way–and hold on to their dream of an eternity of passion.
Review
In the first Roaring Twenties novel, Allegra (Allie) Chase is a newly made vampire and wants nothing more than to have fun. After two years of freedom, her patron Cato dies (the vampire who converted her) and now Raoul, the powerful master of the vampire clan, wants her for himself.
Werewolf Griffin Durant despises his wolf nature. He fought in the Great War and only wants to live in peace, but he can’t let go of the past. He shuns the wolf clan in the city and wants his younger wolf sister, Gemma, to marry into the human elite of New York society, so she’ll be safe. Gemma, however, rebels at every turn. A chance encounter leads Griffin to Allie. Though he disapproves of her flapper lifestyle, he’s also fascinated with her. Most wolves and vampires hate each other, but neither Griffin nor Allie are so close-minded. After a few of their mutual human friends go missing, they work together to find them and fall deep into a conspiracy that spans all three species in the city: wolf, vampire, and human.
I understood Griffin’s and Allie’s motivations, but I couldn’t connect with either of them. Griffin is definitely a beta hero. He hates violence and was very old-fashioned. Allie was flamboyant and wild, but her attitude was often selfish and disrespectful. Despite the sexual tension between the H/h, there was only one sex scene and very little romance. Much of the plot was about finding the missing humans, Mal and Margot, and not on the H/h falling in love.
While I enjoyed the secondary characters of Gemma, Wyatt, Mal, Margot, and Ross, there were so many other side characters that it was hard to keep track of who belongs to which group and where their loyalties lie. Some of the plot twists were confusing, as was the history of the vampire and wolf races, but most of my questions were answered at the end.
There’s a HFN ending. As a vampire, Allie will live for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, but Griffin will die in maybe a hundred years.
I’m hoping there will be more world building in the later books, so I’m looking forward to reading the next story in the trilogy.
3 Stars