Cameron Dean’s Vampires
This one is getting play on quite a few blogs…and not for great writing. I blame Sybil for my obsession with the book and author. She mentioned Cameron Dean. I hadn’t heard of Dean or her books. Me being me, I got curious. First, I went searching on google. Not much personal info on Dean. No website that I could find other than general book info on the Random House site. And, frankly, the publisher’s site doesn’t say much at all. I’m guessing the name is a pseudonym, but what do I know. Now, the copyright page does reference Parachute Publishing LLC. Of course, I checked that out too and found this information. Frankly, that only created more mystery. After all that looking, I have no idea who Dean is or that much more about Parachute Publishing.
After all this, when I saw Cameron Dean’s books in the bookstore recently, I had no choice but to pick them up and take a look. I bought the first one, Passionate Thirst, and added it to my stack even though I had planned a bit of a vampire moratorium and even though I found the whole Dean thing confusing. After buying, I checked out some reviews. And, really, in the future I need to switch the order in which I buy books versus read reviews about them. As an example, Dear Author gave Passionate Thirsta B- and said, “The funny thing is that I read this book in one sitting but when I sat down to write the review, I realized how poorly plotted, weak in characterization, and derivative it was. So how to grade it? I guess a B-. If a reader is jonesing for another vampire read, like LKH, and doesn’t want romance, this isn’t a bad way to spend your time.” Remind me to ask Ja(y)ne why this got a B- since that comment sounds more like a C-. Then the ladies at Dear Author chatted about Dean some more yesterday…again, this was after I bought the book and put it on my TBR pile. Clearly I need to email the Ja(y)nes before I buy more books.
In case you’re wondering, the books are Passionate Thirst, Luscious Craving and Eternal Hunger:
And… SPOILER (ie, stop reading if you don’t want to know about the series:
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
There is a bit of scandal associated with this series. Apparently, and I’m going by the RT message board comments here, Dean has the heroine kill off the hero in the third book in the series. As you can imagine, dedicated romance fans who followed the relationship were…well, let’s just say they were not pleased. Actually, they were pissed.
Despite all that, this is on my TBR pile. I just have to see for myself.
January 10th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Okay, if the copyright is held by a book packager (like Alloy who copyrighted the Opal Mehta book, yes?) what does that mean? Was this something conceived in house and written pseudononymously by an author who ghost writes under such circumstances? I mean, from the Parachute site, they look like a book packager . . . . stranger and stranger, eh?
January 10th, 2007 at 6:58 am
I am pretty bad at grading. I kind of wish we didn’t grade. All I can say is that I did read it in one setting and didn’t notice the flaws until I wrote the review. Then it seemed majorly flawed.
The second book was a real struggle for me to get through.
The books are copyrighted for both Dean and Parachute Publishing. Since I saw the PP copyright and did some googling, I have thought that it was ghost written. Sybil says it is ghost written by an Avon historical author who hates paranormals and wants readers to turn away from the paranormal back to the historical. (She’s kidding of course). But I do have to wonder at the anonymity of the author on the internet. It’s like a black hole of information. Wouldn’t an author of a fairly successful debut release be all over the promotion of this series or at least be proud of the sales?
Is it wrong for me to speculate about this because . . . well, I have some thoughts.
January 10th, 2007 at 8:10 am
I am liking the idea that is it THE BORG. Just to prove Nora Roberts wrong that some authors… are the borg.
And three different authors (all historical who hate paranomal of course) wrote them.
[to a bartender, while drinking]
Mulder: I’m the key figure in an ongoing government charade, the plot to conceal the truth about the existence of extraterrestrials. It’s a global conspiracy, actually, with key players in the highest levels of power, that reaches down into the lives of every man, woman, and child on this planet, so, of course, no one believes me. I’m an annoyance to my superiors, a joke to my peers. They call me Spooky. Spooky Mulder, whose sister was abducted by aliens when he was just a kid and who now chases after little green men with a badge and a gun, shouting to the heavens or to anyone who will listen that the fix is in, that the sky is falling and when it hits it’s gonna be the shit-storm of all time.
January 10th, 2007 at 10:18 am
I picked up the first book, but I doubt I read past it now that I know how the series ends. :/
January 10th, 2007 at 11:11 am
The whole thing is a bit odd. Book packaging, an author without any backstory or information anywhere on the web - yeah, odd. I’m willing to give some credence to Sybil’s theory. Well, at least to a theory that Cameron Dean is the pseudonym of a writer we all already know. The historical romance writer on an anti-paranormal bent is a funny thought though.
Jane - I’m with you on the grading issue. We used to give grades at PBR. I found the process very upsetting. I’d think XX book is a B. Then later I’d write the review and wonder why I liked the book at all, or I would see another book I gave a B and decide the books weren’t equal.
Now, why I questioned your grade on this one is that it seemed out of place. You guys somehow manage to be pretty consistent with your grades. I see a C from you and know why you gave it a C. Many times I read your review first and then guess what you gave it in light of what you said about it. Usually, my guess is pretty close, which is a testament to how well you guys do this. This review was the first time I read and guessed and was pretty far off.
Jordan - I had the same reaction when I found out the eventually ending to the series. But, I decided to go ahead and read this one. I can’t help myself. Want to see what’s happening here.
January 10th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
I got the ebook of the first book when it came out and only got maybe halfway through as I just did not like the writing and characters and plot. But because I didn’t finish it and was more bored by it than anything, I never said anything about it on my blog.
January 10th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I’m not partial to vampire storyline. But the fact that we know the ending and the heroine kills the hero is not right - If I liked vampire storylines, I wouldn’t read the book.
March 1st, 2007 at 1:43 am
i’m so piss!i just read eternal hunger. and i’m so mad that Ash dieds.the writer needs to write a new book and fix this. it’s not right!!!!!!!!! they could write as Ash is a ghost or a god. but they got to bring him back. it’s just not right!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 27th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
WHO ARE PARACHUTE? WHO IS THIS ELAINE ROTH CHARCATER? DOES ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THEM????????????????????????????????????????
March 27th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I’m so freakin pissed about how Eternal Hunger ended. It had such a crappy ending!!!. It didn’t make sense at all when the herione killed the hero herself. It was such a bad vampire novel, because the characters, the plotline and all sucked!!. This author better re-write the novel and bring the hero back!!!