Beyond the Pale
Book One of the Darkwing Chronicles
By Savannah Russe

A completely unique and original plotline that sent shivers up and down my spine. Vampires are always portrayed as dark and sexy and are rarely working for the “good guys” so to speak. They play the villains or they are the protagonists, but they certainly aren’t working for the government. One notable exception to that little rule is Kim Harrison’s Ivy Tamwood; but then again she’s a runner (see bounty hunter/PI) and the government agency is corrupt and rife with politics so she joins up with a witch to make it on their own. So again, nothing like what I’ve seen before. Despite the semi-predictable love affair tossed into the story’s summary, the book really came off as new and refreshing. I couldn’t wait to curl up with it and start reading.

But the saying holds true, never judge a book by its cover. Despite the enticing promises that the story’s summary offers, and the captivating plot, the story falls short of its mark. Drastically short of its mark. I suppose that if you’re looking for a book with steamy sex-capades in it then this book is for you. However, I would recommend checking out the romance and erotica sections of your bookstore first before picking this book up. Certainly you’ll find books there that don’t have one dimensional characters who are just blatant attempts at bringing to life every stereotype imaginable. You’ll also probably find books by authors who can keep the story’s pace flowing and who know how to make their characters believable.

In all honesty I only kept reading this book so that I could see how it ended and so that I would know the entirety of the story when I wrote my review of it. Not even half-way into the book I just wanted to fling it out the window and let the dogs have it. I didn’t though, which is a good thing, since someone at one of the book swaps I’m a member of has requested it. Pity them.

The story’s plot concept was original yet the way the author chose to execute it made the book entirely hokey. You have the protagonist, Daphne Urban, former lover of Lord Byron (yes that Lord Byron), who hasn’t had a lover since then. Despite being heralded as a genius the character acts like an airhead, is flaky, and cannot seem to think on her own. Considering the fact that her friends call her “Daphy” this really shouldn’t be too much of a surprise actually. Now granted, book smarts does not equate street smarts, but for someone who is nearly five hundred years old, knows thirteen different languages, and has a genius-level IQ she seems rather dumb. There is never a hint of the character’s intelligence in any of the actions or thoughts she has throughout the entirety of the book. No book smarts and no street smarts. It makes you wonder how she possibly survived, and then you get introduced to her mother. Her mother has been the hand pulling the strings in many governments and monarchies throughout her life, and no surprise, she has a major influence in the present day US one as well. When you see how much of a continued presence the mother has in her daughter’s life you completely understand how Daphne survived this long. It’s also no surprise that the mother was behind Daphne’s “forced” recruitment.

Daphne is not the only vampire hired on by the government to form a top secret task force, of course, so let us take a look now at Daphne’s two team mates and supporting cast: Benjamina “Benny” Polycarp and Cormac O’Reilly. Benny Polycarp is a rather newly made vampire, and a character that would make any woman born in the South cringe in disgust of the appalling stereotyping of a Southerner. Said woman may also want to punch the author for the affront. Yes it’s that bad. The character is blonde, big breasted, empty headed, has a very thick southern accent (which is even accentuated by the author), not to mention just about every sentence out of Benny’s mouth ends with “honey”, “honey child”, “sugar”, or “darling”. Benny also has the appalling habit of using overly cliched phrases (I feel like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs) in every other sentence. Thank you Ms. Russe, for your appalling portrayal of women from the Southern United States, I’m sure we will never get tired of seeing these derogatory caricatures. Shall I now go on to make a horrendous caricature of a Yankee from Pennsylvania for you? Somehow I doubt you’d appreciate it.

If that wasn’t bad enough you have Cormac O’Reilly who is, unfortunately, the stereotypical flaming gay in the story, complete with flapping hand movements, Broadway dreams, and poorly timed comments about past lovers for shock value. If I didn’t know any better I’d say Ms. Russe sat down one day, spent all of her time coming up with a compelling plot idea and after jotting down some notes walked away only to return later with no idea of how to flesh it out. So instead of starting back from square one she just thought of every cliche and stereotype she could think of and started plopping them into the story. You have your ditzy air headed bimbo of a protagonist, despite her initial description contrasting this, with the flaming gay guy, and the ditzy bimbo Southern belle as her supporting cast. Even Daphne’s romantic interest is also obscenely stereotypical: he’s blond, tall, handsome, brooding, and self-involved. His only saving grace is that he is also bigoted and prejudice, but that’s not much of an improvement really.

As for the big bad guy they were supposed to nab, Bonaventure, well I’ve seen sticks with more life. Honestly his character description and portrayal was akin to reading a news recap. No life, nothing to make you drawn to the character and see him as real, let alone be able to dislike him. This was evident in all of Russe’s characters though, but in all honesty, it was more readily apparent in J, Mar-Mar, and Bonaventure. They were just names in the book, not people. Had they been offed you wouldn’t have cared in the least, they just weren’t real to the reader. Then there was the mission they undertook. They flubbed it up horribly but despite Bonaventure being a kingpin of crime somehow he was as much of a bumbling idiot as his pursuers since they did eventually prevail. Ah of course, clearly Russe got the memo that the good guys always win so despite her initial portrayal of Bonaventure she quickly altered his personality and character to allow Daphne and company to nab him. Note to self: if your story begins to take a different turn than you originally thought it would don’t work with it, just divert it back on track by any means necessary; this includes having characters act out of character and against their own makeup.

In short, if you want a read where the heroine not only meets her romantic interest but has slept with him by the third chapter than you might like this book. There is also an obvious tension between Daphne and her boss and since by the end of the book the relationship between Daphne and Darius is on the rocks you can expect things to heat up with the boss or another character in the next book. Beyond the Pale had a predictable turn of events, poor execution of a potentially riveting story concept, unoriginal and flat characters, horrible and atypical stereotypes, and not an once of character development left this reader wondering how the book ever made it to the publisher at all.

The only reason I’m willing to give this book even one star is because the plot concept was original, but even that’s pushing it considering the .

Joana’s Rating: (1 out of 5 stars)