DARK TRADERS - Alexandra Rayne

Vampirotica

Sizzler Editions

Renaissance Ebooks www.renebooks.com

ISBN: 1-58873-834-5

December 2006

Erotic Paranormal Romance - Short Story

San Francisco, California - Near future

Miranda Raven, a Securities and Exchange Investigator, is sent to San Francisco to investigate X-Corporation, a publicly traded company owned and controlled by vampires. Ever since vampires became a recognized species, they've been involved in business on every level. The SEC suspects an Enron type scandal is brewing at X-Corp and it's Miranda's job to find the evidence.

Jet Curtis is a hired assassin. He's also a three year old vampire. When his employer X-Corp hires him to take out the SEC investigator, Jet doesn't flinch from the task, until he sees Miranda. Jet finds Miranda too alluring to kill, so he makes her the undead instead.

Some time later Jet is called on the carpet for the murder-spree conducted by Miranda and questioned about her supposed execution. When Jet runs into Miranda he realizes he's just as attracted to her as he was when he first saw her. Miranda, on the other hand, hates Jet -- he's a vampire and she hates all vampires and most especially she hates the fact that she now is a vampire. After a bit of a tussle on the street, the two head off for Jet's apartment for some wild sex, followed by days spent running from those gunning for them and trying to figure out what is going on at X-Corp.

DARK TRADERS starts off well with an interesting plot an intriguing heroine, unfortunately in between Miranda and Jet's bouts of sex, the plot gets twisted, convoluted and lost. Miranda's actions and reactions simply don't ring true, and Jet goes from a vicious killer to a maudlin vampire yearning for his soul -- with really no explanation. The relationship between Jet and Miranda doesn't work. She hates him but constantly wants to have sex with him, and then at the end she loves him.  Jet just wants to screw Miranda and he feels a bit guilty for turning her instead of just killing her, and then he loves her. The transitions between scenes are jarring and I found myself paging back several times to see if I'd missed something. DARK TRADERS could have been an exceptional paranormal suspense novel but the bizarre behavior of the characters and the lack of a cohesive plot make it more an exercise in frustration than a pleasurable read.  

Isabelle Spencer