Rush of Darkness by Rhyannon Byrd

My first book with vamps in quite some time, and I must say I'm excited. To be fair I have to mention this is book 7 in this series, and I have not read any of the other books. I normally do not like jumping into a series (or in the case towards the end of a series), but I decided to give it a go. If this book is captivating and I enjoy it, I'll go back and buy the six books preceding it, and it will be a tribute to the authors ability to bring in new readers. Of course there is always the possibility that I would be wildly confused, but now it's time for the actual review!

I would like to start off saying how impressed I was that I was able to enter into a book so far along in a series and catch on so quickly. In the first few chapters there were little snippets of background information. It wasn't gushed out all at once, but rather a slow build up revealing the events that had transpired in the previous books in the series. And while I think I did miss out on the dynamics of all the characters (because I hadn't had the six previous books of build up to fall back on), by about midway through the books I liked the characters enough to really identify with them.

For a paranormal romance series, I can certainly understand why this series has lasted as long as it has. It reminded me a little bit of the Keri Arthur Riley books. The sex scenes were not cheesy (huge plus), although I got the distinct feeling there was entirely to much talking. The two characters of Raine and Seth would be literally in the throws and then there would be two pages of dialogue, and it was always heavy dialogue, and the suddenly after two pages of talking, Byrd made it seem like they were still going at it during this intense conversation, which didn't really fit.

Seth and Raine were definitely at odds with each other throughout the book, and it took a lot for them to even find a way to work together. Most of the time them being at odds just made their chemistry all the more better, and made me more interested in the characters. But towards the end of the book, when they were having the same argument for the 30th time with the same exact language I kinda wanted to knock the two of them upside the head with a heavy book.

Because I went into this book not knowing the back story about the bad guys I don't think I would have the same reactions as people who have been following the series. Westerman seems to be a formidable bad guy, although I can tell from recall within this book, that if I had read the previous books, this guy would have evoked a serious hatred from me. Since there wasn't a lot of information on the him in this book, just really the continued hunt for him, I rooted for Raine and Seth but didn't have the same kind of hatred for him I would have had if I knew had actually read the books where Raine was captured.

Overall I think this is a good book, I think the reader of paranormal romance are going to enjoy it and this series. If you don't like a book with a lot of sex in it though then this is not your book. I have to say that after reading this book, the first six books are going on my to buy list, and I am very curious to see what happens next as this series comes to an end.

Check out the authors website! http://www.rhyannonbyrd.com/