Review: Vampires - tick, romance - tick, OK time to get lost into a novel hopefully.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 17, 2013
Undying Destiny Jessica Lee.ARC supplied by Entangled.Vampires - tick, romance - tick, OK time to get lost into a novel hopefully. And yes, I did get lost in this book - in a good way of course.Emily - works in a hospital, is on her way to a night shift when she finds an injured man. She stops to help him, calls for ambulance and carries on to work. At the end of her shift she checks on him, near to death everyone had thought...but its Kenric, and his vampire body has almost healed, but he needs blood..right now and Emily unwittingly provides it. He takes a bit too much and she faints so he calls in his team to help cover everything up.He takes her back to where he and his fellow vampires live. There's an ongoing battle between them, the few who want to live among humans but unnoticed, and others who create vampires that are just addicted to blood and kill needlessly. (BTW I hate twee stuff and to me that DEAD  acronym was just cringing and didn't suit the style of the novel...personal peculiarity though I know.) This time is his maker, a female who killed the woman he loved and is out to get him. In between convincing Emily everything is OK ( what a world shaker for her ) he faces a vicious battle against Marguerite. She wants him, and will use Emily to get to him knowing he's come to care for her.The set up - warrior group of "good" vampires warring against the "bad" ones reminds me of Lara Adrian's novels. Its a very similar world, secrets to keep from humans, trained and morally good vampires and always a threat to the way of life they lead and want to protect.  Betrayals by someone close leave Emily and Kenric in serious danger. Its a real action story, along with some spicy sensual romance.It was a pretty easy work to get into, much of the conventional vampire lore applies so it seems a bit like returning to a familiar world. The characters were very well drawn and it was easy to empathise with them, and root for them to come out in top. As regular readers of my reviews will know I just love a good bitch and Marguerite was certainly that - all the drama you'd expect from a woman scorned!! If anything the story was a little light on drama. There was action but it wasn't to any great depth and quickly over, but for those who like an easy read that's fine, for me I like a little more thoroughness and drama, for things to get quite heavy. But we all want something different and its certainly a world I'd happily venture into again.Its well edited and constructed, everything ties up properly and there's a way left for more books. I hope that happens as this was a thoroughly enjoyable read. I can see this being the start of a series, certainly the ending leaves an opening for a follow up novel finding out what will happen to the one who unwillingly betrayed Kenric and the Warriors.Stars: well, if it was just that bit "heavier"? Not quite sure how to put it ..it would be a five but as it is its a definite four from me.