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Passably good, fairly entertaining.

I'm sure other readers would have more flattering things to say about this new paranormal series (well, new for me anyway); but coming on the heels of The Black Dagger Brotherhood, The Dark-Hunters, and even the Dark Carpathians series, not to mention a few more other vampire-romance titles dizzyingly vying for space on bookshelves by up-and-coming authors and even from established ones who have succumbed to the popularity of the genre (like Medeiros, Dodd, and Sands), Lara Adrian's The Midnight Breed, in my opinion (for what it's worth), faces a veritable burden. And that is of needing to have something spectacularly jolting and provoking for it to steal the attention of an ever-widening audience who may already be over-saturated with this popular culture of vampire-slash-paranormal romance. Frustratingly enough, even though the last BDB I have read was over a year ago (hence, should have dulled my memories of it), Adrian's Midnight Breed felt so much like it. And sad to say, not *really* in a good way. Frankly, it felt a little bit like a pale version of Ward's.From the techy-nerd Gideon (who acts a bit like Vishous), the brooding Tegan (who, surprise-surprise, felt and sounded a bit like Zsadist), to even the warrior-leader Lucan (who felt like...guess-who), the Breed Warriors might as well have been the next-door neighbors of the Black Dagger Brothers, regularly coming over to swap secrets of the trade...except that they (the former) come off less like a close-knit family and more like a small corporation with members just conscripted for the job. At its extreme...they sound a bit...uhm...well...boring. Just a tad, mind.When I read over what I have been saying so far, it sounds so harsh and wholly unfair, I know. But I think that is precisely the pernicious nature of a reading audience--especially romance readers. We are a sensitive, even fickle, lot. And for authors to earn (and keep) our adulation, they have to continually, aggressively feed our need for fascination and novelty.Adrian's series somewhat fails me on that score. The plot of a band of vampires rounding off their kind who have become renegade, as well as humans who have been brain-washed by the latter is not terribly original. Dress it up in as many other nouns as you could--"rogue," "fallen," "daimons," "lessers," etc.--unless the storyline jumps out at you in a fresh way, these characters would ultimately run the risk of sounding just like any other personas from other books. Certainly, however, this series does not deserve to be unconditionally written-off. I can personally vouch it to be better than other vampire novels which have lame plotlines and ridiculously over-the-top premises (you can understand if I'd rather not name them--I'm doing enough damage to this one author, I think). In fact, what could be a different ingredient in this series, and may even be lauded by those who wish to have the "formula" twisted, is that the male protagonists are not "heroes" or "protectors" of the human race. There. Stew on that =)Anyway, if you are really seeking a large dose of knee-weakening, envy-inducing romantic shenanigans, this book could probably be relegated to the lower rungs of one's "to-buy/read" books. Read it for entertainment but not much more. It's not a regrettable I-wish-to-god-I-never-picked-this-book-up kind of story, but neither does it make you overly drool, pant, hanker, and itch to grab the next installment...which I've experienced before.Oh, shoot. Too much info? *runs off in shame*