A Taste of Crimson (Crimson City #2) is a 2005 supernatural romance thriller written by Marjorie M. Liu and published by Love Spell.  Set as the second installment in the Crimson City Series, the story follows a werewolf named Keeli and a vampire named Michael as the two investigate the deaths of six vampires while dealing with the bigotries of their species as the tension between werewolves and vampires rises.

The story is actually good and goes at a good enough pace to keep things flowing.  It’s like the paranormal version of Romeo and Juliet.  Love the tension building as the deaths of the vampires threaten the alliance between the species with make for some interesting moments.  There’s definitely a developing arc for both Keeli and Michael, which further proves that the narrative is character driven.   The plot does have a good bit of action and the climax was actually pretty good with a satisfying resolution.

However, I will say that it’s pretty predictable.  You know how the relationship is going to go for our main protagonists, characters you think are going to get caught up do, you figure out who’s doing the killing, those typical twists you see in a series like this are there.  It’s just predictable.  Enjoyable but predictable. (3 out of 5)

The main characters are Keeli Maddox and Michael.  Keeli is a werewolf with rage issues and Michael is the Vampire Assembly’s enforcer called the Vindex.  Keeli does grow as a character, becoming stronger and more mature as she takes her place as top dog. Keeli and Michael’s relationship progresses well enough, though it’s still pretty fast.  Didn’t really like Keeli’s position as the granddaughter of the Grand Dame Alpha. Also, I was a little confused as to why Keeli was against helping the police and all of a sudden change mind. It felt more impulsive than actual forward thinking.

Michael is this tortured loner with a dark past who’s hated and feared by everyone.  Despite him being a vampire he hates vampires as much as Keeli does.  It seems like all these main characters in the series have some position of authority or some high status.  Fleur Dumont is the leader of the vampires.  Tiberiu Korzha is a vampire criminal kingpin.  Xaio Fei is the last female Phoenix Tear with special elements in her blood.  You get the picture.  Still, he’s a surprisingly deep character. Kind of the brooding type, I wish he had more going in his life aside from kicking vampire ass.

I did like Jenkins, an officer of the CCPD, whose had dealings with Michael. He was a pretty likable and laid back character despite his position in the police force. I did like Celestine and wished there had been more warmth between her and Michael and not so much animosity. I feel the story would’ve benefited more from it. The supporting characters were okay.  (3 out of 5)

As far as the writing’s concerned it wasn’t bad.  Marjorie M. Liu is the author and though I know none of her other works really I can say I didn’t mind her writing it here.  I do feel that her writing is similar to Liz Maverick’s to the point I thought it was her writing. There are some elements that I wished could’ve been fleshed out a bit better.  The characters act more like their respective species rather than individual characters, so I felt the characterization was a little weak for a few of the characters. I did appreciate a lot of the thoughts we read concerning the two leads.

I’ve never particularly cared for the love at first sight or predestined attraction but it’s handled here well enough that it didn’t bother me.  Love the mystery aspect of the story where the werewolves are being set up.  Who’s setting them up?  It’s an interesting twists.  I would’ve appreciated a little info dumping as far as the werewolves are concerned.  I want to know why they’re in the position they’re in and what their role is with humans and vampires.  I did appreciate the story exploring a little of the politics of the truce between vampires and werewolves which further adds to the worldbuilding.  There’s violence, there’s  profanity, there’s elements of erotica which isn’t bad.  The romance is good, supernatural bits are grounded, action is abundant, and the suspense high with the writing fitting it well into the story. (4 out of 5)

The Verdict: In the end, A Taste of Crimson (Crimson City #2) is a good read.  If you’ve read any of the other books in the series, you’ll get those interesting setups.  Though there are some troupes that the series has which makes it predictable to a certain extent, it still features interesting characters, a good story, great worldbuilding, decent action, and good writing on Liu’s part. A Taste of Crimson (Crimson City #2) gets 3 out of 5.