Review – Running in the Dark by Regan Summers

Publisher: Carina Press
Publish Date: Out now
How I got this book: ARC from the publisher via Netgalley

Santiago, Chile

But Sydney has more than her love life to worry about. She’s got vamps on her tail, mysterious deliveries that leave death in their wake, and old enemies targeting her to get to Malcolm. Turns out he’s got a history more deadly than she ever imagined, and she’ll have to use every skill in her arsenal to stay alive…

This blurb came from the author’s website here.

I read, enjoyed and did a short review on what is now The Night Runners 0.5, Don’t Bite the Messenger earlier this year. I was really happy to find out that Summers was going to continue to write in this world. When I received a note letting me know that Running in the Dark had review copies available I couldn’t resist. I am pleased to say that Summers took everything I enjoyed about the first one and made it better as well as providing some of the things I wished had been in her novella.

Sydney is back working as a runner for the vampires but in an entirely different area. She moved from Alaska to Chile, left her name, her reputation, and her rather nice car behind but she has her life, a new job, and her vampire “boyfriend.” I enjoyed watching her deal with being the “new girl” instead of the top runner and in a new much larger city. Regardless of her name change, she still kept the same drive to be the best and her insistence on disguising any personal aspect that could be used to trace her. She also retained the same suspicious nature which had kept her alive in the previous story. I will admit I was slightly worried with the mention in the blurb about a gorgeous vampiress because love triangles can become extremely tiresome rather quickly. Thankfully Summers handled my suspicions deftly and in a way that I enjoyed. This did not mean that everything was nice and peaceful for Sydney because vampire politics are never peaceful.

Malcolm was much less of a mystery this time. I was able to see him in his “day job” so to speak. He also managed to get in hot water with Sydney a few times and in order to keep her around as his girlfriend he realized that he had to start explaining things to her. Through Sydney I learned a lot about his past and why he occupies the position he does in vampire hierarchy. I had no idea just how messy and complicated vampire politics could become. I liked seeing how convoluted circumstances could get and how that made an impact on their personal lives in more ways than one..

It was interesting to watch Malcolm and Sydney in their relationship together after the first flush of attraction and adrenaline-fueled lust had past. Now they were trying to live with each other and see where their relationship could take them despite all of the challenges. There were times when it looked extremely doubtful they were going to make it to the end of the book for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that Malcolm had enemies who held grudges for a very long time.

Running in the Dark had a lot more character development now that the basic world was set. The change in location and activities allowed for more world-building so things did not seem to remain static while I was able to learn more about Sydney and Malcolm. Their characters demonstrated some nice depth and additional resources that I hadn’t even considered before. It is refreshing to read about vampires that are back to being scary and yet also attractive. They put me more in mind of Dracula and his dichotomy of sex appeal and deadly attraction. Even with all the activity and things I discovered about Summers’ world there are still things I am wondering about. Not because they were left out of the story but because I think the characters have yet to need to know or do certain things. I am certainly looking forward to what comes next for the Night Runners.

I give Running in the Dark a B+

Links to purchase
Kindle | Nook