Regency Romance Meets Beauty and the Beast

Evelyn Bromwell is traveling with her aunt to meet the man she expects to marry. Evelyn isn't in love, but security drives her to consider marriage. She and her aunt are caught in a storm and their carriage overturns. Evelyn's aunt and coachman are badly injured. Evelyn runs through the forest in search of help and stumbles across a chained gate blocking her way to a dilapidated manor. Determined to save her aunt, Evelyn climbs the gate, forces her way into the house, and demands that the man inside help her.

Alexander Cole is a selfish man only concerned with his own misery. Two years ago a beautiful woman bewitched him and he'd woken to find himself changed, craving blood and unable to bear sunlight. He locked himself away in his manor and spread rumors that he had been terribly disfigured in an accident. Now he spends every day alone, living on animal blood and cursing his loneliness.

When Evelyn arrives at his home, Alex isn't overwhelmed by his craving for her blood. Instead she stirs pity in him, and for the first time in two years Alex glimpses his own humanity. Determined to discover if the feelings will last, Alex agrees to help her. When Evelyn and her aunt are forced to stay in his home until her soon to be fiancee arrives, she awakens other feelings in him that he hadn't felt even before he was cursed.

I haven't read many vampire novels, but I think this would be considered "vampire lite". The focus is on Regency romance and the vampire plot is secondary. It does add a flavor with a light tang of the supernatural that makes this story unique . Alex is a tortured soul, isolated and tormented. Evelyn is a strong and capable heroine, fighting to force her way into Alex's heart. I enjoyed all the characters in the book and the story was well told and entertaining. This isn't a clean read, there are passionate and explicit love scenes.

I've listened to a few audiobooks narrated by Kylie Stewart and they're always enjoyable. The narrator speaks with an accent that's very pleasant. I received a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

3 people found this helpful

Terrible narrator, bad to the point of laughter.

Hard to believe the narrator has had any kind of training. I could almost believe English is not her first language because of the many times she mispronounced words. My favorite was the description of hair as “bed raggled.”

2 people found this helpful

A BEAUTIFULLY DARK LOVE STORY!

Ms. Clee is such a wonderful storyteller! Each time I read a new book of hers I swear it is better than the last one. This story starts a new series and it sets up a world where life can sometimes be very dark. But in this story, love does prevail. Alexander and Evelyn's bond help them to navigate through this darkness. I loved the characters in this novel and cannot wait to learn more about them in the following books. Kylie Stewart's voice lends itself magically to Ms. Clee's characters. She lends just the right amount of emotion to each personality to bring the story to life. I look forward to listening to the rest of this wonderful series.

1 person found this helpful

I'm interested . . .

This mixes 3 things I love in a story: historical UK, romance and fantasy/paranormal. I liked this twist on the classic vampire man falls in love with a mortal woman story and the brotherhood that he formed with the other 2 vampires. Interested to see what happens next. 3.5 stars

Good find.

enjoyed this book. first read deom author. good balance of story, sex and mystery. look forward to the next.

Bodice ripping beauty and the beast meets The BDB

This one is a complete and total rough start. But once you get past the first two pages to meet the main female lead, it's quite entertaining. Her attitude in the time. The story takes place in is quite amusing. Her back-and-forth with the supposedly "beastly" Lord Hale. Appeal to me. Usually when you release historical romances. Very few of the female leads are that forthcoming because of the thoughts of the time. This is one of the things that allowed me to ignore the completely and utterly horrible narration of the story. She doesn't make very many choice distinctions between the characters. At first when it first starts out in some spots. She sounds like there's an emergency somewhere she's reading so fast. I guess the thing that annoyed me the most is really if the recording audible you think someone would go over the pronunciation or at least catch the pronunciation mistakes in editing because when I hear something like that. It sort of throws me out of my own internal movie, talking about the difference between tamato and tomato I'm talking things like bed-raggled as opposed to bedraggled many other things, but there are very amusing points of the story. It is not the most cost created, nor is it the very best I've ever read. But there are enough entertaining points and enough amusing fairytale qualities to make it something easy to listen to while doing paperwork or chores including cooking, that's one thing if you want something light to bring a smile to the romance between the two main characters as well as their camaraderie will give you that. Not to mention the humor between the other supporting characters. There were a few points where I actually laughed out loud and that is one reason I will give this book at least three stars. Imagining Mr. Southerby traipsing to the forest after 100 fairies is just too good :-)

Love This Series

I had never listened to or read books by this author until now. How did I miss her talent? I cannot wait to read more about these sexy tenderhearted vampires.

Narrator is not Great!

The story sounds good, but there is absolutely no voice range with this narrator. Every character sound exactly the same and it makes it hard to listen to and get thru. It’s also a real bummer that even for the male characters sounds like a women’s voice and no passion behind her voice. Bummer!

4 Stars well deserved!

This book had my full attention. I adored Alexander & Evelyn. Their love was so sweet. My favorite part tho is when Emit, used his mind power on Evenlyns con artist betrothed on a hunt for fairies brainwashing him to believe he had only a week to find a hundred. After him & Alexander rescued Eve again from the sick jerk. That made me laugh out loud. I enjoyed Emits sense of humor. How he was able to get Alex to smile. I’m glad Alex finally found others like him. Now he’s part of The Brotherhood. I recommend this book to those who like The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series. It’s worth every minute spent.

Lost to the night

Enjoyable romp through a woman's love life with a paranormal man. Historical romance with a couple of evil people trying to con a young woman and society.