Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novella
Eli is addicted to vampires. Everything about them from their fangs, to their bite, to the blood release, to their strength, and the simple fact that they are not human. He spends plenty of time on the FangFinder website searching for his next vampire encounter and is constantly chasing that high to emulate that first time he was bitten.
This weekend Eli has voluntarily signed himself up at a den he has never been to before where, for 72 hours, he will be at the complete mercy of the den members. Eli cannot wait and is up for anything and everything. Well, except he wasn’t expecting Orion.
Orion is known as a dhampir and is the only den member without fangs. This comes from his being half human and Orion wears metal prongs over his fingers to replicate a vampire bite. Orion can mostly still give the humans what they crave, but Orion is looking for something in return. He wants a human that is looking for complete submission and when Eli shows up, Orion’s den family reserves Eli just for him.
Eli is not expecting a dhampir and he doesn’t want just half a vampire and he struggles each time Orion touches him. Yet, the pleasure is intense and Eli may have found what he didn’t even know he was looking for.
With all that is available online these days, this book offers a unique look at vampires and vampire dens and how Eli can reserve himself a spot with a vampire. When we first meet Eli, he is just signing the paperwork for his stay at a den he has not visited before. The contract is full consent for the vampires to do anything to him and Eli thinks he is ready for it all. We slowly learn that Eli longs for the release of his blood almost as an alternative to self harm and his addiction has him homeless and jobless as he tries to move from one vampire den to the next, although, he would love it if a vampire wanted to keep him.
Orion comes across as being somewhat secure with who he is, but also feels less than his den mates who are full vampires. Eli also makes him immediately feel less than as Orion does not have fangs or healing blood. Mostly though, Orion came across as a good guy who is a bit lonely as his dhmapir status isn’t of the most interest to those that visit the den.
For me, this wasn’t the erotic short that the blurb or the opening of the book made it out to be. It could have been more, but where I struggled was with the way Eli and Orion interacted with each other. It came across that they were both settling, Eli with a half vampire and Orion with someone who saw him as a second choice. It then made their intimate scenes have less impact. Also, there was a power play introduced with Eli wanting submission and Orion looking to dominate and the scenes got started only to wrap up before the dynamics were fully explored. There were also a lot of emotional and psychological issues that Eli was struggling with. He was filled with anxiety, the root of the issues were not fully addressed, and there was too much here to balance out for the length of the story.
The ending then opens up a new storyline as this is billed as a continuing series and as far as Eli and Orion, I wasn’t completely sold on their relationship as it was presented. This book had a great premise with a newer spin on modern day vampires, but the execution didn’t quite get all the way there for me.
