Jeaniene Frost - Twice Tempted

Leila's psychic abilities have been failing her, and now she isn't sure what the future holds. If that weren't enough, her lover, Vlad, has been acting distant. Though Leila is a mere mortal, she's also a modern woman who refuses to accept the cold shoulder treatment forever–especially from the darkly handsome vampire who still won't admit that he loves her.
Soon circumstances send Leila back to the carnival circuit, where tragedy strikes. And when she finds herself in the crosshairs of a killer who may be closer than she realizes, Leila must decide who to trust– the fiery vampire who arouses her passions like no other or the tortured knight who longs to be more than a friend? With danger stalking her every step of the way, all it takes is one wrong move to damn her for eternity.

Comment: This book arrived last week and like with most series I love, I couldn’t wait to read it. This is the second of three books in the Night Huntress spin off series about Vlad and Leila.

After getting together in the last book, Vlad and Leila aren’t yet in HEA mode. Leila still thinks Vlad doesn’t really love her and after a dinner where she hoped he might ask her what she longed for, she feels hurt because he certainly didn’t so what she thought he would, so she leaves him. However, things aren’t that easy and Leila is still in love with Vlad so, when something bad happens, she can’t help turn to him again and maybe this time she get her wishes sooner than she thinks.

I liked this second story focused on Vlad and Leila. Other characters also show up, bit mostly to add some help to certain moments. Anyway, I still feel that there’s some lack of intensity here, the same strength seen in the first books of Cat and Bones. I can’t really say what I hoped for, but there’s something that I wish I could see, still have to think about it. I mean, I liked the story and it interesting, had all the expected twists and also some news I didn’t see coming, but there’s something there…

This doesn’t mean there aren’t good scenes, because they exist. For some reason I read the book pretty non stop until the end. I liked how Leila felt bad about her feelings not being returned by Vlad, but she didn’t give up on her heart and still tried to contact him through her dreams because she couldn’t let go. She knows he’s different from anyone else but she really loves him and just wanted to be loved back. When things didn’t work she tried to leave but circumstanced brought them back together and from that moment on, se even tried to show Vlad she meant it when she claimed she could deal with his past. This decision was the start to a new development, something we all imagined would happen, so despite not being a surprise, it was still interesting to see.

I think I‘d like to have a chapter here and there from Vlad’s POV. There are things happening that, because the plot is narrated by Leila, we don’t get to see and it’s a pity, for I think it would add some more clues to what some things mean.

This book showed some turnabouts related to another couple of characters. I wonder what it will mean for the last book, but as the end of the book wasn’t conclusive, I have an idea of what it might lead into. I just hope there are no more betrayals because it’s a plot device that although working in some cases, can get tiresome.

I was happy with how Leila and Vlad were feeling in the end of the book. Nothing like talk of true love to spice things up and to make us believe HEAs really can happen.