You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
2.54 AVERAGE
2.54 AVERAGE
I bought this ebook as part of a holiday bundle, and I found it disappointing. There were a lot of minor flaws (conversations that don't make sense, electricity in a remote, abandoned cabin, retaining shyness after nursing school) that might be forgivable if the story had significant other virtues.
Instead, here are the three insurmountable problems I had with the story (limited spoilers):
1. Unexplained giant creepy doll in the bedroom. Why introduce a giant creepy doll with "straw hands" if it does not figure into the plot at all? Especially when so few other things receive description - this is not an immersive world.
2. For a love triangle to make sense, all three involved persons need to be equally compelling. Instead, we have one who is a rough sketch of "tall, handsome, and doesn't want people he's attracted to burn to death". Our other hero is "even taller, also handsome, acts like an asshole" but has the advantage of stereotypical vampire angst and hidden hurt around a heart of gold to make him more fully realized. Our main character doesn't have much going on - we are told she is a nurse and is shy, but she doesn't demonstrate either trait.
3. Consent.
The main character starts the story in a sort of fugue state that resembles either a stroke or the prodrome period of a migraine, possibly heavy sedation. She can't track conversations, is unable to speak coherently, and has trouble with her balance. There is no point in the story where the character is entirely lucid, so her consent cannot be given.
One of her two suitors also spends a significant amount of time under some sort of vampire-lust confusion, so his consent is questionable as well.
To be clear: desire is not consent. Destiny is not consent. Hormones, pheromones, and magic vampire lust are not consent.
In summary:
We don't know anything about the lives of the characters, the decisions during the story are motivated by an uncertain cloud of "because vampire", so it's hard to see any growth or change in the characters. That's followed up by some fairly tame sex that we are to believe is perverted because dirty words and vampire. There isn't enough "now" in the story for there to be a happily ever after.
This doesn't qualify as romance, not even erotica. There isn't so much a story arc as the progression of a disease. Don't read it.
Instead, here are the three insurmountable problems I had with the story (limited spoilers):
1. Unexplained giant creepy doll in the bedroom. Why introduce a giant creepy doll with "straw hands" if it does not figure into the plot at all? Especially when so few other things receive description - this is not an immersive world.
2. For a love triangle to make sense, all three involved persons need to be equally compelling. Instead, we have one who is a rough sketch of "tall, handsome, and doesn't want people he's attracted to burn to death". Our other hero is "even taller, also handsome, acts like an asshole" but has the advantage of stereotypical vampire angst and hidden hurt around a heart of gold to make him more fully realized. Our main character doesn't have much going on - we are told she is a nurse and is shy, but she doesn't demonstrate either trait.
3. Consent.
The main character starts the story in a sort of fugue state that resembles either a stroke or the prodrome period of a migraine, possibly heavy sedation. She can't track conversations, is unable to speak coherently, and has trouble with her balance. There is no point in the story where the character is entirely lucid, so her consent cannot be given.
One of her two suitors also spends a significant amount of time under some sort of vampire-lust confusion, so his consent is questionable as well.
To be clear: desire is not consent. Destiny is not consent. Hormones, pheromones, and magic vampire lust are not consent.
In summary:
We don't know anything about the lives of the characters, the decisions during the story are motivated by an uncertain cloud of "because vampire", so it's hard to see any growth or change in the characters. That's followed up by some fairly tame sex that we are to believe is perverted because dirty words and vampire. There isn't enough "now" in the story for there to be a happily ever after.
This doesn't qualify as romance, not even erotica. There isn't so much a story arc as the progression of a disease. Don't read it.
I didn't read the synopsis for this - I just saw that it was Charlotte Stein and I requested. No regrets! I had no idea what to expect and I just started reading so when it turned out to be definitely paranormal I was surprised - but it didn't bother me at all. This author writes so beautifully that I'm pretty sure she could write any genre and I'd read it. Her sex scenes are ridiculously steamy and they just escalated throughout the book which I loved because it lends the atmosphere a kind of tension that built.
This is a novella length story and there are very few novellas that I've enjoyed because I think that it must be hard to have a full story and give the readers what they want - especially with new characters we've never seen before. This was successful in that and a great novella at this length.
Received an ARC via Netgalley in return for an honest review.
This is a novella length story and there are very few novellas that I've enjoyed because I think that it must be hard to have a full story and give the readers what they want - especially with new characters we've never seen before. This was successful in that and a great novella at this length.
Received an ARC via Netgalley in return for an honest review.