brandonsears

The setting for Volume 2 moves to Las Vegas where Police Chief Cash McCogan is tasked with the unenviable job of investigating Jim Smoke, the man believed to be behind the murder of his father.

I'm legitimately shocked with how much I'm truly enjoying these books. As I said in my review for volume one, my taste for vampires had more than diminished leaving me less than enthusiastic in starting this series.

The change in setting prompted a change in story style as well. Snyder took the environment of the wild west and twisted it into a "who-dun-it" detective inspired thriller. I'm a huge fan of that genre so I felt I connected with this volume more than the first. That doesn't exactly make it better; the quality of story telling is pretty much on par with the debut book, it's just more within my comfort zone.

Aside from Skinner Sweet, who is likely intended to be the main focus of this series, Pearl is easily my favorite character. Her story is the most interesting as unlike Skinner, she's trying to keep her vampire tendencies at bay as she tries to maintain a normal life with her boyfriend. While she mostly succeeds, she knows that she can still pull out that vicious side of herself and when she does, it's gruesome to say the least.

Even if you're not the biggest vampire fan, I can still recommend this series with total confidence. The writing is just so fantastic! I lost track of time last night reading this, staying up later than I would like but I couldn't put the book down, I was sucked in (pun completely intended, by the way).