Rereading as light bedtime fiction since this book is somehow cozy feeling despite the vampires, Voodoo Wars, oppressive police, and various other dangerous situations.

I am very fond of this book despite the fact that it is too talky and somewhat slow, problems McKinley can be prone to. I feel as if she needs an editor to always cut out about a third of her books these days. Or perhaps be given a third less time to fill out her story than she'd like.

However that may be, this is one of the better modern vampire stories out there. Fascinating world development which is kept just unknown enough that we are always guessing just like the protagonist. Smart protagonist, interesting vampire a la Simon Ysidro in Barbara Hambly's Those Who Hunt the Night which I'd say is probably the best of the modern vampire books. And baking. Which I always approve of.

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. But there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years, and Sunshine just needed a spot where she could be alone with her thoughts. Vampires never entered her mind.

Until they found her...

I really liked this vampire novel. This is a rare adult novel written by Robin McKinley, and it was also the first book I read by her. The book is pretty clean except for one almost sex scene that uses a couple of very coarse words that I could have done without. The other love scenes are more fade to black.

One of the things I really liked about this book and found to be a welcome difference from other vampire books is that this vampire is not a beautiful creature. At one point in the book he turns himself human looking for a little while and he is rather ugly as a human. How refreshing that he isn't mesmerizingly beautiful.

I only wish there had been a sequel. This could have been the start of a pretty awesome urban fantasy series, with Sunshine teaming up with the vampire, Constantine from time to time to help him out with problems of the supernatural variety. Unfortunately Robin McKinley has said that she has no interest in writing one. It is fine as a stand-alone novel though.

Review also posted at Writings of a Reader

So it turns out, I dislike a constant spew of stream of consciousness thoughts, in book form as much as I do in conversation. I listened to this,, and the narrator did not help, but the fact that this was filled with so many mind numbingly irrelevant details was the real problem (for me). I will readily acknowledge that those kind of details enrich novels for a large swath of readers, I am just not one of them. I kept hoping that the cinamon rolls were going to end up being some sort of personification of Sunshine's power, alas no, it was just some reasoning for why she gets up at 4:30 in the morning which McKinley told us about at least 100 times (yes I am exaggerating) and had exactly zero relevance to the story. Rant officially over.

There was some enjoyment, I liked the story overall and the little town they lived in. I liked Sunshine herself, there were some self deprecating, laugh out loud moments and I liked the world filled with weres and other odities.

Constantine was an unkillable cardboard cutout, the dragon lady was as well and the ending was lame. Still deciding on 2 or 3 stars. 2.5 rounded.......down.

Ooh, this is very good. It’s like McKinley’s post-apocalyptic take on the Beauty and the Beast tale. And I think it’s even better than her two retellings of that fairytale. There’s a different feel to this book, if you were to compare it to her other novels. In the past few weeks I’ve read a number of her fairytales and they all share a common voice in the way the story’s told and how the events are fleshed out. They’re more traditional with plain storytelling. Sunshine has a more personal quality to the prose—like a conversation between the narrator, Sunshine, and the reader. It has a natural feel to it, that I quite liked, though I also think this is where many readers are put off. Because like a conversation, the story doesn’t necessarily follow a straight path; Sunshine will say something and then will follow it up with a tangential description before going back to her original train of thought. However it’s not always superfluous information that she’s giving, rather it’s her way of providing some background to the story she’s telling.

The story doesn’t follow the normal path of a paranormal romance. In this post-apocalyptic world, a natural antipathy exists between vampires and humans, and even though Constantine is portrayed as a sort of good guy, he doesn’t necessarily lose his menacing qualities. Nevertheless he is a likable character and I did enjoy the pairing. A sort of awkwardness exists in their relationship, as Sunshine tries to come to terms with and accept a partnership—even a friendship—with this vampire, her sworn enemy. The same goes for Constantine. I liked how the book ends, that it remains true to the characters and the relationship they’ve forged over the course of the novel, even though it’s not certain as to what the future may bring.

Also, the symbolism is rather well done from the charms down to Sunshine’s true name: Raven Blaise—the union of dark and light... a play of light and shadow, a theme that runs prevalent throughout the book. It’s also a sensual book, but not just in terms of sex. The rich descriptions both color and stimulate the senses—from sight to sound to taste to texture.

I think I’m going to agree with Neil Gaiman’s summation of the book calling it a pretty much near perfect read.