Urban Legend (Silhouette Bombshell)

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: Erica Orloff rocks! This vampire romance is set in the seedy and glamorous New York club scene. Velvet ropes and drugged out zombies, vampires flying from rooftops to big time shootouts- this is an outstanding novel. Well written, strong character development. Our hero is a real man's man cop- right out of Law and Order. He falls for the beautiful tormented vampire who works to right wrongs herself.
Erica Orloff is a major talent- I expect her books to be right up there with others who have broken out of romance for broad commercial success in 5 years. Read THE ROOFER- her violent diary of life as an Irish crime family princess and you will be hooked as I am!

Rating:
Summary: Action-packed and riveting till the end...
Review: I admit that my expectations weren't high when it came to this novel. Erica Orloff writes chick-lit and Silhouette Bombshell is a Harlequin imprint. And so I thought this romantic paranormal suspense wouldn't be to my taste. However, a friend of mine convinced me to read it. I am glad I didn't let my opinion of Harlequin books get in the way of enjoying such a fun, action-packed novel that is not unlike the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novels in so many levels. Nightclub owner Tessa Van Doren fights to keep the streets and the youths safe from drug dealers. She, with the help of an agoraphobic Internet hacker, tracks down drug lords and destroys them. But when a new drug takes over New York City by storm, Tessa is afraid that it is the scheme of the man she's tried to run away from for over a century. Tessa is a vampire running away from her sire -- an evil vampire who believes Tessa is his eternal mate. With the help of her fellow vamp friend Lily, an underground vampire hunter and a detective-slash-love interest, Tessa is prepared to face her nemesis. There are various twists throughout the novel.

As said earlier, the novel is action-packed from beginning to end and has a plot that moves fast and steady. I liked Tessa's badass attitude and superheroine moves. She and Lily are great together. They are strong female characters, and that is what I enjoyed the most about this novel. With the exception of some scenes and moves that wouldn't look out of place in a Matrix movie, I liked Orloff's vampires. I have some problems with the romance aspect of the novel though. The romance between Tessa and Detective Flynn comes across as filler at times. It is almost as though said romance was included because the imprint guidelines demanded it. The story could have done without it. But I did enjoy the bantering between Flynn and Williams. Williams is quite funny. Jorge and Cool, the club's bouncer and DJ, are also great characters. All in all, I thought I wouldn't like this novel because Harlequin romance imprints often follow a predictable formula that does not allow writers to be creative, but Urban Legend is one fun novel! I shouldn't have underestimated Ms. Orloff, for she's one of my favorite chick-lit writers. I recommend this novel to all romantic suspense fans that don't mind a side order of sci-fi/fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad...
Review: I don't normally read the "Harlequin"-type monthly potboiler genre, but when I came across this one I just had to give it a shot. Tessa Van Doren is the queen of the Manhattan nightlife scene - in more ways than one. Brought into the vampire life over 100 years ago, she becomes an anti-drug vigilante after the death of her young lover in 1911 Shanghai. Her wildly successful club, Night Flight, is a way for Tessa to find some of New York's biggest drug kingpins and make them pay. But not everyone thinks Tessa runs a clean operation, and Detective Tony Flynn is determined to find out what Tessa is hiding after several murders are linked to Night Flight. To add to Tessa's problems, a deadly new designer drug is making its way around New York, and an old enemy is stalking her. Are the two connected? Can she trust Detective Flynn with not only her secrets, but her heart as well?

The only thing I really disliked about "Urban Legend" is Erica Orloff's tendency to over-describe things. Orloff tells us in obsessive detail about Tessa's furniture, her wardrobe (Tessa doesn't just wear a dress; she wears a "Zac Posen" dress or an "Oleg Cassini" gown), and even the kind of cell phone her missing friend Lily doesn't answer (a "tiny fold-up Nokia in bright red with rhinestones"). Wading through all the details got a bit tiresome at times, and I have to admit there were a few places where I just wanted to tell Orloff, "Just get on with the action already!" But I suppose this is probably pretty standard for this kind of novel, and Orloff's excellently-spun tale redeems the detail-mania.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous~A must read!
Review: I loved this book~I am typically not a "vampire" reader, but the night club scene interested me....It kept me interested from the first page, and I would tell anyone to read it--vampire reader or not! I can see why this is on the Walden Top Ten list!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I loved Urban Legend. It's a great book, and a quick read. It's about a vampire living in New York City and runs a nightclub, so that she can manage to not go out in daylight but still make a living. Everything is going great, until evil from her past finds her. It's a wonderful book with lots of action and romance.

Rating:
Summary: A Biting Good Read
Review: I'm not ordinarly a Silhouette reader, but always ready to try a new vampire story. This one gives us a great undead heroine who runs a hot night club and hunts down drug dealers. When her sire (and husband) tracks her down and begins to hurt those she loves, she gathers her "family" and goes beheads bad guys right and left. It's an action-packed story with just enough romance. Recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: action packed police procedural vampire romance
Review: In Manhattan, Tessa van Doren, owner of the Night Flight Club, drinks blood to survive. However, Tessa is very particular as to whom her victims are. She selects drug dealers to take them off the street.

NYPD Detectives Tony Flynn and Alex Williams investigate the disappearance of a missing drug dealer last seen making the scene at Tessa's club. Surprising both of them, Tessa and Tony are attracted to one another, but neither plan to follow up on this feelings as he feels she is way above his lifestyle and she believes a vampire and a mortal cop do not make a match in heaven. However, the twosome is forced to work in close proximity when they learn that her "dad" is planning to introduce a designer drug to the mean streets of the city.

This action packed vampire romance never slows for even a nanosecond as the lead couple races through Manhattan to try to save the day (night?) from a new illegal drug. The story line keeps readers on the edge of their seats, but that also takes away from character development; this makes it difficult to see Tony and Tessa working together and even more unlikely falling in love. Still fans of paranormal romances will appreciate the frantic pace as the vampiress and the cop battle her sire and their attraction.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: as good as it gets
Review: Tessa is a vampire, owner of the hottest nightclub in New York City. She once lost a lover to drugs, and now wages a war on drugs in NY. She is super-strong, reflective, and very humane. She treats her employees very well, is extremely rich, and strongly principled. Along comes Flynn, a NY detective who smells something fishy about her nightclub...

A bad vampire from her past kidnaps a friend, and it's up to Tessa, Flynn, a great cast of supporting characters from her nightclub, an anonymous internet aide and an underworld (literally) King to come to the rescue.

I've read many vampire novels that are cliched, cheesy, melodramatic or vapid, but this book was none of that; it was perfect the way it was. The characters were well-written (although the occasional brief flashback was a bit disconcerting), the action was great, and there was no whininess or sappiness to it at all. The characters all had interesting lives and were mature and well-rounded. Especially for a Harlequin novel, this is as good as it gets.

Rating:
Summary: This should be made into a movie
Review: That's how much I was into this book. I'll keep it simple with this one. Read it. You'll enjoy it...if you like vampires, or like action book with a little romance, or like tourtured heorines. Or like books where you get to know every character's history in a way where no character is no longer a minor character. After this book, I am open to reading Erica's next Bombshell book and more Bombshell novels.