Review: Short but enjoyable :)
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 28, 2014
3-3.5 starsThis was a good story. I liked Isabella and Raphael and their story was short but enjoyable.Isabella is a merchant's widow. She's wealthy because her husband left her his business and money. His cousin ins't happy about that fact and makes her life hell trying to find some way to disgrace her and take her holdings. Her husband died a year before due to drowning and she hasn't found anyone to gain her interest since then.Raphael is a vampire that lives in Venice. He has a brother and friends in the city (all also vampires) but usually exists on the fringes of society so he's less likely to be noticed. He and his fellow vamps have had issues with a secret society trying to kill the local vampires. Raphael runs in to trouble when someone pushes him in the canal and he starts to sink.In this story, Vampires are extremely dense and weight more than normal humans so they drown very easily as they can't swim strongly enough to keep themselves from sinking. Raphael feels someone push him in to the water and he has nothing to grab on to so he's drowning and sure he's as good as dead. Isabella is riding in her gondola when her and her "driver" see a man drowning. Her servant is too weak a swimmer to save him so Isabella jumps in to save the man. She takes him back to her place but realizes her impropriety of having him in her chambers quickly and sends him on his way. Raphael wakes up thinking he's died and Isabella is an angel but soon realizes he's survived. He is attracted to Isabella and is sure she's attracted to him too so he's very confused when she sends him home. He comes back later though and in the night, in her bedchamber, Isabella succumbs to his seduction. Unfortunately, her late-husband's cousin isn't willing to let things lie and makes trouble for them. There's also some difficulties as Isabella realizes that Raphael might not be who she thought he was and worries about what to do. If I go too deep I'll give everything away but lets just say that Raphael and Isabella have some tough issues to resolve between them. The attraction is strong and they can't stay away from each other but trust and love is slower in coming. There's drama they have to deal with but things work out and the story ends with a nice HEA.This was a good story. It's short and not very deep but it's a nice way to spend a couple hours. I liked both the main characters and was happy to see them get their HEA. I may try the next book in the series in the future.note - I listened to the audio version of this book and the narrator did a good job.