Book Review: Claiming The Evil Dead by Mary Abshire

Title: Claming The Evil Dead
Author: Mary Abshire
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Adult, Vampires, Demons, Erotic Romance
Rating: 3,5 stars
Review copy provided by Bewitching Book Tours.

Jessie is half-demon: her father is none other than the Devil himself, and her mother was a fragile little human being. Not only is she a rarity in the demon world with her gorgeous blue eyes, but the powers she possesses are unseen as well: she can breathe in spirits and send them straight to hell. Working together with some of her close friends in a paranormal investigators team, she enters haunted houses occupied by the spirits of deceased murders, consumes them and sends them right into the arms of the Devil. Although she’s a supernatural creature herself, Jessie stays away from others of her kind as often as possible. It’s no surprise that when a vampire walks into a bar and requests her help, she has second thoughts about it. Even if said vampire is willing to pay her a huge amount of cash in order to get a job done.

Her job is to track down and kill – or well, capture the soul of – an evil vampire named Alexander who likes to kidnap, torture and kill little children. Her right hand during this job? The mysterious vampire she comes to know as Drake. Although Jessie thinks vampires are nothing more than revolting bloodsuckers, she does feel an attraction towards Drake. And he towards her…
But then there’s also the evil vampire they have to slay, the appearance of a demon called Jeremy, and a lot more that could keep these star-crossed lovers apart.

Claiming The Evil Dead is a nice and entertaining read. I liked the storyline, with a half-demon and a century-old vampire chasing another vampire in an attempt to destroy him and stop his evil doing. The character of Jessie was…interesting, to say the least. I can’t say that I was terribly fond of her – I didn’t understand half of the choices she made, and found her to be rather superficial. For instance, she wants Drake based solely on his good looks, but fails to notice the man behind the looks. She is also way too eager to put her own superstitions towards vampires aside only because Drake looks so damn good. Priorities, people. Anyway, I have the faint suspision that the author didn’t want to turn her main character into a serious person held back by a bunch of principles, which is a nice description for Jessie. She’s more of a free-spirit, and although that’s not the kind of person I would get along with, I can see how it would appeal to others.

The only character I found intriguing and wanted to know more of, was Drake. The tragic vampire, tortured by his own evil doings in the past, who now strives to do good and save humans to retribute for his previous sins. He reminded me a lot of Angel, back in the days when Buffy The Vampire Slayer was still the TV hype. I didn’t like Jeremy: he was too shallow, superificial and immature to really strike my interest. I would have liked to get into the mind of Alexander a bit more, to define what turned him into a killer and maybe then figure out some of the reasons why Drake could avoid such destiny. I think some more psychological insight in the characters would have made them seem more appealing to me.

The story is fast-paced and suspenseful, but it never really kept me on the edge of my seat, and some twists and turns were pretty predictable. The writing is decent, although not outstanding: this isn’t the sort of novel that is going to keep you awake all night reminiscing about it. It’s a nice and entertaining read, but that’s all it is. It would have perhaps been more interesting had the characters had more depth and personality. The love triangle in the novel, between Drake – Jessie – Jeremy could have been better developed. It was clear from the beginning who Jessie would choose and why; perhaps if Jeremy had some more attractive personality traits, or appeared in the picture a tad bit more often, he would have stood a greater chance, and the love triangle would have been a lot more interesting.

It’s not to say I didn’t like Claiming The Evil Dead. I did enjoy the story, but I have the feeling this is one of those novels that should have been a novella. Get rid of a hundred or so pages, and the story would have been a lot more interesting, the characters would appear less superficial (no need to dig out everyone’s dirty secrets in a novella) and I wouldn’t have had the feeling halfway that I should cling on to the novel to keep reading – the clinging would then probably come naturally. There were also some things that just didn’t work out. For instance, Drake pays Jessie a huge amount of cash so she can hop in on his little plan, but then it turns out he has no plan whatsoever. Also, in my opinion, the relationship between Drake and Jessie developed too fast to actually made me really like them as a couple. They seemed more like two horny teenagers than like two people actually liking each other. All in all, if you want a fun read, this novel is a nice option – just don’t expect too much from it.