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Shades Of Sepia (2014)

by Anne Barwell(Favorite Author)

3.45 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1627985425 (ISBN13: 9781627985420)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Dreamspinner Press

series

The Sleepless City

review 1: While I didn't find either of these books (the sequel to this, "Electric Candle," by Elizabeth Noble) compelling in their writing, I love the premise and the paranormal-as-normal world these two women create for their "Sleepless City" series. "Shades of Sepia" is nicely written and well plotted---don't feel that I'm complaining. I just wasn't as caught up in the narrative as I would have liked to have been. It is a very creative and interesting world Barwell has made. My personal fondness for paranormals coping in the modern world with all their baggage, historical and emotional, was most gratified by this novel. In particular, Simon Hawthorne, the gentle, courtly college professor right out of a victorian novel--is charmingly out of place in small-city middle America. Hi... mores flirtatious house-mate and city coroner Lucas Coate, is the archetypal American party boy--except that he's gay and a werewolf. Jonas Forge, who gets a fuller treatment in the second book, is the hard-bitten detective--except that he's been in America since the 18th century and has a gentle heart that he hides under his gruff vampire cop exterior. And then there's Boggs, ghostly retainer, who shares in the lives of these marginalized men and in them has found a family suitable to his personality and the eccentric mansion he built. I do hope Boggs gets more page time in future books--but I'm not sure what sort of romance a ghost can have! Finally, the wild card, there's Ben, innocent and very much human. He's the New Zealander on his OE (overseas experience, which is a thing, I've met many young folk from NZ and Australia on their year away)...who finds himself on the shores of Lake Erie rather than in the usual hangouts for young Kiwis abroad (NY, LA, San Francisco). What at first seems like coincidence turns out to be something rather more, making for one of my favorite points in the carefully spun tale of love and murder.This series, to me, would make such a fun television series along the lines of "Being Human," but for the fact that the characters succeed in blending in without killing people, and of course, they're all gay. That would never do in mainstream TV, alas. So we'll have to rely on Barwell and Noble to keep our fantasies going.
review 2: I love vampires stories, and especially gay vampire stories. I was easily drawn into this one - loved the characters, the plot, and the sex. Just a minor thing that didn't really work for me was the quick and seemingly easy 'ending' to one of the characters. I don't like spoilers so won't say more. Other than that, I loved this story.I have the next book in the series although it's by a different author; I look forward to reading it soon. less

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