Among them is Michael, a fierce swordsman who inflames Cin's most primal hungers. Showing her a sensual pleasure beyond anything in the mortal realm, she must choose between the human existence she has always known, and immortality as a vampire—a new life filled with forbidden urges, dark yearning, and unearthly passions.
Comment: This is another PNR/UF paperback I had in the shelves, collected from years ago, to read one day and, hopefully, like it so much that I'd likely have plenty more to read afterwards too. Unfortunately, it didn't go that well in this case.
In this book we meet young Dulcinea (Cyn), and her life changes right after she sees her parents leave for a ball one night, not knowing they will have an accident with their carriage and she won't see them again. While she is still dealing with this, a previous suitor she turned down comes back to convince her to marry him and she refuses once more. Then, he reveals himself to be a vampire and Cyn has no way to fight him despite the fact she is a witch. After consulting an old wizard, she is told about The Righteous, a band of vampires who hunt and kill those who prey on humans, and Cyn decided to summon them so they can help her. That is how she meets Michael, with whom she is immediately attracted to... but with them, also comes the knowledge the actual power behind her suitor new vampire status is not a vampire, but a demon... How will Cyn manage to defeat this enemy?
On paper, the idea of this book seems simplistic enough and there are probably many similar books out there who did it better or worse, but I'm afraid I must say the result here wasn't very good... the story starts out well enough, but the more I read, the more ridiculous it got and I've ended up thinking about this as if the goal was a fun one, and that made the reading much more endurable.
The setting is in England in the 19th century but it read as if it could be set in contemporary times. I don't think the author really was that concerned about using the historical period to be part of the novel, I can only suppose by placing this in such a time, certain social rules would be useful, but considering the development of the plot, I think it didn't truly matter.
The plot is quite simple: the heroine is mourning but finds the sudden courage and will and cleverness to use her skills as witch by connecting with vampires and helping her cousins by defeating a terrible demon who wants to enslave her and steal her power. Sadly, there isn't any depth to this story and things happen very quickly, very blandly and superficially and with more or less wit, everyone finds a way to do what is necessary to accomplish the big goal, which turns out to be the imprisonment of the demon.
There's no real development for any character, everyone remains pretty much one dimensional and while this wasn't challenging nor appealing, it is still easy to read, I confess, and some things were so silly I could not help nod my head and still smile over the ridiculousness of things, such as when naive Cyn asks a female vampire what power Michael has that she is feeling things about him... this is the same heroine who later on jumps said Michael after one single sexual experience... I mean, is she naive and innocent or what? I also found funny how she quickly discovered she had no control of her power by turning a bad guy into a weasel...
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