Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Reviewer: Vin, Paranormal Romance Guild
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About The Book
Vampires are not alive, but they have lives and wants and needs and desires. And other cravings.
Erased from her vanity, Lady Isabella, a three-hundred-year-old vampire, longs to see her image and commissions an artist to paint her portrait. She’s feared nothing but daylight for centuries, but she trembles at the thought of what she might see.
Magnus attends to his Guinevere and her bloody cravings as a cursed event approaches. He takes to the night to find an appropriate snack from the diner but not something on the menu. However, sometimes substitutions have to be made, and they can be found in unlikely places.
Lord Matthias St. John rose under the spell Countess Finch, who’d killed his wife. After her demise, he fled to America to start a new life, such as it was, in New York. How did he come to find himself dying from a silver bullet on a farm on the prairie?
The Review
This book contains three short stories with characters that are Vampires.
In Portrait of a Lady Vampire, we meet Lady Isabella, who has commissioned Genevieve to paint her portrait. She wishes to see herself again after years of not being able to look in the mirror. I loved the way the author was able to convey a wide array and depth of emotions in such a short anecdote. I actually laughed at the ending!
Vampiric Cravings is about the Vampire couple Magnus and Guinevere, who are expecting a child. He caters to her and the baby by searching out Kelsi, a local virgin, to sate her pregnancy cravings. In a strange turn of events, she ends up becoming their biographer. I really enjoyed Magnus’ voice in this story. You can tell he really loves his wife, but is also incredibly exasperated by her demands.
In the third story, Lord Matthias, Vampire & the Silver Bullets, there were almost two separate stories. First of Lord Matthias’ early life and the events of him being turned, and then his second chance at love with Lady Autumn. Although I liked the premise behind this story the most, it felt slightly less confidently pieced together. The emotions weren’t as raw and I found it more difficult to connect to the characters.
It has been a while since I have enjoyed short stories. I really do usually prefer digging my teeth into a big tome. I was very surprised and pleased by the masterful way Chrisopher Burke is able to draw the reader into the story, create a depth of emotion, and then wrap it up with a nice bow in such a short amount of words. I greatly enjoyed the flow and style of his writing, and the characters that he has created.
Four stars.
The Reviewer
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