Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Cronin’s Key II

SERIES: Cronin’s Key #2

AUTHOR: N.R. Walker

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 195 pages

BLURB:

History isn’t always what it seems.

With the battle of Egypt behind them, Alec and Cronin are enjoying the thrill of new love. Though fate doesn’t wait long before throwing them back into the world of weird.

They know Alec’s blood is special, though its true purpose still eludes them. And given Alec’s inability to be changed into a vampire, Cronin is free to drink from him at will. But the ramifications of drinking such powerful blood starts a ripple effect.

With the help of Jorge, a disturbing vampire-child with the gift of foresight, Alec and Cronin face a new kind of war. This time their investigations lead them to the borders of China and Mongolia—but it’s not what lies in the pits beneath that worries Alec.

It’s the creator behind it all.

In the underground depths of China, amidst a war with the Terracotta Army, they will find out just what the Key is, and what Alec means to the vampire world.

REVIEW:

**This review will contain spoilers from the first book, if you haven’t read it, you should probably stop now and go read it! Then read this one.**

Cronin is a vampire, he’s been waiting for his fated mate his whole “life”, certainly having adventures, but no lovers. He has two companions, Eiji and Jodis, who are a couple. The three have been together a very long time. Cronin is of Scottish decent, losing his human life on a battlefield long ago. He finally gets his mate, the human Alec, and they have a grand adventure in Cronin’s Key. The first book was a wild story involving vampires, Egyptian gods and goddesses, and modern law enforcement techniques brought by Alec, a former NYPD officer. It ended with Cronin and Alec tightly bonded, having massive amounts of hot sex, and Cronin feeding freely from Alec. They were all very concerned about this, in this world a bite leads to death or conversion. Alec needed to stay human till the end of the big drama, so biting was off the table. But he didn’t turn when he did finally get bitten! Oh yah, and he can’t/won’t become a vampire until a second “big thing” is ended.

So this book is about the second “big thing” that must be dealt with before Alec can become a vampire and have his happily ever after for eternity with Cronin. This time we get Chinese mythology, Ganghis Khan, and a Terracotta Army. The same crew is involved, Cronin and Alec, Eiji and Jodis, Jacques, and Eleanor, plus we get a spunky English vampire named Kennard, and a freaky child vampire named Jorge. Jorge is Bolivian vampire, very young and at first we think he’s pretty crazy. Not so much as we eventually find out, he plays a huge part at the end of the book as the shit hits the fan. Big plans are made, Alec is having some health issues that appear to be terminal, and they all go after the bad guy.

I will say this book is very similar to the first one. All of this research and planning takes place, then they all go off to fight a big battle underground. This time it’s in China instead of Egypt, but it follows a similar pattern. I didn’t have a problem with it though, it’s one hell of an exciting story with lots of action. I can see if there were five more books all following the same pattern it might get old, but I don’t think this author is good enough to not fall in to that trap. I am so happy to say I just found out there will be a third book, I already can’t wait for it!

I am a big fan of vampire books, and I go back and forth between liking ones that break a bit from the sort of standardized vampire mythology, and ones that hold firm to what we know. I think what it comes down to is the quality of the book. If you give me a fantastic story, and make the rules work, I’ll accept whatever you give me, and love it. Even if I’ve never seen it before. In a book that doesn’t sell me the new mythology, I don’t like it. Does that make sense? Probably not…. But what I’m getting at is N.R. Walker adds very nicely to the standard vampire routine. Her vampires have an additional talent or skill. Cronin is a leaper. He can take himself and others jumping around the world where ever he wants to go. Eiji sees DNA, and can look back in to a person’s family history. Jodis can freeze water, or people, who are made of water. Eleanor is a seer, inconsistent at times, as reality changes so fast, but it still helps. Vampires have all of the usually goodies, speed, sight, smell, etc. They kill when they feed, our good guys only killing bad guys. A bite leads to conversion, so they can’t feed from a mate if the mate is human and wants to stay that way. I liked all of that. It worked in this world very very well.

I loved everything about this book. I loved the characters, Alec is so modern and snarky, Cronin is so old and traditional. My favorite quote totally shows Alec’s general attitude:

“Yeah, it’s all fun and games,” Alec said with a snort, “until someone gets a stake to the heart.”

That had me laughing! It’s such an Alec comment. Cronin and crew seem so shocked by everything he does, amused and baffled.

I loved that Kole, Alec’s dad is involved in this story. Not in an active way, but he’s around, and never forgotten. His kitty too, although I did lose track of the kitty after a couple of home changes… I loved the additional characters, Jodis and Eiji are so wonderful and funny, complaining about the pheromones coming off Cronin and Alec.

We don’t see much of the bad guys though, this is more about the internal issues with Alec and Cronin, oh, and there is a bad thing going on. I don’t think that was a big deal, more an observation. I didn’t really get a sense of stress or concern that something bad was happening except how it affected Alec. The “bad thing” has to be dealt with so Alec can become a vampire, not because the world needs to be saved. That was ok though.

So yah, I fucking loved this book. This world, these characters, the sex, the story, every damn thing about it. I hate that it’s over, I would love to see what comes next!

Fans of the first book will love this one, if you haven’t read the first one you HAVE to get it!

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

ARe