Review – Wages of Sin (Cin Craven, Book 1) by Jenna Maclaine (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Release Date: July 29, 2008
ISBN-13: 978-0312946166
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Cin Craven series
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Dulcinea Craven descends from a long line of witches, and she has just inherited wild, untrained magical powers that she has no idea how to control. Now a ruthless vampire and an age-old demon are determined to enslave Cin and steal her power for their own. Her only hope is The Righteous, a band of warrior vampires who slay the rogue undead.

Among them is Michael, a fierce swordsman who inflames Cin’s most primal hungers. Showing her a sensual pleasure beyond anything in the mortal realm, she must choose between the human existence she has always known, and immortality as a vampire—a new life filled with forbidden urges, dark yearning, and unearthly passions.”

This is the first book in the Cin Craven historical paranormal romance series. There are three books in this series. I have had this book on my to be read pile for some time and was excited to finally get around to reading it. This was an engaging and quick read, I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed the book’s historical setting; this book is set in the Victorian era and I always enjoy that setting for books. This book does have some action, but I would say it is more of a paranormal romance than urban fantasy in tone.

Cin is a proper woman who finds herself with strong witch powers rather suddenly. The magic system behind her witch powers is never all that well explained. She also finds herself being hunted down by an old suitor turned vampire.

I enjoyed The Righteous a lot, they are your somewhat typical band of good vampires that kick the evil vampires’ butts. They were fun to read about and there are some great action scenes between them.

I do have a few complaints about the book. The first is that I thought the chemistry between Cin and Michael was just so-so. They do the insta-love thing which I don’t really like. They also don’t seem to have a ton in common besides a dislike of evil vampires and some strange attraction to each other.

My second complaint is that there is pretty much no world building here or explanation of why/how paranormal creatures exist in this world. I prefer my paranormal romance books to have some world building and a solid plot.

Which leads me to my third complaint…the plot here is very very simple and predictable. There really isn’t all that much that’s complex going on in this story; it’s incredibly straight-forward.

The writing flows well and is decent. The book is an incredibly quick read and entertaining. While this book isn’t anything special it was decently done and provided me with an afternoon of easy reading and amusement.

Overall this was a decent paranormal romance vampire book. Everything in here was okay but not great. I felt like the chemistry between the two main characters could have been better, the world-building was non-existent, and the plot was pretty predictable. That being said this was exactly what I was looking for…a nice easy read that was fairly engaging and quick. I would recommend if you want a light and easy paranormal romance read. I probably won’t continue with the series because I just like my books with a bit more plot and a more complex and interesting world.