Review: Guarding the Vampire's Ghost by Amy Lane
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 27, 2010
**REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS**This book was an intriguing amalgam of heartrendingly tragic, endearingly sweet, and amusing.  It's was a bit like have two stories in one.  One story being that of a vampire's ghost, that wanders the halls of Heaven's waiting room, watching the ones he loves and is parted from and enriching the lives of the angels and ghosts around him.  Through his actions and occasional sage words he teaches those that take the time to actually listen about humanity, love, life, sacrifices, and the lengths one soul is willing to go in order for a single glance, a solitary moment, a ghostly touch, and a hope that he may one day be with those he loves again.  It may be years, eons perhaps or maybe never, yet over and over he makes the claim that it's worth it.  They are worth it.The second tale that blends so brilliantly into the first, creating an entire story that was absolute magic in its completion, is that of two angels.  Two angels that have been together for four millennia; one is the Angel of Penitence and the other the Angel of the Fourth Hour of the Night.  They fit together like two pieces of the same puzzle and have since nearly before time began.  They've never questioned their own existence, never truly touched one another, and never comprehended why an angel might choose to fall.  That is, until they are sent to guard a vampire's ghost in Heaven's anteroom.Adrian is a vampire prince and lover to both Cory, a female human sorceress and Green, a male elf.  He is also very dead.  Now, under normal circumstance a dead vampire would not be wandering around the gateway to Heaven, playing video games, talking to the recently departed and throwing major wrenches into the lives of angels.  However, Adrian is not your average, everyday, run-of-the-mill vampire.  So abnormal is he, in fact, that he in and of himself, caused what is referred to as "The Great Quarrel."  You  see, vampires, like elves, sorceresses and were-folk are part of the Goddesses people and the Goddesses people simply do not go to Heaven.  Heaven is for God's people, but God, the poor man, has been separated from his Goddess for a few thousand years and is willing to give her just about anything she wants.  So, when a vampire dies and his Goddess requests that said vampire be allowed to stay in Heaven's anteroom, why of course, God complies.That, my friends, is how Adrian, vampire ghost extraordinaire, came to be guarded by the Angel of Penitence, Shepard and the Angel of the Fourth Hour of the Night, Jefischa and it is the foundation that sets into motion a series of events that leads to two innocent Angels discovering a truth that many of us discover in our own lives at one point or another, and one that Adrian's character was already very familiar with. That some things, some people, the special ones, the ones that regardless of time, distance and even death become a part of our souls and reside in our hearts. Those ones, well, they're worth it.  Worth what you ask?  Anything.  Worth life, death and in this case falling from the Kingdom of Heaven.I've been a huge Amy Lane fan for a few months now, ever since I read Keeping Promise Rock and Truth in the Dark, but this story eclipses even those.  It made me howl with laughter, sob in sympathy and rejoice for two angels who found something worth being mortal for.  What an amazing journey this story was.  Well done, Amy Lane.