Review: Steamy Supernatural Story!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 8, 2012
Sandra Ross has created another sensational short read with `Awakened', a hot supernatural story about Chandler, a single, mostly happy, woman who is pestered into visiting a Goth club with her best friend.  There she meets the incredibly handsome Lucien, and feels a connection, but is not sure how or why.  What she does know, is that every time she is near him or thinking of him she wants to immediately rip his clothes off and make passionate love to him, and he feels the same.Lucien appears to know Chandler from somewhere in the past, but we don't find out how until the end of the story, and the author spins a creative tale of lost love reunited with a healthy dose of hot, steamy sex thrown in.  Without giving too much away, I will say that a certain bedroom scene involving a sleeping Chandler was very exciting, and a little creepy, but in a titillatingly hot way.Lisette, as the best friend, is never really fleshed out, and is a little annoying in her insistence on interfering with Chandler's love life.  However, since it works out well in the end, she can be forgiven for being a little too pushy.  She does get a mention toward the end of the story, and it is hinted at that she has been paired off with someone Lucien knows, so maybe we will get their story sometime in the future?The entire story has a very gothic feel to it, although it is set in modern day New Orleans.  There is the mysterious Lucien, living alone in a big old mansion at the edge of town, a vamipiric nightclub owner named Lilith, and the issue of Lucien knowing Chandler from somewhere long ago.  It reminded me a little of the old gothic soap `Dark Shadows', but with way more sex!The love scenes are indeed hot, and the tension builds quickly, providing a satisfying conclusion when Chandler and Lucien finally get it together.  I would have liked to see more explanation of the back story between the two lead characters, and I think it could have been stretched out into a longer book, offering more opportunities to explore Lucien's character.  Lilith and Lucien's history could have been fleshed out, too, to offer a little more depth.Over all, this was a great, hot, quick read that kept me wanting more.  I couldn't wait for the two lovers to finally get together, and I was dying to know just how they were connected in the past.  Ross has spun a great little yarn about love transcending the ages, and one man's determination to have the woman of his dreams, no matter what!