Nothin' But Trouble (Echoes of Ossiria, #1) by Vivan Lane

 Final Rating: 3/5 Stars

Pages: 122

Edition: Kindle

Time Read: 10.13.14 - 10.13.14

Summary:  
"Trouble—that’s what Catherine was from the day William laid eyes on her. He didn’t get involved with clients, and after his sire broke his heart and abandoned him, women were of little interest beyond sating his occasional lust. But when a college girl is dumped in his lap, he soon discovers an irresistible temptation he only has six weeks to explore."

Review:
This book... was not terrible.

If you've ever seen the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you are going to have one heck of a time reading this book. The ENTIRETY of it felt like a Buffy fanfiction, complete with even the names.  Tallis, who calls himself LIAM (Angelus' human name) when he meets Catherine, is an Angelus clone. His personality is the exact same.  Celia, parallel to Drusilla, was William's (Spike in the show)sire, who ended up going crazy because of Tallis. Sounds familiar, huh? It gets better.  William had gruesome conquests up until Drusilla- oops, I meant Celia, left him, after which he was heart broken and decided to settle down and start a business with Alicia (Anya in the show), who is a GENIE. She's greedy for all the cash she can get.  However, Catherine, the heroine of the story, really isn't like Buffy until halfway through the story, when she suddenly gains the confidence to backtalk with a guy who could kill her right there if he wanted to. Sounds very Buffy-esque, right?  PLUS, William is majorly british, and uses terms like: bloody, wanker, and the most Buffy of all: PET.  He starts to call Catherine PET.  Daaang.

The dialogue at times was witty and cute, mostly towards the middle/end.  The writing was average.  I had a major problem with the constant PoV switches between William and 3rd person; they really weren't necessary and didn't add much to the story. At times they just confused me.

The world building was less than average. Why does there need to be a house/school devoted to making prostitutes? What is the reason for that?  It existed for the sole purpose of having a reason for sex to occur.

And what was going on with that ending? I had really enjoyed the book up until the last chapter or two, when it got really bad. It honestly SHOULD have ended about halfway through chapter 31. The epilogue really ruined a lot of the story just for the sheer unbelievability and randomness it throws out there. I'm going to go on a rant using the spoilers now.

 THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO RUIN THE ENDING...

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Tallis is an old vampire. Like, at least two centuries old from what I got out of this. HOW IS IT that some girl who randomly discovers her "powers" as a paladin less than a year ago managed to not only hide said powers from him, but stake him, just like that? It was painfully unrealistic and should have been left out, as it honestly took away from the story.  And WHO is Mike? Why did he have to exist? Mike was thrown in at the last two pages as Catherine's fuck buddy, who had no reason to exist at all besides some sexy dialogue to finish off the book.  Not happy about that guy.  All the romance that was built up between William and Catherine (which wasn't much) was totally null and void at that moment.

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NO MORE SPOILERS. CONTINUE READING NOW.

There was little romance between William and Catherine.  It was mostly lust between the two throughout the whole story, which I can actually appreciate in a book like this. There was no instalove, no sudden relationship or feelings that pop out of nowhere. Catherine actually mentions not wanting Stockholm Syndrome, something that I could really appreciate in a romance like this.

Overall, it's not BAD, but it's average.

I was given this book for free by the author for an honest review.