Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells

I so wanted to love this book. I love the cover model's hair, for starters. In this vampire world, everyone who has red hair is a vampire. Anyone with hair of any shade of red has vampire ancestors. (I think that might explain a lot about my cousin.) Hair notwithstanding, I had a few problems with this one. The blurb from BN.com:

In a world where being of mixed-blood is a major liability, Sabina Kane has the only profession fit for an outcast: assassin. But, her latest mission threatens the fragile peace between the vampire and mage races and Sabina must scramble to figure out which side she's on. She's never brought her work home with her—-until now.

This time, it's personal.

Sabina Kane is the granddaughter of one of the baddest vamps in the vamp world, the Dominae leader. Sabina is one of her assassins. Sabina is also half vampire-half mage and therefore is an outcast. The book starts out with Sabina killing one of her friends on her grandma's order, claiming he is a traitor. Faithful to the last, Sabina does her duty without question and that my friends, is the biggest flaw in Sabina's character - blind faith. Wanting so badly to be accepted and loved, she lets her grandma turn her into a killer without so much as a hug or handshake in return. Then, she's given a mission to infiltrate the compound of a cult-like half-demon leader who is their main opposition in the quest for superiority between the races and pseudo-peacefulness. Anyone with half a brain would realize its a suicide mission and that her grandmother couldn't care less about her. Lucky for Sabina, she meets a mage, a demon parades around in kitty cat form, and a roomie of Fae origin and manages to keep her bacon out of the fire.

This book was frustrating to read and the humor sometimes fell flat for me. I did like her pet demon and loved Adam the mage though. The next book, The Mage in Black, moves the action to New York and focuses on the mages this time. Maybe I'll like them better :)