Review: Immortality is the ... by A.M. Riley
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 30, 2009
A.M. Riley is probably one of the two authors who can write of Vampires and Cops, putting together two themes I'm not overtly fond, and make me like the book as I would like the sweetest romance. Not only, she made me love a full angst novel with cheating man (o apparently so), cops toying with BDSM, even a foursome... it's almost like she decides to pick up what a romance reader doesn't like and gives you the tongue, "see? how I write them, you like it". And yes, I have to say that she is right. I read almost all she wrote and was never disappointed.Adam and Peter are not new to her readers, she wrote a short story, a quite twisted Christmas tale, in where newbie vampire Adam, former cop, was still trying to acclimate with his new life, and his old buddy friend, Peter, former and present lover, had to decide what was the best gift for a vampire who has everything. The main interesting aspect of that short story was the "odd" nature of Adam: not the vampire thing, that is no more odd in gay romance, but his apparently bad boy reputation. It was not clear if Adam was a bad or good cop, he could have been even a corrupted one. But since Peter, the perfect good cop, loved him, something good in Adam he should have seen, and the reader had to trust Peter's judgment.Anyway this is a prequel, the story of how Adam became a vampire. He is quite the lonely hero in it, Peter is more the good wife waiting at home, they don't have many scenes together, and when they have, they are almost always in bed (or even on the rug in front of the door). That this the strange thing of Adam: he knows that he is not at the same level with Peter, he was not at the Academy nor at work, but Adam seems to believe that Peter is his own property, that he will always be there for him. No matter that he has sex with a man on the way to meet Peter (first scene together), and continuously with two other men for all the rest of the book: that is something different, something he does almost in auto-pilot; with Peter instead is an act of bonding, and for this reason, everytime Adam feels at risk his exclusivity with Peter and on Peter's body, he claims him all over again, with sex that can be without problem compared to a club on the head of a caveman who claims his woman.It's strange, but Adam's change in nature doesn't change anything in his relationship with Peter: all of above it was happening before Adam's death, and it's happening even now, with Adam as undead. Actually, Adam being a vampire doesn't enter in their routine, not even during sex: true, Adam's senses are higher, and he can desire something, but his particularly bond with Peter was strange even before. Adam was always the one in danger, and Peter was always the one who rescued him. For this reason, even if this is a paranormal romance, the love story between Adam and Peter has instead the feeling of a quite ordinary romance: two men, both cops, with different expectations in life who arrive to compromise to be together; maybe the one who renounces to more things is Peter, but he is clever enough to know that he will be never happy without Adam, so it's better something than nothing. Another thing I loved was how they were both sure, in their way, of their feelings: Adam was commitment's shy, but when Peter gives him a token of his love, he accepts that like a natural, like it is something of less importance; but I know that in his mind, he has scanned all the implications, and he has decided to accept it to not hurt Peter, since hurting Peter is the last thing he wants... in his way Adam loves Peter, as much if not more than how much Peter loves Adam.I think this is a novel that could appeal to the paranormal romance readers, for the intake in the vampire world, a mix of old legends and "new" technology, but also to who usually is reluctant to read a vampire novel, since, as I said, the vampire nature of the characters is important but it's not all the meaning of the book.