My Reads: Seeing Red by Olivia Howe

I don’t read vampire books. I think I told all of you that before. I’m not a Twihard. I’m not even a Twicare. Sparkly vampires make me giggle, and not in a good way. So when I started this series, I was a little skeptical. You’ve heard from me on the first in this series, but now you can hear from me on the second. It’s Seeing Red, Olivia Howe’s sophomore offering in the Dark Love series. (Did you see how I worked in that high school reference? Pretty smooth, huh?)

This is one of those books that I have to be careful with, because just about anything I say will be a spoiler. And as you know, I don’t do spoilers. So let me see if I can bring you up to speed.

At the end of the first book, Nina’s sister has disappeared. I can’t say why, but know that Nina’s learned a lot of things about herself and her family, and really important things at that. When we pick up in Seeing Red, the vampires in Nina’s world are trying to protect her from the Sulivic brothers, another group of vampires who want to kill her. Why? Because she’s a healer and, to them, healing a vampire from being undead is tantamount to killing them. If they become human again, they’ll eventually die. That’s contrary to everything about being a vampire.

As time goes by, someone new is introduced – matter of fact, an entire family, and they are special in their abilities. I can’t say any more than that. Anyway, in the course of this book, the new family and their abilities are explored, someone shows up and pulls a terrible stunt, someone dies (I mean really, really dies, for good), someone returns, someone turns traitor, someone makes a surprise reappearance, and then something terrible happens to the heroine. Oh, she’s still there, but it’s . . . well, you’ll just have to read it. Frankly, the ending made me absolutely want to read the next book.

While the characters are all teenagers and the story centers around a high school, as in the first book, that didn’t turn me off at all. I think I would’ve liked it far more if it had been college, but that’s just me. I’m very curious about how all of the characters who were introduced in this book are going to play a role in the next one. And I want to know how the heroine’s “situation” gets resolved.

So what did I like about this book? I like Andrew, the male protagonist. He’s so gentlemanly and sweet. I like the complication for the female protagonist; it’s reminiscent of something caused by vampires’ abilities in True Blood, but I still liked it. And I like where the story is going. The last book has great potential if Miss Howe can pull it all together, and I have no doubt that she can.

If you’re sitting there and wishing you had something a little different to read, you might want to give Seeing Red a try. Get busy on the next book, Olivia – I’m waiting!