Source: Purchased.Tall, Dark, & Lonely (Pyte/Sentinel #1) by R.L. Mathewson
When the mother that abandoned them years ago suddenly shows up and moves them to New Hampshire, Madison has no choice but to go or lose her family. Shoving her dreams aside yet again, she tries to make a life for her siblings only to discover that nothing is going the way that it should. It's really cold. Her fifteen year old sister acts like a hooker in training. Men act funny around her. Her boss is a real jerk. She feels like an outsider. Her best friend turns out to be a mouthy sixteen year old kid and the incredibly handsome guy renting the room adjoining hers not only hogs the bathroom, taking three showers a day and leaving her with cold water, but he also has a secret. A secret that she becomes a bit obsessed with and can't let go no matter how many times she's warned off.
Detective Ephraim Williams learned long ago not to show any emotion or allow himself to get attached to humans. What was the point? They came and went and he remained. This time wouldn't be any different or so he thought. When his landlady told him that her grandchildren were moving in he didn't expect much, well other than to be left alone. What he didn't expect was to have to fight bloodlust every time he so much as caught the scent of his delectable neighbor's blood or her bombarding him with questions every time she cornered him. If that's not bad enough, a Master from his past has found him once again and is demanding his blood and is willing to do anything to get it, even using the beautiful, irritating, neighbor that makes him feel more than pain for the first time in centuries to get it.
I'm a huge fan of R.L. Mathewson's Neighbor From Hell series -- it's so funny and the romances are great. So while I'm waiting for the next book in that series to drop, I figured it'd be a good idea to try another of R.L. Mathewson's series, Pyte/Sentinel. Unfortunately, the first book in the series, Tall, Dark, & Lonely, didn't click with me very well at all.
This is the first book in a paranormal series with vampires and whatnot. Normally, I'm a huge fan of vampires. But these ones...they were just so boring. I'm not entirely sure why, but they really did not intrigue me. Well, the Pyte didn't at least. The Sentinels sound like they could be fun -- but mostly because they have soulmates and I am ALWAYS here for that.
The heroine of this story is a girl named Madison, and I can't really tell you anything about her other than that she's a teacher. And stubborn. That's it. She didn't leave a lasting impression on me to like or dislike her. Instead, she simply bored me. Then there's Ephraim who is kind of cool. Definitely not the best hero I've read, but not the worst either.
Together, I liked these two well enough, but I don't feel like we got enough of them actually being together. We have a lot of Ephraim not wanting to be around Madison, and Madison mad at Ephraim, and then there's the big conflict of the novel. We don't really get the in between moments of things progressing for the couple.
And that brings me to the writing, which wasn't up to par with what I'm used to from an R.L. Mathewson book. I think this is due to the fact that this is one of her earlier books and she's clearly improved since then. That said, it's still notable that this book did not really draw me in. Actually, to be honest, I had to force my way through most of it. Things weren't all that interesting, and I feel like we missed a lot on the relationships front -- both in Madison and Ephraim's romantic relationship, and the familial relationships with the kids.
Oh, but! I almost forgot to mention. My favorite aspect of this book was Chris. I am a huge fan of him, and I would be interested in seeing where his story goes. He's a good, funny, cool guy. Okay, sidenote over. :)
Overall, I was so underwhelmed by this book. That said, I am considering picking up book 2 because it's a Sentinel book and they seem quite intriguing. But I'm not exactly jumping right to it -- we'll see when/if it happens. For now, though, I'd say Tall, Dark, & Lonely is a book you can skip if you're considering trying some R.L. Mathewson, but I do highly recommend her Neighbor From Hell series if you're in the mood for some contemporary romance that'll give you all kinds of laughs!
2 stars - Sadly underwhelming.
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