Crooked Fang [Kindle Edition]

Oh yay, another vampire, I hear you cry. Stop right there. Forget for a moment that Twilight ever existed, and give Crooked Fang a go. Why? Because sometimes you can almost forget that CF's hero, Xan Marcelles, is even a vampire. I prefer to think of him as a grumpy, whisky-drinking, chain-smoking bassist who's going to live for a really, really long time.

Basically, Xan lives in a bar named Pale Rider in Pinecliffe, Colorado. He does odd jobs and plays bass in his band, Crooked Fang. It's pretty clear he'd be happy with his quiet existence, not bothering anyone as long as they don't bother him, except real life has a way of intruding into his private world. If he's not dealing with abusive boyfriends or singers prone to tantrums, he's being dragged back to his old stamping ground, New Mexico, to track down an errant vampire. Yes, Xan hunts other vampires, and he's very good at it. This is not just any vampire, but rather a Nesferata, and it's an inventive touch that almost raises the possibility of racism among the vampires themselves. It's not just "humans" vs "vampires" - oh no, it's every bloodsucker for him/herself.

I followed Crooked Fang back when it was a blog serial, and I was excited to finally have a paperback copy in my hands. The gorgeous presentation aside, it's just one of those novels that you can actually describe as 'gripping'. I've never been a big fan of vampires so it stands testament to Carrie Clevenger's storytelling skills that I am a HUGE fan of Xan Marcelles. He's an incredibly likeable and plausible hero, carrying with him that 'reluctant hero' air that makes the likes of Snake Plisskin so cool. Xan also has an incredibly strong voice, so the book often feels like you're sat at the back of Pale Rider, and he's telling it to you over a drink. Clevenger pulls off the difficult task of making it feel like Xan's simply dictated the story to her, and I couldn't NOT fall for him a tiny bit. The secondary characters are also incredibly strong as Clevenger creates plausible characters that you either love or loathe, and I particularly love the banter with his friend, Scott.

I actually can't recommend Crooked Fang enough and I can't wait for the sequel to drop!

Crooked Fang Carrie Clevenger.

I was given this copy by publisher free for review, but as always on the basis that my opinion is honestly held, and whether paid for or free my views are not influenced by that. Integrity is important to me and gushing false reviews do neither author or reader any favours. As always my views are what I honestly feel about this book.

Xan Marcelles has formed a band called Crooked Fang, for which he is bassist. He's a vampire so the nights spent playing provide him with both an income and occupation - important when you're a long lived vampire, although he is still young, having been a vampire for only a few decades, and also the drunken customers provide a way of getting food easily. He plays and lives at the Pale Rider tavern and he tries hard to keep under the radar and live looking as a human. His band mates consist of another very young vampire and two humans and they get frustrated that Xan will only play at Pale Rider. He was an assassin for a vampire faction but has managed to escape from that life, tiring of all the killing and he's trying hard to exist in the human plane but struggling with the limitations. He comes across an isolated character seeming to lack a direction in life. One day someone comes in to the club trying again to persuade him to allow the band to play elsewhere - she brings her blue haired sister with her and Xan gets introduced to Tabby. Thus begins a casual relationship between the two that escalates when tabby becomes pregnant from another lover - an abusive drug pusher. She tries to get Xan to accept he's the father and he tells her its impossible but still stays around at times - they have a strange relationship. Xan turns up after weeks away and they just pick up where they left off - I found that odd although it fits well with seemingly Xan's drifting existence. He seems shallow in some ways and yet shows strong emotions on occasion. The club is attacked one night and fearing someone from his past is after him he escapes back to his home district where he becomes embroiled in a murder and needs help from his old friends to uncover who is to blame.

I wanted to like this book - its a good length, just what I like and of course has vampires and a bad boy one at that except...Xan is just so bland. His relationship with friends and Tabby is shallow, apart from his old friend Scott - the one person who has known about him and supported him for a long time. He's not a dislikeable character just that there's not enough to really feel for him when things go wrong - in the way he doesn't seem to care much what happens to others I feel I don't really care what happens to him. I wanted to like him, he seemed so sad at times but somehow I just couldn't get that involved. For me to really enjoy a book I need to feel for the characters at least and to feel as if I'm "in" the story at best. I just felt detached from Xan and the events that unfolded though. The book was really slow to start and the first and second halves almost felt like two different books but with the same character leading it, although the return to Pale rider brought him full circle. There were some good plot lines but again they lacked real drama because the characters to me seemed unreal, just paper characters rather than real people. I think if the characters had been fleshed out more so they seemed either really likeable or people we can hate rather than the one dimensional types they appear I'd have liked this book far more. Its described as paranormal romance though its hard to describe the casual attachment to Tabby as romance unless there are future books planned where they become closer? If that happens I do hope Carrie works more on getting to make the characters realistic - and I'm a reader not a writer so how you do that I've no idea...its easy to criticise of course, far harder to actually DO the work which is why I read and don't write :)

The book itself is well edited and written, few errors and plots neatly tidied up and not left with holes, the length is great for readers like me and at £3.93 for 230 pages isn't averagely priced.

Stars: three and half. ( amazon only allow whole stars so it will show as 4 on there) If the people within the story were more vibrant and realistic then I would have gone for 4 or 4 and half as the actual story is promising, its just sad I couldn't fully appreciate it as I couldn't empathise with the characters. Of course as always the reminder these are only my views and others will like different things and may enjoy the book far more.