Review – Nightshades (Nightshades, Book 1) by Melissa F. Olson (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 210 pages
Publisher: Tordotcom
Release Date: July 19, 2016
ASIN: B01B1KPA5M
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Nightshades series
Source: Borrowed eBook from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Alex McKenna is the new Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the Bureau of Paranormal Investigations–the division tasked with investigating crimes involving shades.
Or vampires, as they’re more widely known.
Children have been going missing, and agents are routinely being slaughtered. It’s up to McKenna, and some unlikely allies, to get to the bottom of the problem, and find the kids before it’s too late.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in Nightshades trilogy. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.
Thoughts: Previous to reading this book I had read the first three books in Olson’s “Boundary Magic” series which I liked but I guess I never finished because I thought the third book was the last in the series (there are actually six book). I also read the first book in her “Disrupted Magic” series which I though was so-so (because I didn’t realize it was a continuation of the Scarlett Bernard series). I ran into this series when I was looking for novellas to read last year and was interested enough in the synopsis to keep it on my “to read” list. This was okay but I didn’t love it.
This is a book about an agent named Alex in the BPI ( Bureau of Paranormal Investigations) who asks to be transferred to Chicago after a bunch of teens go missing in the rural areas surrounding Chicago. He ends up joining forces with one of the shades/vampires to save the teens and figure out why this particular vampire group is so aggressive.
I really didn’t engage with the lead characters well, he is just like every other cookie-cutter paranormal official investigator you’ve read about in any other urban fantasy book. Nothing really made him unique or intriguing. I was a bit more interested in the vamp he joins forces with named Lindy. She obviously has an intriguing past that we don’t learn much about in this book.
The story is short and the investigation is pretty darn straightforward. I have a feeling there is some more interesting background around Lindy. There also seemed to be a bit of a slow burn romance developing between Alex and Lindy. There were some intriguing things that happened right at the end of the story.
This is very much a basic investigation/police procedural type of urban fantasy read and I found it to be a bit dry and simple. It was short and quick but there were a few elements that peaked my interest right at the end.
My Summary (3/5): Overall I was a bit disappointed in this. I just found it all so typical urban fantasy. The characters were fairly bland, the story was straight-forward and the setting wasn’t hugely unique either. There are a couple of intriguing elements around Lindy’s past and around vampire powers in general that pop in at the end, but I am not sure they are enough to make me want to continue this series.