Julien de Villier has been a vampire for close to six centuries. He is from an era of warlords and violence. And now he’s searching for a companion. Jeanette Price is beautiful, smart, and wealthy from an inheritance combined with business acumen. She wiles away her copious free time partying.
It is London, England in the 1960s. The post-war world has gone wild and high-drama is the norm. Jeanette has plenty of melodramatic fantasies and Julien is only too happy to act them out as part of his master plan to make her undead. But Jeanette might not be the victim she appears to be, and Julien could have more than a clever rebel on his hands; Jeanette may be an enemy!
I was given this copy by author free for review, but as always on the basis that my opinion is honestly held, and whether paid for or free my views are not influenced by that. Integrity is important to me and gushing false reviews do neither author nor reader any favours. As always my views are what I honestly feel about this book
This is in the paranormal romance genre but if that makes you think of Twilight then think again! It's much, much darker. It focusses on Julian this time, he's a 400 year old vampire, dark, moody, brooding and totally selfish. In earlier books I knew he and Jeanette were usually apart from the other vampires but he came across as an ancient, scholarly and helpful vampire. Here we see a totally different side of him and I'm not sure its one I like – I preferred the Julian of my illusions. Nancy's vampires are very different to what is often portrayed, they are not dark hunky loving creatures but cam be very cruel, selfish and kill without though. The beauty of the paranormal genre is that the author can make her paranormal “people” in a totally different mold from convention and yet still have them believable. If you feel the vampires in True Blood are dark – well you ain’t seen nothing yet. Be warned, these guys mean what they say and do. They see what they want and take it – no questions asked.
It’s the 1960's and Julien is in London. Sitting alone he sees Jeanette and she instantly attracts him. She's gay and friendly, attracts people and is the life and soul of the party. He talks to her and finds her very intelligent and well read, not the airhead her first appearance suggested. Jeanette herself is searching for something more in life being tired of the vacuous ways of her current existence. He decides that she is going to be his companion – whether she wants it or not. He never asks her, is pretty cruel in how he treats her just going ahead and taking over her life without her consent. Some of the scenes are pretty graphic both sexually and in the descriptions of the cruelty Julien has seen and does himself. Jeanette’s friends are concerned about her but he takes over her life to make it look as though she had planned everything and he makes it appear as though she has died. It seems Julien believes no woman can love him and thus Jeanette must be forced to submit. I can't find anywhere that explains this but something in Julien's past must have affected him badly. It may be that its contained in this book but much of it was so dark and in the mold of horror and I'm so squeamish and prone to nightmares that I had to skip large sections so may well have missed it. Once Jeanette has been turned and understand what has happened to her she's very angry and out for revenge. The story continues from there onto how they eventually fall in love and become the couple I know from earlier books.
On the technical side the book is well written and edited, the characters very realistic ( and for me the violence too realistic) and it makes for a believable story. There are some interesting ( but again graphic) historical descriptions – I know more about chastity belts from middle ages for example than I ever wanted to.... It’s a good length at 454KB for just £ 1.94 for an e book so it's excellent value for money. It’s also available in print version for those without e readers.
Overall I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first two – its person focused which is my favorite type but the descriptions of violence were too much for me – I’m a wimp about stuff like that, I even struggled at the kids film Watership Down much to my children’s' disgust …..If scenes like that don't bother you – and for most people I recognize they don't – then you'll get much more from this book that I could. I simply couldn't warm to Julien even when he and Jeanette worked things out later in the book.
Star rating – 3.5 stars, it’s a great book, interesting story and full of detail but I struggled with Ju lien's personality and the graphicness of the violence and that’s why I've taken it half star down from what I would have rated it. That’s personal of course and many others will feel differently and would class it as 4 or even 5 stars. Enjoyment and thus star ratings are so subjective and in this case prone to my squeamish nature.
Reviewed by Midnight Ruby
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