Rating: 
Summary: Strange creatures have taken over Shannon Drake
Review: Interview with the Vampire this is not. Shannon Drake--or some other author of the same name--used to write interesting and even well-crafted historical romance. This is not a well-crafted anything...the "heroine" is boring and rushing headlong into "danger," which is not particularly believable even if one accepts the vampire premise. Story line is thin, plot is thin, characters aren't compelling or fascinating. Read something else.
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Summary: Yawnfest
Review: Is it possible to write a novel that features Carnivale in Venice, sexy vampires and serial murder and still have it turn out completely boring? Yes. All the elements were there for a good story but it never quite meshed. There are endless repetitive scenes of the main character Jordan attending one party after another when she's not busy (stupidly) following a lone man in a dottore mask through the dark streets. The romance between Jordan and Rangor, the mysterious vampire, is plodding and unbelieveable. Rangor does absoulutely nothing that explains why Jordan would fall in love with him. Through most of the book he mainly stalks her and speaks in crypic messages. By the same token, this world-travelled immortal's fascination with the dull and ordinary Jordan is unexplainable. When their big love scene *finally* arrives it's a big letdown because the characters are so poorly drawn that you just don't care about them. Scenes that are supposed to be spooky come off as laughable, like when Jordan goes into a desecrated church and finds her friend's body on the altar and when she touches it, her head rolls off! The book only gets interesting near the end when Rangor's past life as a Viking warrior is revealed -finally some action. Too late to save the story, alas.
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Summary: This one goes into my recycle pile
Review: The book was not pleasurable to read through, as I felt much of the story dealt with the history between the evil contessa and our hero, Ragnor. The plot took much of the focus away from the love interest, Jordan Riley. I did feel the attraction of Jordan and Ragnor throughout the story, but the build-up about the two of them seemed to drag on too long. I eventually lost interest in the story before they finally succumbed to their desire of each other. At that point, I didn't really care anymore.I recommend the author's Beneath a Blood Red Moon if anyone haven't read it yet. Now that was a story that was enjoyable to read!
Rating: 
Summary: Won't suit everyone's taste -- Highly recommended
Review: The opulence of Venice's Carnivale conceals a danger in the night that will lead book reviewer Jordan Riley through its decadent streets and to New Orleans seeking answers. A tarot card reader warns Jordan of deep midnight, the true dead of night, when all light fades and shadows even fall in darkness. Jordan can't trust anyone, especially the mysterious Ragnor, who insists that she must trust him. She sees a dead man's visage on mannequins, wolves in shadows, and hears the whisper of wings in the night. Ragnor tells her that she should simply go home to the United States. Jordan accompanies her cousin Jared and his wife to an extravagant party given by Contessa della Triste. The highly respected Contessa gives huge sums of money for the renovation of the ancient buildings of Venice and for orphans. She employees Jared in some mysterious business, and holds him responsible when Jordan witnesses the enactment of a play in the second floor ballroom, which proves to be no enactment at all, but a macabre feeding frenzy on the innocent. A mysterious man dressed a wolf rescues her, helping her to flee the residence. When Jordan goes to the police, however, to tell what she witnessed, no one believes her. They say that she's over wrought, still suffering from the grief of loosing her fiancé the year when he was killed by a cult. The Contessa sympathetically forgives her brash tales, blaming an over stimulated imagination and grief over the past. Shannon Drake pens a compelling tale of the supernatural in DEEP MIDNIGHT. Vibrant costuming and hedonistic pleasure conceal an ancient evil and a history of revenge. The prose flows as gently as the water of Venice canals, rich with nuance and promise. Some may find the first half of the novel unnecessarily slow, though it truly reflects the unhurried pace of the Carnivale itself. Rich descriptive passages and detours into darkened corners become a reflection of the ancient streets of Venice with its dangerous, darkened side streets. As tension builds, and the impossible proves all too real, Jordan never backs away from the pursuit of answers, even when it leads unexpectedly to her own past and answers that seem impossible. The slow pace won't suit everyone's taste; nevertheless, this new fan finds Drake's view of the world fascinating. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Not as exciting
Review: This book is not as exciting as it's two predecessors. I agree with the other reviews that the book started out exciting but dropped pretty signifigantly towards the end. I wanted to see more "romance" and more of the "vampire" in Ragnor. I love all of Shannon Drake's books but this one so far has been my only disappointment. I still am looking forward to the next book in this series, but I hope she makes more of an effort to include the vampirism, eroticism and excitiment that she normally offers her readers.
Rating:
Summary: What a chore
Review: This book was a chore to read, too slow, too cluttered and the love interests weren't even interested in each other much less showing any personality. The people never came out of the book they were flat and pathetic. I am an avid reader, and enjoy books that include the supernatural. It is pretty hard to make a vampire as dull and numbing as this one was. If you are interested in something interesting with a twist of the supernatural I would recommend that to read Laurell K. Hamilton or Christine Feehan over this particular author.
Rating: 
Summary: What happened??
Review: This book was incredibly exciting and suspenseful -- I literally could not put it down -- until the last couple of chapters. What happened here? The last 2 or 3 chapters crammed together a huge number of unlikely events, many that made no sense at all, and then fizzled out to a shallow and hollow ending. I was so disappointed! As for the rest of the book, while the characters are a bit flat, the storyline is rich, captivating, and original. I can only assume that Ms. Drake was struggling to meet a deadline.
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Summary: Readable, but...
Review: This is my second foray into Shannon Drake's Vampire series. I find them remarkably discombobulated. I find myself going "huh?" "what?" a lot, and flipping back and forth to see what I missed. Maybe its the fact that I spend 10 months drumming the concept of transitions into the heads of preteens, but Drake's choppy writing style is somewhat grating.
Her books also seem to follow a particular formula, and lord knows that gets old pretty quick.
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Summary: VAMPIRES !!! anybody!!!
Review: THIS IS THE 1ST of Shannon Drake's books that I have read and I also did not read her editorial reviews before reading this book. Therefore I did not know this book was about vampires. Had I known, I would not have selected it. It was not until about page 100 that this book began to hint of vampires but it still wasn't clear until the last 1/4 of the book. Needless to say, I was not happy to discover such a fate for this book. Had the storyline stayed with its first 100 pages, the reader would be happy to accept Drakes novel, as a beautiful city, a beautiful love story, a beautiful Jordan Riley and Ragnor, a beautiful Carnivale, and, a beautiful opportunity to give her readers a history of Venicel Truthfully, I could not force myself to read many of the pages about Ragnor's vamps and skipped much of the information about Jordan in New Orleans as it really was very uninteresting. I did like the ending where Jordan and Ragnor went off to love ever after. ---Beverly C. Sandres
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: This is the first and last work of this author that I will read. It may have worked had it been cut in half, but I ended up skimming about half way through because scenes seemed to repeating themselves. Towards the end the author switches to Viking times to explain how Ragnor came to be a vampire, then all of a sudden Jordan is taking off for New Orleans where another set of characters is introduced. Maybe this is too harsh, but once you read Laurell K. Hamilton or Charlaine Harris, it's hard to go back.
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