A Taste of Crimson

Set in a gritty, futuristic Los Angeles inhabited by werewolves, vampires, demons and fearful humans, this follow-up to Liz Maverick's Crimson City, the first book in Love Spell's Crimson City series, delivers a high-tension plot and protagonists so appealing that you might be tempted to invite them over for dinner-despite one being a werewolf and the other a vampire. There's no love lost between the hardscrabbling werewolves and the haughty, affluent vampires, but the two factions soon find themselves joining forces to stave off a possible human attack. All could be derailed, however, by a murderer, apparently a werewolf, who has taken to eating vampires. It's up to Michael, an outcast vampire who metes out justice among his own kind, and Keeli Maddox, the granddaughter of a powerful werewolf clan leader, to keep the peace, but their unexpected attraction may undermine everything. Liu (Tiger Eye) has a knack for making far-fetched circumstances seem feasible, and she draws characters with such precision-down to their dialect and mannerisms-that they practically step off the page. The too tidy conclusion may disappoint, but the fireworks between Keeli and Michael won't.