France, New York and New Jersey - 2005 to the Present

What do a countess, a two-hundred-year-old vampire, a French author, and an American professor have in common? A werewolf by the name of Pierre de Montfort, their common enemy. Catherine Marais (the countess) and Paul DuJardin (the author) are partners, they work together hunting down and killing werewolves, a dangerous job, but one they both love. Ian Morgan (the vampire) is Catherine's lover; he'd like to transform her so they could be together forever, however, he has yet to convince her. Julie Buchanan (the professor) meets Paul while on vacation in France and becomes smitten, and he returns her feelings. Paul offers Julie a job translating his latest book, an expose on the Montfort werewolves. The book has a twofold purpose, one is, of course, to make money, the other is to draw out Pierre, force him to lose his temper and reveal his true colors, thus giving Paul and Catherine the final proof they need that he has indeed inherited the Montfort's cursed werewolf gene.

Will this unlikely team succeed in their plan to destroy the last Montfort werewolf? You'll have to read the book to find out, but I will tell you one thing, I wouldn't want to be in Pierre's vicinity when he loses his temper.

DEVOUR makes an appropriate October read; Pierre's ruthless style of dispatching his prey is the stuff of which horror movies are made. Unlike many werewolves of late, he is not a potential hero or love interest. Catherine is an interesting woman, equally as likely to be shopping for Jimmy Choos or tramping through the mountains holding a Beretta loaded with silver bullets; she is a woman of stark contrasts. Ian is a man of many secrets; hey, anyone who can stay alive for as long as he has, must be able to keep a secret and keep it well. Ian's love for Catherine appears to be true, but he also seems to have a special interest in Julie that puts Catherine's back up. Paul has never found a woman that he wanted to live with until Julie, but he worries she won't be able to put up with a husband in his dangerous line of work. Paul sometimes wonders if he should just let her go. Julie never imagined learning that things like werewolves were actually real. After finding out about Pierre's first kills, Julie starts to wish she'd never discovered the truth, but that would mean never having met Paul, and that would be a high price to pay for her former innocence. The point of view switches between all of these characters so readers will get plenty of insight into their thoughts and reasons for behaving as they do.

The most important secondary characters include: Pierre's girlfriend, Marianne, a dealer in antiques and the like. Marianne finds the idea of someone believing Pierre to be a werewolf amusing; and hey, the public likes weird and different, she believes it could raise his cachet as a jewelry designer. Herr Doktor von Hoffman is Paul and Catherine's boss. Though he's eighty-four and hasn't been in the field for decades, he is very interested in seeing Pierre up close. Heinz is Herr Doktor's brown nosing assistant. Pavel is a friend of Ian's, and his unique abilities allow him to be of assistance while on the hunt.

DEVOUR is Melina Morel's first paranormal, and she did a fine job in providing the details necessary to create her own slightly different realm. The real problem for me in this book was the dialogue. At one point Catherine told Ian, "I much prefer a physical expression of my feelings." Language like that provided jarring notes in a contemporary novel. I never managed to develop much of a connection with the main characters and, without that, never really grew to care if they would defeat Pierre or not. Now for the good news: the author has written successful historicals in the past and I am convinced that with more practice, she is sure to do a wonderful job writing contemporaries as well. I look forward to reading the next book from Melina Morel and discovering how her talents progress in the paranormal genre.

Lori Ann