Karen Chance lives in Orlando, FL, and other than that, the only thing I’ve gleaned from her website is that she taught English in Hong Kong for two years. She has written, so far, four novels in the Cassandra Palmer sequence; one in a new series starting shortly about an entirely insane dhampir; and several novellas featured in different anthologies. Her website is rather entertaining, all things considered; a re-read lets me know that she has an advanced degree in history. I just wanted to know a few simple things about her, like where she went to school, but apparently that is not knowledge I am permitted to know.

Cassandra Palmer is a clairvoyant who’s been targeted by some vampire hitmen; she’s been on the run from the vampire controlling these hitmen since she was fourteen. Before that she was, well, basically owned by that vampire (Tony); now she’s in trouble that’s even spanning different times. The vampire Senate has come after her, ostensibly to help her; the mage Councils want to find out if she’s a threat; and she’s gaining powers and enemies left and right. To top it all off, her visions (in which she sees things that either happened in the past or are likely to happen in the near future) are getting worse in so many ways. Can she survive?

The pacing of this book is a little odd. It starts out in a rush, but goes through some weird lulls and what felt like strangely-placed peaks before getting to the final climactic scene. It wasn’t bad, per se; reflecting on it, though, it wasn’t exactly as smooth as it could have been. I also wasn’t that fond of the opening rush; we weren’t told sufficient information about Cassandra until probably 30-50 pages into the book, and I always want to know what my characters look like. And, for that matter, what their names are. Yes, obviously her name is on the cover and the back of the book, but I shouldn’t have to depend on that.

One great thing about this book was all the name-dropping. Many of the most famous people in history were apparently turned into vampires, and a lot of them show up in this book. They range from Dracula’s brothers to Jack the Ripper to Christopher Marlowe. I was almost surprised not to see Elvis in the book, and then I realized that had already been done by a different series of vampire novels. Anyway, most of the really famous characters were off-stage so there wasn’t a severe amount of character assassination going on. Kit Marlowe, to boot, has been a character in so many fiction novels that I’ll accept nearly anything about his character.

Overall, there wasn’t really that much new about vampires in the book, but I did like what she did with them. I wish Cassandra had had more of a fixed personality, but the characters around her made up for that. Although I can clearly see the flaws in the book, I liked Ms. Chance’s world and the formulation of her society. I don’t know why, but they didn’t seem to bother me nearly as much while I was reading it. It’s not as good as Patricia Briggs’s books, but fans of Laurell K. Hamilton, Kelley Armstrong, and presumably most other vampire novels will find it an enjoyable, if not particularly brilliant, read. I actually think I’ll read the second book, despite my low rating. 3/5 stars.