Title: To Walk The Night
Author: E.S. Moore
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Kat Redding #1
Number of Pages: 352
Publisher: Keningston
Source: Advanced Review copy from the publisher
Kat Redding is the very thing she hunts: a vampire, thirsting for blood, capable of killing any creature unlucky enough to get in her path. The difference is, Kat kills her own kind in order to protect human Purebloods. She’s good at what she does. Good enough to earn the nickname Lady Death—and the enmity of every bloodthirsty being around. But now a vampire Count is intent on merging his House with a werewolf cult to create a force of terrifying power.Kat can’t allow that to happen. Even if it means taking on a den of weres and a vampire more ruthless than any she’s encountered before. She has the weapons, the skill, and a few allies. But that may not be enough to eliminate the Count before her own dark nature rises to the surface—and costs her whatever is left of her humanity…(goodreads)
To Walk The Night was one of those books that I was super excited to read. In theory I should have loved this book. It had a tough and independent heroine who wasn't afraid to kick butt, however this turned out to be a did-not finish book for me. I had a super hard time connecting to the heroine, and the storyline didn't start to really happen until about halfway through the book.
I have discovered that one of the things that I love about Urban Fantasy books is also the same thing drives me crazy about it: world building. I don't understand why it sometimes takes the entire first book of the series to set up the world being created for future book. I feel like sometimes, as in this book that the actual story being told takes second place to set up story lines for future books.
What made me stop reading the book wasn't all the lack of action, but the choices Kat kept making. For instance she keeps getting into trouble, but a lot of times she causes it herself. She gets thrown out of a bar for fighting, when it was stated that no fighting is allowed to keep the peace from the different paranormal creatures that go to it. Once out of the bar she is almost attacked by a werewolf, but doesn't kill him because she thinks she can teach help him once she learns he is new. However, earlier in the book she kills someone just because he knew where she lived and was just delivering a message.
The action by Kat that made me stop reading though was when the one pureblood (humans that aren't werewolves or vampires) that Kat trusted her the most told her that he was summoning a demon to help him, she questions him, and tells him to stop. He says that he can't because bad things happen to him. Instead of questioning him further, she goes out to take on the vampire house she was hired to help take down. I just couldn't wrap my head around why this vampire who was so determined not to owe anyone anything or know things about her be ok with it because she was in a time crunch.
There was a lot of set up for the place that Kat hangs out (the bloody stake) and the people who go there. It's explained who is dangerous, who is not, why certain rules are in place, etc. and why Kat is who she is-a vampire who hunts other vampires and doesn't trust very many people. I realize that all of this is important, but the storyline stated in the blurb~doesn't even start until about 110 pages into the book. To an impatient reader like me, I found myself wanting the action to happen...and it doesn't until about 90 pages later. There is a love interest potential for future books, but I wish it had developed a bit sooner in this one. This book alsoeft me with this lingering question: Why is the weapon of choice for UF heroines always a Katana? Are there no other silver swords??
The problems I had with Kat were probably resolved at the end of the book, but by this time I found myself not really caring about what happened to the people involved in the story. This book also made me realize something that I've known for awhile now-I need at least a hint of romance in the book to keep me reading it.
While I did have a lot of issues with this book, one of the things I did like was that it showed the darker side of being a vampire. It wasn't romanticized, and we actually get to see Kat give in a little to her hunger. So often this part gets glossed over, and it was nice to see the heroine battling both sides of her nature-humanity and vampire. I always feel bad when I don't finish a book, but sometimes it just happens whether we want it to or not.
