City by Night by J.M. Frey

 

I just read LIPS LIKE ICE by this author under her romance/erotica pen name and loved it so much that I immediately wanted to read more of what she wrote. CITY BY NIGHT was actually on my list for ages and ages because it's about vampires: basically, a girl who works for a movie company gets hit by a truck and when she wakes up, she finds herself in "Night City," confronted by all of the characters.

The introduction is actually the best part of the book, where the author talks about how she did her thesis on Mary Sues, and provided excerpts from some of her old fics and then also a work where she subverts some of the usual tropes. Reading this novella with that frame of mind makes it a little more fun because it is-- at times-- a pretty brilliant parody of the film industry and how it tends to use the same tropes over and over, and how a lot of the props and stuff are lazy and easy.

The story itself ended up being a little meh. I wish this book was longer so it ended up being a little more fleshed out. It wasn't bad for what it was but it didn't scratch the itch like her sci-fi romance did.

2.5 to 3 out of 5 stars