Dating the Undead had a premise I was excited about: a dating website for vampires. That sounds pretty cool, right? And I’m always trying to find romances that do something new with the paranormal romance genre. However, as fun as watching ancient beings attempt to use modern technology to date sounds, that’s not what I got. What I got was disappointment and a bad case of agita.
Silver Harris is the heroine and she’s having a pretty shitty New Year’s Eve. She’s at a party where she knows absolutely no one and her date was just caught kissing another woman. She leaves and runs into Logan Byrne, a stunningly handsome Irish vampire. They share a NYE kiss, but that’s it.
Silver can’t stop thinking about the vampire, so she joins V-Date—a dating site specializing in vampires—to 1) try and find him again and 2) see if the miraculous kiss she shared is a common thing with vamps or just with her mystery guy. She’s soon recruited by some shady government dudes to use her dating acumen to get more info on the vampire race. People know of them in a general sense, but the vampires are secretive about the ins and outs of their society. In exchange, the government dudes offer to get more information about the murder of Silver’s mother.
While Silver is being recruited, Logan is as well. He owes a debt to a stronger, older vamp who saved him. His name is Ronin and he wants Logan to track down specific human V-Date users and wipe their memories to protect vampire secrets. Of course, the first human Logan is tasked with giving the ol’ Men in Black treatment to is Silver.
And that’s basically how this all kicks off.
I was really excited about the prospect of modern dating. The heroine isn’t a virgin. She’s brash and open with her dating and sexual experience. That’s something I want more of in my romances, but part of Silver’s sexually liberated portrayal quickly soured. It seemed that every other woman in the book wasn’t allowed to be as confident, lest they be labeled negatively. Background women hoping to get freaky with a vamp at bars were seen as desperate and “throwing themselves” at the men.
In fact, all of the other women, save for Silver’s neighbor, are viewed negatively by the heroine. The woman who kisses her date on NYE is called a “Euro trash skank.” Silver’s boss is a “bitch.” Silver hates her best friend’s girlfriend because she’s uptight. Logan’s previous sexual partner is a woman named Colette and he swears to Silver that he never even liked her, and she’s seen as possessive and jealous. The only female vampire in the entire book is the villain, who is just straight up evil. There aren’t any mentions, so far, of women vamps on V-Date either.
Silver even has a wicked stepmom:
Ollie is referring to the fiasco of last Christmas when Dad and my stepmother, Sheila, decided we should do a secret Santa. A marvelous idea you might think – but somehow Sheila forgot to add my name to the little bag, so no one got me. I was giftless. I’m pretty sure she planned it.
Plus her disapproval of her friend Ollie’s girlfriend is thin at best:
“Stop being such a killjoy. You’re spending way too much time with Krista.”
A prickly silence drops over us like a cloak. My dislike for his current girlfriend is a sticky subject, to say the least. I mean, it’s not like I hate her or anything – she just bugs the hell out of me. Twenty-five going on eighty, with a soul-sucking job in banking, Krista is a girl who has become old before her time. She has a pension plan, for heaven’s sake. I know this because she made Ollie get one too.
What’s wrong with being fiscally responsible and planning for the future? And how about you be a good friend and support your friend’s relationship if he seems happy?
I have a pretty low tolerance for romances where the heroine is the only “good” woman in the entire story. I think women in general should try to surround themselves with other women. I have a monthly standing dinner date with all of my girlfriends and I always leave them feeling stunned by my friends’ ability to kick major ass at work and life in general. To me, there’s no excuse for the “not like other girls” trope because women are varied and so incredibly different. There’s nothing wrong with “other girls” and if a woman has that much dislike for other women, it’s hard to sympathize with her, especially as the leading lady in a romance novel.
Also, Silver seems experienced regarding modern dating, so to see her freaking out after Logan cancels an upcoming date felt out of character. They’d gone out before, had a good time, and have had some hot sex by that point. Relax. For someone used to having unattached and sometimes casual experiences, this reaction felt out of place in terms of her prior characterization.
Logan also describes himself as an “Irish gypsy” when talking about his pre-vamp life. Now, I’m not knowledgeable enough here to debate the term and the history of its usage. I do know that it’s often used as a derogatory slur for the Romani people. It’s mainly used, in this instance, as a way for the hero to self-identify, but I’m not totally comfortable with the term and I wanted to let readers know it’s in there.
The take on the classic vampire mythology is interesting, I will say. When a person is turned, it enhances the abilities the person already possesses. If they’re smart, they’ll be even smarter. Or, if they’re a murderous creep, the need to murder and/or be creepy will only intensify.
This book is one of those reads where I thought I was getting one thing and it turned out to be completely different. Sometimes, that can be a nice surprise. But in this case, it was a major letdown, especially in terms of slut shaming and inconsistent characterization.
A few other things to mention: there’s an epilogue, which seemed out of left field, and there are a couple WTF descriptions, such as “creamy postcoital body” and “milky body.” So maybe take some Lactaid before reading this one.
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I wonder if there are any romances where the hero constantly puts down other men to show how much better than them he is.
Or do heroes in general have enough self-confidence that this isn’t necessary?
Ugh – I hate that sort of “heroine” too, and unfortunately there are a lot of them. Strange that so many female romance authors (or at least authors that use feminine pen-names) are so misogynistic 🙁
Marian Perera — I feel like I’ve read a few romance novels like that, but it generally revolves around the hero’s jealousy that the heroine is so much as talking with another man. The hero then mentally lists all the ways in which the other man sucks (regardless of whether he knows said other man, or has even seen that other man before), and then storms over to the heroine to make sure nobody’s muscling in on “his” woman.
The most recent one I read was a contemporary set in Paris, though I don’t remember the name; I try to avoid books like that, in general. It does come across as a lack of confidence in the hero, but specifically a lack of confidence in his idea that the heroine is an object that he has the right to possess, instead of her being a fully-functional adult human being. So of course he has to cut off her ability to chat even casually with other men, lest he be proven wrong in his belief that she’s an object.
This sounds really terrible.
BUT the “Irish gypsy” thing is (at least potentially) legitimate:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Travellers
They’re a distinctive Irish migrant minority who have been around at least long enough to be genetically distinct from settled Irishmen (but their genome is also definitely Irish, not Romany). They also have their own language.
@Anonymous: Thank you! I wasn’t sure if they were connected and if one group felt more comfortable with the term than the other. It wasn’t necessarily explained in the book, so someone with limited knowledge (i.e. myself) clearly didn’t know the difference.
I read this one and agree with your thoughts 100%. I found Silver to be somewhat of a biatch, too. Glad I’m not the leader of the unpopular opinion crew on this one!
Egads, this sounds thoroughly disagreeable. Hard pass.
I never support slut shaming or overall female negativity.
As @Anonymous said, the Travellers are a distinct ethnic group in Ireland. They have a history of being seriously discriminated against, and are often still viewed with distrust and prejudice. I’d be wary of anyone who described himself as one and cheerfully glossed over any larger issues.
Unless he’s Johnny Depp in Chocolat, it’s probably not a great idea to throw the term “gypsy” around without context. It’s loaded enough that it shouldn’t be addressed casually.
Speaking of loaded terms, I would love to erase the word “skank” from the dictionary. It’s right up there on my top five most-hated ways to describe women. I would’ve closed the book right there, and I definitely wouldn’t root for any heroine who used it.
Building on what Rose and Anonymous said, I’ve known several Travellers, and that’s how they refer to themselves. Not as gypsies, unless they’re tired of trying to explain to someone who just doesn’t get it.
If the paranormal + online dating service aspect appeals, I’ve enjoyed Jessica Sims’ Midnight Liasons series, which centers around a dating agency that matches paranormals up to other paranormals. The second one, “Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter,” is the stand out in the series IMO, and also features a virgin werebear hero + fake relationship, which is basically my catnip. The heroes in this series are alphas but not alphaholes, which is also a plus in my book. (Trigger warnings to allusions to a past abusive relationship.)
Ugh. Add me to the group of readers who are tired of women shaming other women for the sake of making the heroine more appealing. In short, it doesn’t work. Giving this book a hard pass. @Amanda, thank you for reviewing this!
GAH. THIS. BOOK. I couldn’t get past the first chapter so kudos to you, Amanda! The “euro trash” comment raised my eyebrows while reading…and then it was followed by the heroine stealing someone else’s coat from the coat room. I mean, wtf?! She did it on purpose because a) it was Chanel/nicer than her coat and b) she felt it was her due after having a crappy evening. This pissed me off. Seriously?! I’m sure the person missing a coat will also be having a crappy evening, thanks to this lady.
I tried to move on, hoping the heroine could redeem herself, but the third strike had something to do with a comment that made light of being assaulted for one’s hotness. NOPE.
I’m sad to see Katie McAlister endorsed this book…she doesn’t have this kind of stuff in her writing, does she?
@Mara: That series sounds really interesting! I added the first book to my TBR pile on Goodreads.
decided we should do a secret Santa … but somehow Sheila forgot to add my name to the little bag, so no one got me
Uhm … How, exactly, does this work? I thought Secret Santa givers and givees were the identical pool of people, so if one name is left out, the last person will have no name to draw. Did The Evil Sheila put in two slips with her own name so the draw would come out even? Now that’s evil. In a sad, petty sort of way. The alternative is for her to just pretend to draw a name when everyone else does. I can’t decide which is meaner–to get double gifts, or to give none.
I am probably over-thinking this.
” I have a monthly standing dinner date with all of my girlfriends and I always leave them feeling stunned by my friends’ ability to kick major ass at work and life in general.”
This. I am so in awe of my brilliant, ass-kicking female friends and it breaks my heart to read books in which all women other than the heroine are bitches or trash.
@Amanda– I hope you enjoy it! It’s a series with a nice blend of the silly with some good external conflict, which is what I like in PNR
@Louise – I got kind of hung up on the Secret Santa thing also. They don’t work that way.
Adding my voice to the not being comfortable with the whole women shaming women stuff – this sounds like a hard pass to me. Also, as an erotica writer (and a human being), “creamy post-coital body” is a GOOD GAWD NOPE WHY WOUlD DO.
Le Sigh. I would love more books with well written irish travellers in. There was a community near where I grew up, and the glimpses we got of the culture (including a town-shutting funeral, a star crossed lovers wedding, and defending my sister’s boss from a local criminal family) made me want to read more set in that community by someone from within it, rather than the usual stereotypes you get in the tabloids.