Review: Take it like a vamp
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 23, 2013
Casey is living above her means in her transsexual aunt's apartment, and the glamorous businessman in the penthouse who watches TV with her occasionally is the centre of her secret fantasies. She doesn't realise that Nick Christos, from Greece, is also attracted to her but wants to avoid the danger that would ensue if they started a relationship. Casey is a graphic designer who enjoys Twilight and True Blood, with less self-confidence every time she picks the wrong guy to date. Nick is in need of a date one evening to keep up appearances and asks Casey to come to a ball with him on that basis. That's unfortunately where the trouble begins.Nick is concealing his vampire nature from Casey but he can't disguise the fact that a creepy woman, Alvinia from Romania, is watching him and Casey at the ball. Nick has brought Casey to a salon and got his designer friend Linc to dress her, money no object, so the girl looks and feels a million dollars. She doesn't eat and drinks too much champagne so Linc takes her home while Nick attends a meeting of a Council - he won't reveal more details. The Council of vampires is demanding that true to their custom, Nick must marry soon - a married vampire is deemed less of a threat to others, since he has a family to protect. The only female Nick feels attracted to is Casey and he fails to explain the situation, or the fact that he used to be married to Alvinia, but starts dating Casey and flying her around in his personal jet. However the level of security he requires makes it look as though he is a mafia gangster, and it won't be long before Casey discovers just how dangerous her life has become, with a demon entering her apartment to hunt her.Candace Havens has created a plausible scenario of how age-advantaged vampires might live today with accumulated wealth, infighting and natural human needs warring with blood lust. For some reason there is also a dash of magic and werewolf inheritance added to the mix of this sumptuous cocktail; I felt they needed more explaining. The love scenes were scarce and not particularly good for the girl. The character I liked most was actually the tranny aunt, and I did enjoy Casey's taking Nick and his henchmen to a roller-coaster park.I found Casey pleasant enough but could not see what might draw any eight hundred year old billionaire to her; she has a lot to learn in social and conversational skills and is not intellectual. But perhaps a more savvy person finding out that her boyfriend was a vampire would think less about Twilight and more about Salem's Lot.