Necking

I picked up Necking by Chris Salvatore recently while in Borders just looking around. The cover was probably the selling point for me; love those long red nails (though quite honestly, they really don't play into the story at all). Of course with my love for vampires, the idea of a book publicist who caters to the undead sounded just like something I'd love to read. So, consider this an impulse buy (which, as we all know, sometimes works out and sometimes doesn't).

Overall, I liked Necking. It certainly isn't literary, but it served the vampire purpose; young take charge professional falls for the hot sexy vampire manager of her newest sensation and must decide what she is willing to do in order to be with him. There's lots and lots of sexual tension, and lots of actual sex as well. The two main characters play well off one another, but the detour into a side story of revenge was not only unnecessary but more than a little unfocused (and way too easily solved). I really disliked what Gia the publicist does to her parents; I think the author did a disservice in not finding some other way for her lovers to be together that wasn't so cruel. In fact, I'm still not sure why Gia couldn't simply tell her parents. It's not like they'd give her secret away as long as she's happy. Anyway, I was hoping for more depth; while the banter is good, this isn't a book that's going to stay with me very long.

Biggest gripe? The number of typos! If there was an editor, he or she needs a serious performance review. Lots and lots of misplaced quotation marks which caused me to reread sentences to garner just who was speaking, and sometimes entire words were missing that made the sentence make absolutely no sense as read. The worst? I think it was around page 261 or so when the word "silver" is written "sliver" not once but twice. I had to go back over the paragraphs a few times to believe that yes, indeedy, I was reading it as written. As a casual reader, this would bug me. As a grammarian, it drove me freaking nuts. This wasn't an uncorrected proof, for crying out loud; I paid good money for it and I feel like someone didn't do his/her job. Buyer beware.

My full amazon review (which bumped Harriet Klausner's off the main part of the page--yeah me!) is found at http://www.facebook.com/n/?posted.php&id=848115342&share_id=24659234203&comments#s24659234203. Visit and read if you are looking for more specifics on what I thought of this book.

~taminator40