Narrated by Mackenzie Cartwright
Crimson Debt is book 1 in Evangeline Anderson’s Born to Darkness, a series that takes place in a world populated by vampires, werewolves, ordinary humans, and nonglams, rare humans who are resistant to vampire mind control. It’s a steamy, violent series, with excellent world building, but very annoying characters, and totally unbelievable plot twists.
For the past six years, Addison Godwin has worked as a vampire auditor. It’s not her dream job by any stretch of the imagination. Addison once had dreams of being an English professor, but, six years ago, everything changed. Her best friend Taylor was made into a vampire against her will, and Addison feels very responsible for what happened. So, she sacrifices her dreams for a life spent enforcing laws relating to vampire contact with humans.
Alec Corbin is a master vampire. He’s been undead for 400 years, and he’s got the strength and speed to prove it. He’s been attracted to Addison for a while now, but the beautiful but reserved auditor claims not to be interested. Corbin promises he will be gentle, but Addison scoffs at that assertion. She’s seen too many crime scenes to fall for it.
When Taylor begs Addison for help escaping her cruel mistress, Addison knows Corbin is the only one who can help her. Reluctantly, she agrees to pretend to be his consort while the vampire inquisitor is in town. In exchange, Corbin will take Taylor under his protection. Addison may not particularly like Corbin, but she’s pretty sure he’ll treat Taylor better than the woman who turned her.
What starts out as a pretty straightforward plan goes wrong almost immediately. Part of it has to do with the sadistic nature of the inquisitor, but most of the blame falls squarely on Addison’s shoulders. She seems incapable of keeping her mouth shut. She refuses to allow Corbin to do what he does best. It doesn’t occur to her that he knows more about vampire culture than she could ever hope to know. Soon, the inquisitor has plans to kill Taylor and own Addison. Corbin, of course, is enraged, and much violence ensues.
Obviously, I have to suspend disbelief to a certain extent when listening to paranormal romance. However, Crimson Debt required altogether too much suspension. The author told me Addison and Corbin were falling for each other, but their interactions outside the bedroom didn’t back up this assertion. It seemed more like they were experiencing great amounts of lust for one another. Lust isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I wish the author had just called it that, and actually worked out ways for true love to develop between Corbin and Addison.
Taylor was also a very problematic character for me. Before she was turned, she was a grad student, studying to be a vet. She was self-sufficient and fun. Now though, she’s whiny, clingy, and simpers almost constantly. When the book opens, she’d been a vampire for six years. Shouldn’t she have started to adjust by now?
Narrator Mackenzie Cartwright was one of very few bright spots in this listening experience. She voiced each character with just the right amount of emotion. Some of the dialogue bordered on the melodramatic, but Ms. Cartwright kept it from sounding totally silly. She was able to make unbelievable characters a little easier for me to deal with.
I was especially pleased by her depictions of the various vampire characters. Often, the vampires switch accents. Corbin, for example, sometimes speaks with a Scottish burr. Other times, he seems to have no accent at all. Ms. Cartwright voiced him perfectly, never seeming to get confused by the constant changes in how various characters spoke.
I was a little turned off by her portrayal of Taylor. True, the simpering way she spoke fit the character to a tee, but it really grated on my ears.
I won’t be continuing with this series. It had a great deal of potential, but was unable to deliver.
Shannon
Narration: B
Book Content: C-
Steam Factor: For your burning ears only
Violence: Graphic, some descriptions of torture
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Crimson Debt was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.
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