Review: Chasing Midnight (Roaring Twenties series 01) by Susan Krinard

Book info:

Book format: paperback, borrowed from my local library

Genre: historical paranormal romance

Target audience: older YA and adults

Synopsis:

Allegra Chase was turned into a vampire by her father’s close friend. It was her only chance to live to the full and have some fun. As a teenager she fell ill (something sounding like a progressive muscular dystrophy) and, abandoned by her posh friends, boyfriend and even her mother, she was left to wait for her death in an empty house with only one servant. Small wonder that, being given the second chance, she took it without regrets and never looked back. Small wonder she doesn’t want to swear allegiance to anybody – be it a vampire, a human or a werewolf, even if it means she is an oddball in New York, considered a traitor or a dissenter. Who cares when you can hound Greenwich Village with your bohemian friends in tow, having the time of your life?

Griffin Durant’s parents and siblings, a whole family of werewolves, were killed by a fire when he was just 14. He was able to save only his little sister, Gemma. Then he was drafted and the First World War left his psyche horribly scarred even though he survived. Now Griffin, a wealthy bachelor living in Long Island NY, wants nothing more than forgetting who and what he is. He steers clear of the local pack or, in fact, any supernatural creatures and tries to find his sister a nice, respectable human husband. However a teenage girl during Roaring Twenties is able to stir trouble as efficiently as any of her contemporary peers – Gemma clearly doesn’t share the narrow outlook of her conservative older brother. She doesn't see a point.

Allegra and Griffin meet and have to cooperate because their friends get into serious trouble. Soon enough it becomes obvious that the disappearance of Margot De Luca, a friend of Allegra and a daughter of a local mafia boss and Malcolm Owen, a poor playwright and her beloved, is a part of a larger scheme of a truly sinister character. What will take to discover who really stands behind it?

What I liked:

At first I thought it was just another vampire novel with a kick-ass heroine but set at the beginning of the 20^th century (that’s why the subtitle). After all vampire fiction is as common as muck nowadays. This one was a bit different, though.

Maybe it was because of the period. Roaring Twenties in the USA (but not only of course) were the era of jazz, prohibition and mafia, the time of flappers, a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, excessive makeup, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, drove automobiles (imagine that!) smoked, had casual sex and generally flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Allegra is such a flapper even if for slightly different reasons – she finds it an excellent way to express her love for freedom. Yes, she frequents speakeasies ( establishments that illegally sells alcoholic beverages), has a bunch of bohemian human friends and seduces men but only in order to drink their blood. This novel proves that a vampiress doesn’t have to wear black leather, wield a catana (or another sharp weapon) to be considered a kick-ass heroine. The strength of Allegra lies in her psychological make-up – she can think and she uses her brain, she is altruistic up to a point, she knows what she wants and she doesn’t hesitate to get it. Overall the vampires and werewolves of New York fit that period perfectly, bootlegging, fighting among themselves for supremacy, not unlike in any good mafia, or dreaming about the ultimate supremacy.

Psychological veracity was another feature I really appreciated. Allegra and Griffin are dynamic characters. They fall in love almost at first sight but it takes time before they are able to overcome their own limitations and prejudices. Griffin is shocked by Allegra’s free manners and independence, not to mention the fact that werewolves despise vampires. Allegra cannot believe Griffin wants to suppress his natural instincts of a predator and expects the same from his sister. It takes them long to see that they are really very much alike, even longer to trust each other at all. They don’t jump to bed instantly, their relationship rings true and is a pleasure to follow – in my opinion it was a real highlight of the story. I liked little Gemma and her clumsy attempts to imitate Allegra as well, it was a good move to make her play a bigger role than that of a supporting damsel in distress.

The world building was ok – perhaps not very original or especially prominent but still interesting enough to add to the story.

What I didn’t like:

I admit the plot had its weaknesses, especially at the end. In my opinion everything is resolved far too slickly during one bloody showdown; then main leads and their friends get their orange blossom- scented HEA, bad people kill each other, summertime and the livin’ is easy…at least in Long Island.

I was especially surprised when the elders of the pack, who had an excellent opportunity to fleece poor Griffin, willingly reduced their claim by half because…they feared too much money might have a degenerative effect on the werewolves. Excuse me? You are a bunch of brutal mafiosos and all of a sudden there are no greedy people among you? Have you had an epiphany of a sort? It would be far better if Griffin, a rich, clever businessman after all, found a legal loophole or drove a really hard bargain and snatched a part of his money back. But he, poor puppy, was too busy being in love or saving his beloved Allegra and the pack had to take pity on him…a bit too good to be true, don’t you think? Especially that he and the pack were hardly on friendly terms…

That's how Allegra might
look like...indomitable!

I am also not a fan of the cover art. Seriously, the book is about Roaring Twenties, such a colourful period, and instead of flappers dancing charleston or mafia boys shooting each other they put just a blue face with amber eyes and a were in the background...I would never pick it up just because of the cover. Look how many nice, period-related pics I was able to find in a matter of minutes! I think each of them would be better than the original cover!

Final verdict:

It was a really nice surprise – I liked this book better than I thought I would. It was far more intelligent than your ordinary vampires-and-werewolves story and the setting won me over. I recommend it to people who like their  paranormal romance with  historical flavour, some nice backstory and a HEA guaranteed! BTW there are two more books of this series but it seems each of them features a different set of characters so I suppose you can easily read them as stand-alones. I am definitely going to try at least one more!