"Intoxicating Regency Set Vampires"
Picking up thirty years after Thompson's BLOOD MOON left
off, the author comes around with another stellar entry in
her vampire series featuring a grown up Joss Hyde-White,
the child conceived between Cassandra and Jon Hyde-White
during their 'blood moon' ritual. Joss knows he is the child of shape-shifting vampire
hunters ever since puberty when he discovered he could
shape-shift; but now other feelings were starting to
emerge and he knew he must find his parents to have them
explained. Not finding them in London he set out for home
in a storm that turned into a blizzard. Along the way,
Joss came upon a stranded coach in which a wolf leapt out.
Inside he found four mutilated bodies, and a young woman,
half frozen but still alive. Bringing her home to
Whitebriar Abbey would save Miss Cora Applegate's life,
but in falling in love and trying to protect her from a
vile creature bent on hurting the Hyde-White family might
cost both their lives and possibly their very souls. What a tremendously exciting sequel to Thompson's first
book in this wonderfully conceived and edgy vampire series
where Thompson takes a new look at vampires while putting
her own spin onto some preconceived notions of what they
can and cannot do. In this entry she introduces the son
Joss, of the former books H/H. Born of two vampires who
had escaped the curse of blood-thirst, they watched Joss
grow, knew he could shape-shift but knew not what other
vampire traits he might inherit. This left Joss, who was
just now beginning to exhibit some strange exotic
feelings, to have to determine what was happening to
himself. In fashioning Miss Cora Applegate the author created a
traumatized young woman whose past dictated her
determination to never trust or let another male dominate
her. Cora's secret shame and her unwillingness to trust
Joss, made for some hotly contested maulings in which Joss
came out the loser in trying to keep the little spit-fire
safe. The heroine Cora was quite a handful as she tried
to ignore the attraction of Joss, adding additional angst
to a dangerous situation but redeemed herself when she
made a supreme sacrifice for love. In bringing back the centuries old gypsy vampire hunter,
Milosh, the author enabled the reader to discover through
Milosh's explanations to Joss what he was experiencing as
well as relating stories of Joss' parent's roles in
attempting to slay the vile vampire Sebastian Valentin.
Just as in the first book of the series this one slipped
into high gear right from the start and didn't let up it's
furious pace until the very end as Joss accepted his
vocation to join THE BROTHERHOOD of vampire hunters to
help wipe out the blood thirsty vampires and try to
destroy the vilest of them all Sebastian Valentin. I'm sure that this second installment by Dawn Thompson
will thrill both Regency addicts as well as Paranormal
fans alike with her passionate and sensual love scenes,
fresh vampirism insights and compelling action.
Personally, I am foaming at the mouth for the next book
THE RAVENING (March 2008) featuring Milosh which promises
to be the well worth the wait. Marilyn Rondeau, RIO - Reviewers International
Organization for WWW.paranormalromance.org
Reviewed by Marilyn Rondeau
Posted August 10, 2007
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