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I had insomnia last night, so I read Shadow Kissed all the way through. I think I've figured some things out about my reaction to the series.
first off, I wish these were the big tween vampire craze books instead of Twilight. They are not perfect by any means, but I'd much rather have teen girls looking up to Dhampire Rose, kick a** guardian girl who has her own adventures and rescues people and her Moroi vampire friend Lissa who does magic, then some girl you dumps all her friends and aspirations for a stalkery sparkle vamp. Rose has some serious anger and self control problems, but she grows up a lot in the course of the three books I've read. She makes bad decisions sure, but she pays for them and tries to make things right. I rather like a number of the supporting characters and several cool guys pop up in the course of the series too, but while there is romance, these books are primarily thrillers, with Rose trying to figure out what's going on before everyone dies. Again, a smart tough female viewpoint character is exactly my speed. I love the way it captures the feel of living that martial arts lifestyle, the way certain decisions become simple when you are deep in training.

I do have some problems with the intergenerational romance though. I'm not sure this is something I want to see modeled and it makes me rather ambivalent towards one of the main reoccurring characters. Rose's thoughts and reactions about this are as realistic as her anger and her warrior mentality, but I have trouble with looking at it from the other direction where it is inexcusable. Maybe that's just me.