This first book in a planned trilogy is a somewhat different take on vampire lore than I’ve read before. In this world there are born vampires who live more like humans and made vampires, who are the ones that cannot go out in the sun or eat human food. The made vampires also differ from each other, sometimes losing part of their human self, even to the extent of becoming mindless killing Drones, but it is not until after their transition that the maker knows what they get. Set in the midst of a centuries old war between two vampire families, the book starts off with Thomas, a vampire prince at the side of Daniel, his formerly human lover who is in the midst of turning, and then flashes back over the past year from the time they met.

There is plenty of action as Thomas and his warriors fight the Gemelli family Drones and it soon is clear that even after centuries of fighting, nobody is safe. Thomas is still mourning the death of his lover 200 years prior at the hands of the Drones. As much as Thomas tries to fight his attraction, he has met his match in Daniel, who is not afraid of Thomas and challenges him in ways he never expected. I loved how Daniel’s alpha personality kept him pursuing Thomas no matter how much he was pushed away. His ability to see things clearly, from the outside of the conflicts, was a nice counterpoint to Thomas’ emotional reactions.

The story had plenty of action and drama, some humor and a few turns I didn’t expect. While I wouldn’t really characterize the end as a big cliff hanger, there are story lines left open and a reminder that someone is presently unaccounted for in the final scene. While there is progress made towards peace between the warring families, it is clear that not everyone is on board with the plans. Mostly what I am looking forward to in the next book is seeing more of Daniel as a newly made vampire since the moments following his awakening didn’t allow for much introspection.

3.5 stars

This was another decent entry to the series. What I like is that the problems are not simple like in other series. Sometimes the problem seems insurmountable like in the previous book where the very needed omega from one tribe falls in love with the alpha of another. I like the danger and protection and fear stuff and there was some in this, although not as much as in the previous two and not as much as I like.

I think one MC was too much of an asshole at first and changed way too quickly to believable. But I did like him after that, and although his whole thing was transparent, it was really cool to see that side of things. (Yeah, that's vague--read the book.) ;)

I think it's silly that the author had one of the metropolitan hip guy swilling Coors. That is so not right. That kind of guy would not be found dead drinking Coors in a public place. No, they drink imported beer or microbrews, not Coors which is an ultra-conservative anti-gay company. (In the previous book she had a New York up and coming painter who made money painting who painted landscapes. Um, no.)

I still don't understand why UK authors keep putting their books in the states. If they need to do that, maybe they live here, then they should not spell and use words and expressions that are not used in the US. "Learnt" is not how we spell or pronounce here. There are others where the "ed" is changed to a "t" but I can't think of any right now and I didn't mark them in the book. The only one I have heard used her in the US (and I've used it myself) is dreampt, and it's not common at all.

I love the author, though, for knowing that the expression is "another think coming" and not "another thing coming" like so many people get wrong. For that reason, and the lack of confusing adverbs and adjectives, I'm rounding up to 4 stars.

Happy ending? Of course, everything is always perfect at the end of these and they get their HEA.

I really like how this one took place at the same time as the first one and showed what was happening with Cody during that period. I loved seeing it from his perspective and knowing that stuff went on that his little brother didn't even know about. This was another sweet story with a difficult situation that affected whether there would be an HEA that really worked itself out too easily, but was still handled well.

One thing I didn't like is that she had a New York up and coming painter who made money painting who painted landscapes. Um, no.

I also didn't like all the British spellings and expressions. If you're going to set it in the US, use US English and American idioms.

Still, I did enjoy it a lot and there was no adverb confusion. (Making adverbs into adjectives by simply leaving off the "ly" is not what they mean by lessening the usage of adverbs.) Fortunately, she doesn't do this. Yea! So 3.75 rounded up to 4.

Happy ending? Of course, everything is always perfect at the end of these and they get their HEA.

How did Luke go from being "...oh, shit. But I'm not gay!" to "*sobs* he doesn't want me" so fast?

Must be black magic.

Eh. I mean, it's consummate pulp, so I guess we can write that off as the Mate thing.

And then it was just anti-not-gays propaganda.

Gettin' real tired of this shit. I'm not going to feel guilty for not being gay, you ass.

The drama didn't really work. Not much of it made much actual sense. All in all, highly disappointing.