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Love Your Entity is a tricky book to grade. Most of the time, it walks that fine line between adorable and annoying as readers get to follow the latest round of antics in Chicago’s Vamptown. However, since I got more eyerolls than chuckles out of this one, it’s not something I’d recommend.
Sierra Brennan comes to Chicago for a reason time honored in Romlandia: She has to live in a dead relative’s house in order to collect under his will. Said house has defeated more than one claimant before her, so one would think that Sierra might have some idea of what she’s in for. She is nevertheless surprised to learn that her house is haunted. Sierra can see and communicate with ghosts, so living in a haunted house, particularly when one of the ghosts in question is obviously hostile, poses its own set of problems for her.
Then there’s the unexpected roommate. When Sierra arrives, she is met by a very naked Ronan McCoy – and he’s not exactly happy to see her. As Ronan tells her, he has a prior claim to the house and he wants her out. Of course, Ronan can’t exactly tell Sierra that this was his family home back before he was turned into a vampire but he does manage to cook up enough trouble to convince Sierra to agree to a temporary truce. Each will occupy one floor of the home until Sierra’s lawyer is back in town to sort things out.
The idea of a vampire enclave living peacefully in the middle of a big city has its appeal, and at times the interactions between Sierra, Ronan, and the neighbors can be humorous and fun. Ronan’s quest to find a mysterious key in the house in time to save his sister, as well as Sierra’s need to fulfill the terms of the will also gives the story a sense of urgency that takes things beyond humorous banter and slapstick. At times I found myself hoping that this light paranormal would work, but it just never came together well enough.
The rules of the vampire world were somewhat unevenly fleshed out. For instance, much is made of the need to keep the existence of the vampires a secret from humankind, but we have little idea of how these vampires feed, why their tattoos make them able to go out in the sun like normal people and so on. In addition, the worldbuilding doesn’t always match up factually. At one point, we’re told that a certain building was built at the turn of the 20th century, but then a few lines later, there are mentions of that same building burning to the ground in the Chicago Fire – in 1871.
On top of all that, the dialogue at times has a choppy quality to it, making the reader feel as if one is reading something meant to be witty banter but which has the timing a bit off in some way. The introduction of some rather grating characters (I definitely put Sierra’s biggest fan ever in that category) didn’t help matters on that front either. I know that this book is part of a series, but I found myself starting to cringe when all the happy couples of Vamptown started making their various appearances.
I enjoy a good paranormal, whether dark and angsty, or lighter and more humorous. However, what I read here just didn’t really do it for me. Love Your Entity has a few cute moments, but overall it just doesn’t work well enough to garner a recommendation.
Grade: C
Book Type: Vampire Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 25/02/14
Publication Date: 2014/01
I enjoy spending as much time as I can between the covers of a book, traveling through time and around the world. When I'm not having adventures with fictional characters, I'm an attorney in Virginia and I love just hanging out with my husband, little man, and the cat who rules our house.
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.