Nightwalkers Series: Gideon

Gideon is book 2 in the Nightwalkers series by Jacquelyn Frank. This book was better and worse than Jacob. Better because there was far less of Bella. We saw more of the characters I actually did like, like Noah and Elijah. We also met new characters like Damien, the vampire, and Siena, the lycanthrope. Each seem to have some potential for the next books in the series. The story wasn't too horrible.

Let me talk about the things that irritated me. Firstly, Gideon reminded me a little of Gregori from Christine Feehan's Dark Series. So there were times where I wanted to reach into the book and slap him (Gideon, not Gregori, in this case). Second, Legna struck me as... a little forgettable. With the previous book, I'm probably going to remember the story better because Bella pissed me off so badly. But with Legna... she was a little on the lackluster side of things. Thirdly, there was still too much Bella. I know she's a big deal in this world but I don't care. She's still annoying. My final issue is more with the writing than the actual story. I didn't mention it with Jacob but Ms Frank kinda writes funny. It's very... flowery. It takes a lot of getting used to. She also uses really super big words. I had to consult a dictionary a bunch of times. I was honestly thinking that she was making some of those words up. Also, I found some of Ms Frank's descriptions unintentionally hilarious. Like one description of Gideon had me in gales of laughter. I know she was trying to show that Gideon is old school, but it just struck me as ridiculous.

Gideon and Magdelegna met eight years ago and some sparks flew between the two of them. Ashamed of his behaviour, Gideon went on a self-imposed exile. But, with the crap hitting the fan in Jacob, Gideon was forced to reintegrate himself into demon society. Magdelegna is the king's baby sister, so she's lived a pretty sheltered life up until Bella came and turned things upside down. Gideon starts a few weeks after Jacob ended and shows that Magdelegna is struggling to cope with her ordeal of Samhain night. She's feeling all cut off and withdrawn and... crap. 

This brings me to my problem with Gideon (the book, not the actual guy). I know this sounds really awful but I can't actually remember what happened. I finished this book last Sunday but, with the exams, I didn't have time to give a review. And now I genuinely can't remember what the heck happened or how it ended. 

I think this is the main problem with this series. The first characters introduced don't have much oomph. Which is a pity because I imagine a bunch of people would abandon this series out of boredom. 

It isn't a bad series, it's just forgettable.

Nightwalkers Series: Jacob

Jacob is book 1 in Jacquelyn Frank's Nightwalker series. I had mixed feelings about this book. The story itself wasn't bad, but I had a bit of a problem with the characters. The, ahem, "heroine" got on my nerves. A lot. 

The story is about Jacob the Enforcer and Bella the Helpless Ninny. Jacob is a demon and his job is to enforce demon laws. The main thing Jacob has to do is to keep any demons from engaging in hanky-panky with humans. Demons are so tremendously strong that a human would not survive the ordeal. Jacob's job gets even more difficult during the Samhain and Beltane moons, where demons are basically ruled by their baser urges and start running after humans left, right and centre. But then the unthinkable happens: he starts wanting the forbidden too. 

Enter Bella.

Bella is a book worm. She's a librarian so, "naturally", there isn't a whole lot of excitement in her life.They meet while she's leaning out of a window star-gazing. Then while they're having their little tete-a-tete, Bella falls out the window. She wasn't pushed. She wasn't backing a way from a bad guy. She didn't even trip. She was just leaning too far out of the damn window. And then Jacob catches her. And to do so he kinda had to float himself up to a height where she wouldn't be too badly hurt by his grabbing her. And she doesn't notice that while he's holding on to her that they're floating 10 feet in the air. Now, I don't know the conversion from feet to metres, but I do know that 10 feet is effing high! How can you not notice? I know us book worms have a rep for being less than observant but this is ridiculous. 

And the asinine behaviour doesn't stop there. After Jacob uses Bella as a divining rod to find a rogue demon, Bella simply passes out from the ordeal of seeing a demon (sounded a little like those demons you'd find on Scooby Doo, if I'm honest). Jacob takes her to his place, strips her and gives her his shirt to wear. When Bella wakes up she seems to be unconcerned about several things that I'm sure a normal person would be more than a little freaked out by. Firstly, she is in a strange man's house. No one has any idea where she is. Secondly, she is only wearing his shirt. That's it. She's parading around like this in front of a complete stranger. A final complaint about Bella (I swear I'll stop after this) is that she cries. About everything. I kinda wanted to get in the book so that I could give her something to cry about.

To be fair, Bella did get a little less useless as the book progressed but by the time she pulled her head out of her butt, I had decided that I didn't like her. I might have liked her more if we had been given a bit of insight into her character before the window incident. Just some indication that something that stupid was not in character for her. 

I didn't hate all the characters though. Jacob was okay. I really like Noah, the Demon King, and Elijah, the demon's sort of military commander.

This book was nice in that it was just something to read, but I'm not going to be waiting anxiously to see what happens next.