INTO THE NIGHT by Suzanne Rigdon

Rating: C
Synopsis:
When Selina Baker, a coordinator for a Boston non-profit, goes out on the town with her friend Jess, she never expects to meet the man of her dreams. And she certainly never expects him to be undead.


When things go from flirty to majorly flawed on her first date with James Lawton, he is forced to save her the only way he can--by killing her. Selina suddenly finds herself in the mix with the creatures she thought were made up solely for late-night TV. Into the Night follows Selina’s transformation from a wallflower into an impulsive and dangerous new vampire. With no choice in the matter, Selina becomes trapped between a new man, his wary brothers, and his cruel and controlling Queen, who wants nothing more than to watch her suffer. Selina must walk the fine line between adjusting to her new powers, life after death, and following the rules--all while avoiding disaster.

My thoughts on the book:
Into the Night was a decent urban fantasy offering, but it didn't really stand out. The characterization wasn't spectacular. None of the characters was really easy to relate to for some reason. The plot was a bit confused at times, and some of the occurrences were simply impossible, even in fantasy. The pacing was a bit slow in places, and the ending was a bit of a cliffhanger. The romance was lukewarm at best. I'm not sure if I'll continue this series or not.

I liked that Selina wasn't simply another detective or investigator of some sort because that is way too prevalent in the urban fantasy genre, and she was a likable enough character, albeit boring. All of the characters were kind of shallow. I mean they were fine, but they didn't grab me. No one's emotions made sense to me, and I couldn't relate to any of the characters. I just couldn't make myself get 100% invested in what happened to any of them. Even when something tragic happened to one of the characters, I was unmoved. Selina also annoyed me a lot. She was impulsive, and her emotions didn't really fit any normal pattern. She just didn't seem to feel enough, if that makes sense.

The plot also had quite a few rough spots. Some of the things that happened were simply unbelievable - like the how Selina turned into a vampire. If James was a vampire and really fast, why did he just stand there gawking when she got stabbed? Also, how did he manage to kill those two people violently, in front of witnesses, and have nothing happen to him? I know this is fiction and vampires existing at all isn't realistic, but I wasn't able to attain a willing suspension of disbelief because of that. For the life of me, I couldn't understand how these dead bodies kept piling up and no one did anything about it. None of the vampires was very good at hiding his prey, so how did no one end up in jail? That distracted me a lot. Also, the world-building was unclear. Nothing was ever fully explained. It felt as if the author herself wasn't sure what the world entailed. On top of that, Selina's and James' romance wasn't really believable. It also wasn't exactly steamy. It bored me, to be honest. There was no chemistry at all between the two of them. I just didn't buy it. The writing was mediocre, and the pacing was off. Also, the falling action lasted too long and ended in a cliffhanger. I really didn't care if it was a cliffhanger or not because I don't really care what happens to any of the characters since I couldn't connect with any of them.

Overall, I'd say check this one out from the library before buying. The premise is a good one, and the novel itself isn't offensively awful or anything, but it's nothing that will blew me away, either. The problems mentioned above really bugged me throughout the course of the book, but I was interested enough to finish it, so that has to mean something, right? And I wasn't irritated at the book when I got done, so that's a good sign. I'm just not very excited about this one. At least it was something a bit different.

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