Cat Adair founded V-Date.com, a very successful vampire dating
website five years ago, yet she doesn't date. When she learns
that Ronin McDermott has infringed on her cyber territory, she
is livid, even though the thought of Ronin leaves her weak in
the knees and furious all at once. Ronin owns a thriving
nightclub, but he hits a snag when a human client is nearly
killed by an overeager vampire, who was on Cat's V-Date.
There's also the matter of decapitated vampires popping up in
London, where Ronin is overlord.
THAT KILLER SMILE by Juliet Lyons is an enemies-to-lovers
story, not my
favorite romantic trope, because too often it involves name-
calling and misunderstandings. I loved books one and two in
the Bite Nights series, so I wasn't
worried for one
moment. One would expect a good part of the conflict to
stem from the rival websites, but it was barely a blip. The
murder
angle looked promising and we get there at some point. What we
really get in THAT KILLER SMILE is Ronin, your typical
manwhore, whose only way of forgetting the one that got away is
to sleep around, while Cat is your usual born-again virgin,
because naturally of that magical night with Ronin. Who cares
if he's rude, disagreeable, and insulting when he's so gorgeous
and sexy? Well, I do, especially in light of Cat's reason for
hating him. What he did was totally reprehensible and a deal-
breaker as far as I'm concerned. I must say I disliked Cat and
Ronin equally. Cat came across as a pathetic loser and he was
yet another unavoidable irresistible jerk.
I despaired that the uphill climb from the early part of the
book would be difficult, and it was actually a lateral climb,
if you will pardon this impossibility. It just never worked for
me. At some point, they naturally give in to this inevitable
sexual attraction, which led to lengthy sex scenes that I
barely skimmed, to be honest. At least, the author "told" me
that Ronin had changed, because otherwise how to explain his
behavior? There was of course the obligatory misunderstanding,
which I had predicted from very early on. So much more
could have been done with the mystery angle. It was not all
that bad, mind you. The (excruciatingly detailed) backstories
for Cat and Ronin were interesting, especially Ronin's. The
descriptions are as lovely as in the previous books, and the
writing is impeccable. It's all a matter of taste I suppose.
I know that everything I disliked will be someone else's
catnip. I will let you be the judge.
THERE WILL BE HEAT... Vampire Catherine Adair gave up trying to find her perfect match ages ago. But that didn't stop her from founding London's super successful vampire dating site. When a smoldering vampire overlord from her past launches an interspecies speed-dating service, Catherine vows to crush the competition.... WHEN THESE TWO COMPETE Ronin's new venture is purely about getting Catherine's attention. He hasn't stopped thinking about her ever since the night she gave him the cold shoulder. Nobody gets away from Ronin McDermott that easily...