Title: Infected: Prey
Series: Infected, Book 1
Author: Andrea Speed
Genre: Paranormal Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Mild
Source: review copy from publisher
Published: June 2010 by Dreamspinner Press
In a world where a werecat virus has changed society, Roan McKichan, a born infected and ex-cop, works as a private detective trying to solve crimes involving other infecteds. The murder of a former cop draws Roan into an odd case where an unidentifiable species of cat appears to be showing an unusual level of intelligence. He juggles that with trying to find a missing teenage boy, who, unbeknownst to his parents, was cat obsessed. And when someone is brutally murdering infecteds, Eli Winters, leader of the Church of the Divine Transformation, hires Roan to find the killer before he closes in on Eli. Working the crimes will lead Roan through a maze of hate, personal grudges, and mortal danger. With help from his tiger-strain infected partner, Paris Lehane, he does his best to survive in a world that hates and fears their kind] and occasionally worships them.Reviewed By: J9
In a Nutshell: Awesome characters and world building but one of the most miserly romances I’ve ever read.
The Set Up: Private detective Roan is born infected by the werecat virus, unlike his boyfriend who was infected by the werecat virus. Their latest case involves a potential werecat killer and a missing teenager but with the world hating infected people or oddly worshipping them, Roan and Paris have their work cut out for them.
Why I Read this Book: This series is on a lot of Goodreads lists as one of the best MM romance series so I had to try it out.
What I Liked: Both Roan and Paris are compelling characters with strong personalities. I love Roan’s cynical and pessimistic attitude but how he’s a softie for Paris. Paris is a charismatic player but one who hit rock bottom with his infection. Paris and Roan are already a committed couple at the novel’s beginning and this felt like a miss as readers can’t see how the men came together except through very brief memories.
What I Also Liked: I love the descriptive and humorous writing of this novel. The world is a parallel world to ours so the cultural references are identical with the only difference being the werecat virus that people are either born with or infected by others through sexual congress. The humor is snarky which is my favorite kind. For instance Roan says, “normally he had little trouble bullshitting about anything—he liked to think that was part of the job of being a detective—but those people he hated in a reflexive, belligerent sort of way, kind of like Fox News commentators or televangelists.” I do admit that some of the cultural references are dated, like Roan tracing the missing teen’s friends through his MySpace account, but it was all done so well I still loved it.
I also like the mystery plot of the serial killer infected as this as an old Hollywood film noir feel to it. How this intersects with Roan’s case of the missing teenager is really good as well. The plot kept my attention and I think it will for other readers as well.
What I Didn’t Like: The romance. I wanted to love this book but the romance was a total dud. There was no romantic tension between Roan and Paris as they’re already a committed couple at novel’s beginning and there really isn’t any deepening of the emotional bonds. The end throws in a sudden event but it wasn’t based in emotional development in my opinion. This may have been okay if there was sexual intensity but there wasn’t at all. The sex is totally behind closed doors and that ain’t gonna cut it for this dirty girl.
IMO: This is a great plot and world building but not even a mediocre romance. Maybe I’m in the minority but I won’t be finishing this series.
J9’s Rating:
Yeah, I must admit I wouldn't be the first to list my book as a romance, because that's not even theme three or four, but later books do have it a bit more prominently featured. Thank you for checking it out anyways.
ReplyDeleteGreat world building here though!
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