|
Rhea wakes
up on a bus bound for Miami, minus six years' worth of
memories. A letter in her own handwriting explains that a
clan of vampires attacked her agency, her friends, and their
families. Forced to hunt them down and kill them, Rhea’s
chosen to delete the last six years of her life and start
over, far from New York.
Broken
bits of memories and new and frightening magical talents
haunt her, but it’s the chance encounter with a former
colleague, Peter, that leaves her wondering just where truth
and fiction part ways. When her new boss, angered at her
clumsiness, attempts to manhandle her, she strikes out,
scaring both herself and her now former boss, and she turns
to Peter for help.
Peter’s
not exactly a trustworthy friend. Six years ago, he was
kicked out of the Special Enforcer agency for failing to
stake the vampire with whom he was sleeping. Now using magic
and research, Peter finds treasure for a living. Rhea’s
magical skills would come in handy tracking down a
particularly lucrative sunken galleon - if only she had her
memories back…
Snapdragons was a difficult tale to read. Perhaps if
it’d been extended to a full novel’s length, and the large
chunk of flashback removed, the story’s flow would have
improved. Instead, the reader is left with a flawed heroine
(and I use that phrase loosely – basically, she’s mentally
unstable), and a hero who ends up breaking the hearts of two
women in less than fifty pages. Rhea’s inability to come to
grips with whom and what she is left a sour taste in my
mouth. Peter, who was worshipped from afar by Rhea, is a man
with his own selfish motives despite his later attempts at
redemption. The story’s ending leaves the reader
dissatisfied, and yearning to assassinate all the main
characters, a suitable finale for a tale with no concrete
beginning and a depressing handful of words for an ending. |