Review
“Sadly, things are not always as simple as one could wish.” - Viviana A Different Hunger fits squarely into the realm of Paranormal Romance, a sub-genre that is rapidly filling local book shops and leading a charge in new found interest in the dark genre. While Author Lila Richards may not have the same fame as Stephenie Meyers she certainly writes in a far superior manner, both in style and technically, to the infamous U.S scribbler. Perhaps the best comparison would be to a sort of modern day Jane Austin, assuming Jane had of been interested in writing vampire stories and also had a tendency to go beyond what would be considered acceptable in the polite company at the time she was writing. Amazingly Vampires are flavour of the month at the moment and Lila Richards has the why nailed in A Different Hunger. Lets crack the coffin lid and see what might be between the covers Rufus is a man about town who has picked the wrong woman to have a relationship with, she is married and her husband demands satisfaction. To avoid any stain on the family reputation his father packs him off to his Uncle's farm in the New Zealand colonies before the duel can go down. While the voyage south takes up the largest part of the novel Rufus entertains himself with falling for a mysterious woman named Serafina, much to the dissatisfaction of Serafina's chaperon Anton Springer. Naturally, since we all know how these things work out, Serafina and Anton are vampires and after Rufus comes down with a life threatening dose of pneumonia Serafina converts him to the undead ranks as well. If Rufus thinks this is the biggest challenge he is going to face in his new life Down Under he has yet to face the ancient horror of Viviana who threatens to tear apart his new found relationships. Author Richards for sure sexists it up high, there's a lot of horizontal action and bodice ripping going down, but she diverts from what one would expect to happen on this front in a vampire outing. Guess it's the whole PR thing without the need for half arsed vamps who sparkle during the day and present about as much danger as water logged hedgehogs. Humans hardly notice vampires, though there's plenty of talk about vampires having more to fear from humans than the reverse, and while feeding vampires have this ability to change human memory to avoid any unpleasant consequences. We're not exactly talking 30 Days of Night here, vampires are not the blood crazed psychopaths they are represented as in other novels. Where the sex comes in, much to the enjoyment of the book's largely female readership, is via Rufus and Serafina who spend more time in bed than out of it. If offended by a lot of sex in your reading then you may want to pick something else, and for heaven's sake don't leave this one where your maiden aunt can find it. So we aren't talking the dark Lord Byron type Vamp seduction of traditional undead novels, Richards amps the legends up a bit and throws out a lot of the traditional tropes. To a certain degree Lila Richards is still finding her voice as an Author, but if after a Paranormal Romance to read over a wet weekend you could do a hell of a lot worse. On the violence front, we're talking a PR novel here, it's pretty low key. Besides the final few chapters where there's a fair amount of sword play and bloodshed there's not a lot to write home about. Surprisingly this would probably be the most non-violent novel I've read since reviewing for the site. While Richards demonstrates she can write violence and action when required, this doesn't present the purpose of the novel. So if after a vampire novel with the local villagers getting mangled and vampires going down in blood spraying spiking then you are in the wrong place. Of course this isn't a requirement in PR, so the Author has her priorities happening in about the right order, lots more sex and lots less violence. While Nalini Singh probably demonstrates the violent end of the PR market Lila Richards represents the more traditional literary style that the Brits are generally associated with. New Zealand writers as a whole tend more towards the British model of writing prose than the U.S naturalist style. Technically the plot can be viewed as having three separate acts of variable length. Prior to Rufus embarking for New Zealand, surprisingly a few ideas and plot points dropped there, the actual voyage that is slightly too long in my opinion, and finally Rufus and friends living in the New Zealand colonial town of Auckland. I wasn't actually too sure when this novel was supposed to be set, but guess around 1870 would be close enough for rock and roll. Richards nails the period requirements and the language tone of the time while avoiding sectors of society she may be less comfortable writing about. As a historic novel you are in pretty good hands, though I would have liked a slight more serve of Gothic and lesser amounts of PR. Lila Richards writes in a solid style that doesn't throw up any technical issues or at any stage takes the reader out of the novel. At stages the writing is slightly over wrought, as most PR novels have a tendency to be, but not enough to slip into the category of melodrama. The pace is slow at stages, considering the book is only 166 pages in length that's a slight issue, but the target demographics are well catered for. While the book is not my cup of tea, hey male over here, I have no issues recommending it to readers who might want something a great deal better written than that Twilight pap. A Different Hunger is available to download in a number of formats from Bluewood Publishing and is well priced at $6.99.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... A solid PR vamp romp that needed some tightening.
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Disclaimer: Please note this review reflects the opinion of the team at ScaryMinds and should in no way be construed as
representing the views of the AHWA Shadows Award Judges. This review is for the edification of ScaryMinds readers and does not constitute a
“literary criticism” or any other criteria the Shadows Judging panel may take this year.