Review: Decent Story, Engaging Take on Vampires
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 15, 2014
This was one of those rare instances when I was drawn to read a book strictly because of the title.  I didn't read the blurb, I didn't check out reviews and I barely glanced at the cover.  Nope, I was just intrigued by the title.  Silent Vampire?  Girl with a name like Serafina?  Interesting...Serafina MacBride is a psychic.  She is both the real thing and a fake.  She sees the dead and can even communicate with them, but many of her other paranormal services are just bunk and strictly for the money.  Like this gig she is engaged in now for instance.  Sera and her other employees are busy setting up garlands of garlic and crosses at a retired banker's home during a party because he claims he's being stalked by a vampire.  Sera plans to give Mr. Bell a show with one of her people acting as a vamp and attacking another of her people and then she'll do her thing getting rid of the vampire and collecting her fee.Too bad, she can't anticipate the arrival of a real vampire who can only communicate telepathically- though she isn't convinced its not another con artist horning in on her job- nor the real death of the man's son, Jason Bell.  And then more bizarre, the son's body vanishes and he turns up alive.  Sera's job and her world just got that much more difficult.Blair is torn between finding the deletable human female who hears his thoughts so he can get her in his bed and sink his fangs into her and finding the mysterious vampire who drank from the banker and has the ability to speak aloud among other things.  For the first time in years, he's interested in something.  The female, Sera, is on his mind even as he encounters her during his efforts to find out who these new vampires are and what they are up to with their different gifts and making multitudes of others.  He is concerned about their connection with another human who seems to be working with them.Sera trusts nobody except her best friend Jilly and an old friend Mel, but finds herself needing the vampire's help when it comes to working against the other vampires.  She's all worked up because of the way Blair affects her too.  She fights the attraction and her secret longing to let him take her and her blood.  Sera knows that he thinks about things from a different perspective and only looks on humans as potential food and distraction.  But the death count is rising, the strange vampires are out to take over the world and she has made some shocking discoveries beyond that.  She needs Blair's help even though she'd rather push him away because of the feelings he brings to the surface.This turned out to be a rather different sort of story in many ways.  I really liked this author's take on vampires and the lore she created.  They really are very different from humans and aren't the creatures of romance.  Gotta say the villain's plot cracked me up when it finally came out.  Why I found it funny I won't say for spoiler issues.And that leads me to speaking about the characters.  The story is told from alternating point of views mostly the two main characters, but sometimes by a secondary character.Blair is unapologetic about who and what he is even as he feels attraction to a human for the first time ever and even as he feels the stirrings of interest in life and wanting to live.Sera is a gifted human.  She has led a hard life growing up in the foster system and feeling the abandonment of parents and family.  She has grown up hard and strong so she'll survive.  She too has some larceny in her.  She runs a few cons and has no trouble taking people's money.  Granted she tends to discriminate over who she cons and who she cons to help them.  I loved the scene with the two greedy guys she conned.  Sera won't allow herself to believe, trust or feel when it comes to other people.  While I understood her issues, it still made for a frustrating read.  She blew hot and cold and then got angsty when Blair couldn't seem to keep up or had other things going on besides her to deal with.  The denials and lying to herself and others just got old.  I really liked them together- they sizzled- and I enjoyed the exciting storyline so I tolerated her hang-ups for the most part.The secondary characters were true gems too.  I loved meeting Sera's staff (though Jilly was nearly as annoying as Sera with her tough girl act) and Blair's friend Phil was cool.  They were all well-drawn characters that I look forward to encountering in future books.Another little tid bit that I liked about this story was that it is set in Edinburgh and is written by a Scottish author.  Not that I'm opposed to PNR set in America or other popular places, but it was just a refreshing change.All in all, this was a good read and I look forward to continuing with the series.  Paranormal or vampire romance lovers should give this a try.My thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this one in exchange for my honest review thoughts.