DNF Review – Dreadful Company (Dr. Greta Helsing, Book 2) by Vivian Shaw (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN-13: 978-0316434638
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Dr. Greta Helsing series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars
“When Greta Helsing, doctor to the undead, is unexpectedly called to Paris to present at a medical conference, she expects nothing more exciting than professional discourse on zombie reconstructive surgery and skin disease in bogeymen — and hopefully at least one uneventful night at the Opera.
Unfortunately for Greta, Paris happens to be infested with a coven of vampires — and not the civilized kind. If she hopes to survive, Greta must navigate the darkest corners of the City of Lights, the maze of ancient catacombs and mine-tunnels underneath the streets, where there is more to find than simply dead men’s bones.”
I enjoyed the first book in the Dr. Great Helsing series quite a bit and was looking forward to the next book in the series. Unfortunately, I stopped reading this 100 pages in. I was just getting really irritated by all the jumping around between different POVs. There are also a ton of new characters added very quickly and I didn’t really engage with them or care to read about them.
Greta is at a conference in Paris when she is kidnapped by a coven a vampires. The story jumps between Greta, the vampire coven, and some new enforcer type characters. In the first portion of this book there were a lot of new characters and hardly any of the characters I grew to love in the first book.
As with the first book there is something about Shaw’s writing style that I struggle with, I just have to read it very slowly or I miss things. I also find myself skimming a lot and then going back and rereading. The writing doesn’t grab me and it’s a huge struggle to stay focused.
Overall, though I enjoy some elements of this series, it just isn’t for me. There’s too much jumping around and too much time spent with characters I don’t care about or enjoy reading about.
