I'm not going to start off my review with my usual summary of the book. I'm just going to dive right into what I thought about Nightshade.Jillian is an ordinary woman caught up in extraordinary circumstances. She was injected with poison and kidnapped by a man who looks like he would kill her without hesitation. From this perspective, I can understand why Jillian's attitude was pissy but it didn't make me like her at all. In the beginning, after Declan kidnaps her and they are on the road, her barrage of questions drove me batty. Declan is scarred, wears an eye-patch and shot a man in cold-blood out in public. I would think that after what she had been through in just that little bit of time, Jillian would cool the attitude and shut up. I found her personality annoying and unlikable.There was nothing that I liked about the first 60% of the book. I liked Declan's character even when he's in his robot state. Declan is a dhampyr and to tamp down his vampire instincts, he injects himself with a serum every 3 hours. With the help of the serum, Declan is an emotional-less killing machine. He doesn't experience blood thirst, desire, anger...nothing. He heals like a vampire but because he's half human, his wounds leaves scars. His body is riddled with evidence of the battles he has fought. Jillian describes him as ugly and during an angry conversation she was having with Declan, she calls him an "ugly bastard." I really did not like her at that point because throughout the book, Declan has been protecting her and making sure she is safe. And this is how she repays him. Because of her stank attitude towards him throughout most of the book, I found their "romance" totally unbelievable and far-fetched.Nightshade is described as a paranormal romance but I disagree. The "romance" between Declan and Jillian is non-existent. There was no romance build-up between the two. Throughout the first half of the book, Jillian pretty much hated him. Then out of the blue, she wanted him and they have sex. What? This completely threw me and I was tempted to put the book down. It felt like that part of the plot was thrown in so that the book would get the Paranormal Romance label. I wouldn't call this book an Urban Fantasy either because there's no world building whatsoever. I don't know how I would categorize it.Thankfully, the last 100+ pages of the book were so much better than the first 200 pages. When Jillian was kidnapped and taken to the Vampire King, Matthias, Nightshade got more interesting. The introduction of Matthias and what happened from that point on is what saved the book for me. I'm sure that Matthias isn't the most favorite character because of some of his actions involving Jillian, but I liked reading about more there than just Declan and Jillian. These two alone did not carry the book enough to make it interesting. With the introduction of Matthias, we get interesting plot twists and deceptions that kept me guessing and engaged. Declan and Matthias were the only likable and interesting characters in Nightshade, in my opinion.I don't know how I feel about Nightshade. I didn't hate it; I didn't love it. I will read the next book, Bloodlust, in hopes that the story gets better and that Jillian will develop more as a character. I have a hard time with it being categorized as a PNR because I don't think it is. A quick romp in the sack does not make it a PNR.Rating: D+/2.5 stars
