Jillian Stone

This book is a hot mess. This book is definitely two books smacked together to make a weird sort of sandwich. It can't decide if it wants the plot to be about a woman regaining her company from pirates or about a mystical Egyptian vampire who is also Jack the Ripper. It's pretty goofy especially with the weird names and the weird plot contrivances. Half the time you forget that the two mains basically have ESP until it is convenient. This book makes more sense if you view the plot as being just a vehicle for the next erotic scene so that the two mains can figure out their relationship. I also like that the main heroine is black and it is treated pretty much as well as I think a white author can deal with this sort of thing within erotic fiction (I have low expectations in this area). There are some problems like I question the fact that she calls herself high yellow and uses mulatto instead of creole or quadroon (because that is what she is). High yellow would imply that she can pass for white, which the text shows is definitely not the case (although the cover states otherwise). There is also the fact that she is from Louisiana and talks like a Brit because she lived abroad but knows voodoo, but I took that to be one of this book's many illogical inconsistencies. There is also the fact that she gets raped by the hero (that is what she calls it in text, I am not inferring), which I cringed at because for a second I was like "wait, I didn't sign up for a 90s bodice ripper." Also this is not really steampunk get that out of your head right now.… (mer)