Steamy reads with a dollop of magic, mystery and hot... hot men

After the HORRENDOUS Night's Honor (book number 7 in this series), I was more than a little hesitant to read Midnight's Kiss. And nor did the cover overly inspire me - for some reason the over-muscled hunk depicted on the cover appears to be channelling his best 'blue steel' pout.
Melly (God, stupidest girlie name...ever) was a pleasant surprise as a heroine, she was resourceful, stubborn and smart.
Julian - as our H, was little one dimensional. But the pairing of the two was a good one, so forgivable.
Great baddie in Justine, though I do think the author could have used her even more and to better effect.
The humour has returned in this book, mainly thanks to Melly, and about time.
This book was by no means perfect but it was still streets ahead of Night's Honor, Harrison's previous effort set in this same vampire world.
Am hoping in the next book that she can finally get back on track with this series, ditch the over serious/kind of boring vampires and get back to Dragos and the gang.
I won't be re-reading this one like I do several of Harrison's earlier books in this series - but it gives me hope that the series can still be redeemed, am crossing my fingers and hoping like hell.