You Know Me As Lad

I loved Finn so I was psyched when I came across A Different Breed. I'm kind of soured on vamp books right now but this is Angel Martinez so the book could have been about a bloodsucking garden gnome and I would have bought it.

The way we meet Josh and Richard is cute. A vampire hunter stalking a vampire looking through gay fantasy novels. Josh is flummoxed by a vampire who loves a good gay fantasy but our man Josh is still all "I will END you!" when it comes to any vampire. It doesn't matter if the bloodsucker's taste in literature is excellent.

So Josh, who's been trained and is now like a samurai-ninja-pirate-death-and-gravity-defying warrior, tracks Richard while Richard, blissfully ignorant, does very non-sociopathic things. Things like waving to shop owners, reading on a park bench and strolling through the woods. Basically, Josh is hunting the vampire version of Mr.Rogers. I was loving it.

We've got Josh who serial kills vampires and Richard who's a bit of a gentle soul. I liked that it's the hunter whose actions, while you sympathize with him on some level, are the most vicious and cold hearted.

It's near the very beginning that the story lost the fourth star for me. Josh is drinking his Hate-orade until he wakes up, has a conversation with Richard and sees that Richard is at the very least someone who wishes harm on no one else. It's like someone flips the switch in Josh and he goes from "Kill those bastards" to "let me rub off on you like a cat in heat". It was jarring for me.

Fortunately I had nothing to fear because other than that 180, Josh's actions are all plausible as are Richard's. Even though they get sexy early on, Josh still doubts things. He's still uncomfortable, for most of the book, with the emotional intimacy of his relationship with Richard. It takes an intense situation and near-death to wake Josh up.

Richard is steady throughout the book; somehow managing to be strong, intimidating and gentle all at once. His love for Josh, even when he believes that Josh thinks the worst of him, made Richard a beautiful character.

Last but not least is the fact that Angel Martinez can do intense action scenes like nobody's business. Richard's anger near the end of the book, and the strength it gives him to fight was awesome. Just goes to show you that there doesn't need to be blazing guns and buildings exploding to make action intense.

This book was a fresh take on...everything. Yeah, I gave it three stars but I still loved it.