2010 March 01 » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Review: Dead End Dating by Kimberley Raye

Posted by Anastasia on March 1, 2010 No Responses »

Mar 012010

37. Dead End Dating by Kimberly Raye
Publication: Ivy Books (August 29, 2006), Paperback, 352pp / ISBN 0345492161
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Beach Read
Rating:
Read: February 22, 2010
Source: PBS
Summary from Amazon:

BITING IS SO LAST SEASON.

A vivacious vampire with a flair for accessorizing, Lil Marchette is unlike most of her kind. She prefers lively shades of pink to dismal black (soo not her color), plus she’s a hopeless romantic. In need of a steady paycheck to support a compulsive cosmetics habit, Lil starts Dead End Dating (DED), a Manhattan-based matchmaking service that helps smart, sophisticated singles like herself find eternity mates–and may even help her stake a claim to her very own Count Right!

When Lil meets geeky vampire Francis Deville, she knows he’s the perfect first client. If she can hook up Francis–after a little revamping, of course–she will prove her skills to the vampire community and turn DED into the hottest dating service in the Big Apple. But just as her business takes off, Lil meets the (literally) drop-dead gorgeous bounty hunter Ty Bonner, who is hot on the chase of a serial killer. Instantly drawn to the luscious vamp stud, Lil really wants a taste. But as a made vampire, Ty can’t procreate–and Lil will settle for nothing less. Luckily, between “vampifying” Francis and helping Ty solve his murder mystery, Lil has no time for silly romantic entanglements . . . even if Ty is all that and a Bloody Mary chaser!

Review

Okay, you know how there’s some books that are funny and enjoyable and even kind of cute, except that after reading them you feel sort of like you’ve eaten too many chocolate covered cherries and now your mouth is all filmed over and you sort of regret eating that many candies? Well, that’s kind of like how I feel about this book. Its all those things nice I described, but after reading it I felt kind of filmy and gross.

What I liked about this book was the quirky main character, Lil. I liked how she was a weird vampire, and how all the other vampires knew she was a weird vampire, but it was kind of okay because she was really non-threatening (and cute). I liked the weird social thing vampires have related to fertility, and I liked the idea of a matchmaking vampire. I also liked the overall tone of the book– it was funny! It was light and funny and I enjoyed reading it.

But then, thinking back over it, Dead End Dating wasn’t as good as it could have been. It suffers from cliches, and I don’t really see the point of the romance aspect of the book because Lil’s romantic interest is a boring, stereotypical cowboy/bounty hunter guy. He has no personality! Their whole romance is boring, so it’s a good thing it actually doesn’t take a large chunk of the book.

I think that cliched cowboy character really killed the book for me. I would have liked it much more if Lil had been interested in the nerdy vampire (that she later makes over) instead. It just could have been so much more than it was, I think. It could have taken the “quirky vampire does quirky things” out to the limits while still having romance and hilarity. As it is now, it’s falls just a little short of awesome.

Anyway, even though I had problems with Dead End Dating, it wasn’t a complete waste. It brightened up my day, and though at the end I was a little bit disappointed it didn’t go farther with the weird and quirky I don’t entirely regret reading it, just like I don’t entirely regret stuffing my face full of chocolates. (I only regret it a little.) And I’ll probably even read the next book in the series! Maybe.