The Wages of Sin
Brainycat's 5 "B"s:blood: 5
boobs: 3
bombs: 2
bondage: 4
blasphemy: 3
Bechdel Test: FAIL
Deggan's Rule: FAIL
Gay Bechdel Test: FAIL
In all honesty, I didn't like this as much as I liked Thicker than Water. I believe I would've liked it a lot better if the two novellas were combined into one novel, with a few less flashbacks in the first book and couple more flashbacks in the second book to make the two novellas maintain the same pacing. That's not going to happen, so I recommend reading this one right after the first one, as this book picks up right after the cliffhanger at the end of the first book.
This book felt very mopey and it kept rehashing the same conflict over and over. The only thing missing was an actual horse, getting flogged long after it had shuffled off this mortal coil. This book didn't need to be nearly as long, or it should've tried harder and gone bigger. Without giving away plot spoilers, I'll say that it would've have been more rewarding for me as a reader for the conflict between the brothers to spill out of Las Vegas and continue on through a couple of months of hunt and chase.
The story was gory, but there wasn't as much sex as the first book. The situations felt more preposterous, too - as the bodycount builds up and they start getting attention from the cops the vampires are still able to kill with impunity which felt unrealistic. I'd call this effort a "sophomore slump", but as I don't know enough about the author's publishing history I don't know if that's appropriate. I do know that there's no point reading this book unless you've read the first book, you should read the two of them back to back, and this is the weaker of the two.
Please note: I don't review to provide synopses, I review to share a purely visceral reaction to books and perhaps answer some of the questions I ask when I'm contemplating investing time and money into a book.
