Review: Not what I expected...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2013
Somehow, this book was not at all what I expected. From the blurb and the cover--not to mention the title--I expected a paranormal story, sure, but I also thought that love, or at least romance, would play a role.Yeah, not so much.There was plenty of lust--lust galore--I lost track at one point just who had slept with whom. Probably it would have been easier to keep track of who didn't sleep with whom, because seriously, there was a whole lot of sleeping going on in this book.Or, you know, not actually sleeping. The other bed-based activity. But I digress.For the most part, the "romance" in here is in the heads of the female characters--Lady Sarah, innkeeper's daughter Violet, Mary the maid--at one time or another, each of them is convinced that they're being romanced.They're not. They're being used--for sex, for blood, as a pawn.As for "love", I really didn't see any of it here. Sure, Sarah thinks she loves her husband, but she really doesn't know even the most basic thing about him--ie that he is a vampire. Violet and Mary just want to be married and think Marcus is hot and a good provider. Gregory, Marcus, and Gregory's sire Lady Amelia clearly don't love anyone but themselves.The cover leads you to expect smexytimes, and at least a touch of menage.Again, not really. There's carnal relations galore, but for the most part they're quick, and only briefly described in general terms. There is a bit of M/M with a female watching while--ahem--enjoying herself, but it's not even the grouping pictured on the cover.I struggled with what to rate this. The story would definitely benefit from a longer format, with more explanation of the vampires and their universe and a greatly expanded ending, because seriously, the last few paragraphs are amazingly short for the time period and events they are supposed to encompass. Head shakingly so, in fact. Then there's the writing itself--there's a whole lot of telling instead of showing, and more than a little info-dumpage throughout.Would I have appreciated the story more if I hadn't gone into it expecting something different? Probably. Should that be reflected in my rating, though, or is it just me? That I'm not sure....In the end, I decided on a 2.5 star/ C- rating. This one was just okay, and I'm not sure it will inspire me to try another work by this author. Possibly it will work just fine for others, but it really didn't for me.I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.