Shadow of the Vampire by Meagan HatfieldMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I usually rate a book 5 stars for one of 2 reasons: 1. It was fantastic! The writing, the storyline, the characters. Fantastic.
2. I would re-read it. Some books even I can admit don't have the best writing, or a few plot holes...but I've re-read them. This one had both of those reasons! At no point did I skim, nor did I even want to. in fact, now I have a new reason to rate a book a fiver: I stayed up til almost 2am finishing this book. Mind you I was up with my 3 year old around 5 am.
It's been a long time since I've stayed up past 11:30 to read.
Okay, so, moving on. Alexia is a vampire. Her mother is the queen of the horde and she has a particularly brutal reputation. Or at least she did until recently. Ever since Lotharus came into their lives, he has gone from Queen's consort to actually ruling their matriarchal society from behind the scenes, going so far as to rape Alexia (our heroine) to keep her in fear of him. Can I just say, that a lot of villains annoy me. They either fall flat or just don't seem worthy of the good guys (ahem the Lessers from the BDB). I think that Lotharus was above and beyond the worst villain ever created. Man this guy's brutal. Not only do we hate him, but we want him to die a slow, horrible death. In fact his "comeuppance" and subsequent death weren't nearly enough for me. I mean homeboy raped our girl, drugs her mom, turns their people against them, tortures her man, tortures our girl some more, and steals her power and her mom's and kills her mom and almost kills our girl! I mean it was touch and go for a while.
And our hero? Holy moley do I want him for myself!!!!!
Declan Black is the King of the dragons, the sworn enemy of the vampires. But he is a new king seeing as Alexia's mom and psycho lover Lotharus have recently tortured and killed Declan's parents. Silver is deadly to dragons in this world, and Lotharus had their bodies cremated and then sprinkled the ashes into melted silver to make weapons. Sicko.
So Alexia captures the dragon king and from the first moment, those two are hitting sparks off of each other. In fact they are so sparky, that Declan is able to almost seduce Alexia right there in the first 15 pages...and it was fabulous!!! As I said, I want him for myself.
Alexia's no slouch either. She may be afraid of Lotharus but she can still hold her own as a warrior. In fact she helps Declan get free once she realizes just how psychotic and power hungry Lotharus really is. See the vampires are a matriarchal society, but they haven't always been, and Lotharus found some ancient journals from their first and only king. He wants to be king, and he will force the women to demean themselves since he has found a way to clone male warriors, and to strengthen them against the memories that come with drinking blood and against the sunlight...it's kind of cool how he uses the elder's pure blood to do all that.
I think that Declan and Alexia were a great couple, I loved how they thought, how they acted around each other, how Alexia could be strong as a warrior and yet cry on Declan's shoulder. I liked how the ending played out after her death (yes you heard me, she died!!! Well, came so close to death, that there's really no other word), and I just LOVED what happened when Declan fed her his blood and she turned. Her new life as a dragon queen will be hard, but I loved the concept. And apparently there may be another female heir to the vampire queendom...Declan sent out his Hunter and his sister to find someone important (I won't give it away), and his friend Falcon to find that alleged heir.
This book kept me on edge to the point that around midnight I brushed my teeth while not putting down the book, I tried to read and wash my face (that didn't work out so well) and I even propped it open so I could change and keep reading. The action just never stopped. be prepared to read this in one sitting because there are no good "stopping points" you'll just have to set aside 5 hours or so to read the whole book at once.
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5 comments:
Glad you liked it. Nice reivew. I cant wait for the next one. I do hope Meagan will birng us more into the world she has next time.
thanks Laurie, you did suggest it to me :)
I hope she does get contracted for more...did you say it was a done deal?
I sounds like you loved this book as much as I did. It was fantastic! Have you read her short story DRAGON WARRIOR? I haven't read it yet, but I know it ties in with this book.
Diana ♥ Book of Secrets
She already has two books in line. I cant remember the name of the guy but it starts with a F and he was in this book. Its on her website just doesnt have a series name to it yet. They really need to work on that.
This is from Meagan, the author, and I thought everyone might want to see who's up next once Harlequin gives her the go-ahead. Also she has a Nocturne Bites out right now, and 2 more coming out
"Your review was amazing - almost made me cry! (Then again, most of the good ones do. What can I say, I'm a softy.) But truly, as a writer, you live for people "getting" your book and the characters you write about. I've been so lucky to have such wonderful readers...some of whom have become great friends, both online and off. So THANK YOU again! :)
Regarding sequels...my agent and I are talking with Harlequin right now about the future of the books. I will Tweet, FB and update my website the second I have solid info. Promise! :) As far as which book would be next, etc...It's Falcon next and then Griffon, with the two ebook novella Bites (Vampire in Her Mysts and Outcast) coming out around the same time.
Oh, and believe me, girl...I would have kept scrummy, yummy Declan naked for the whole book if I thought I could and get away with it. hehe"
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