Paris Bites [Love at First Bite] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Missy Lyons

[Cocktails and Books]

Let me start with the things I did like about Paris Bites: the setting, premise and main character Samantha. A vampire story set in Paris, centering on a vampire searching for his mate who runs into the female version of Oliver Twist. Christopher sees Samantha as the key to stealing an ancient jewel that will give him the power to locate his soul-mate. All of the above are the ingredients for a really good book.

However, while I loved the premise of this book I didn't enjoy the execution. There were a lot of missed opportunities starting from page one. There were also small inconsistencies such as within the first few pages describing someone as a boy then referring to the same person as a man, that took away from the flow of the book. Another problem with the book was the first person narration Lyons uses. The story is told from the alternating points of view of Christopher and Samantha. Christopher's narration distracts from the action in the story because he spends so much time explaining his motivations for everything. The author doesn't allow you to really get to know Christopher outside of his own thoughts. Samantha's narration was a bit better but still annoying. As a result, I could not really become invested in the story and found myself reading just so I could get to the end of the book. Unfortunately, I kept comparing Paris Bites to other paranormal romances that were constructed and edited better.

Reviewed by Karon for Cocktails and Books