Rating: 3.75 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
It’s been eleven weeks and three days since Daniel last saw Tom, his ex-lover. Less than four months, and it still stings. Tom, who didn’t like clubbing, but did like cheating on Daniel. Well, tonight Daniel’s going to cut loose and go clubbing. A fellow professor told him about a gay club, the Fallen Angel, where men can dress up in something a little more fancy than just skin tight leather. There’s lace, velvet, cravats, and top hats … and Nick.
Nick isn’t the type Daniel would usually go for, but the young blonde man with the sharp smile is worth a quick talk and a few dances. When Nick offers more than just a dance, Daniel is tempted, but there’s something about the glitter in those lovely eyes that makes him give it a pass. He needs more incentive than a “sure, why not” to head back to someone’s place. But as he turns back to give Nick another last look, his eyes are caught by someone else, someone whose very gaze calls to him, who almost makes him cross the crowded dance floor just to get to him — but the moment is lost when the crowd gets between them.
Daniel can’t get the two men out of his head, neither Nick with his blonde hair and bright smile nor the enigmatic Vincent, whose commanding presence and skill in bed let Daniel forget, for a few blissful moments, all the pain and loneliness Tom has put him through. But there’s something about the two men that leave him uneasy, even as they captivate him.
This novella is darker and colder than many vampire romances. This isn’t so much love and poetry as it is sex, passion, and the fear of being alone. Daniel has isolated himself in a bid to keep Tom from hurting him any more, changing jobs, phones, cities … and yet when Tom tracks him down, he still can’t bring himself to sever any last lingering bond between them. He likewise clings to his one friend at the school, a fellow professor on the edge of retirement, desperate for connection and yet so afraid of it.
Nick and Vincent are mysterious figures who aren’t so much interested in Daniel as a person than as a potential. A potential playmate, a potential meal, a potential moment of entertainment. It isn’t until their master, the mysterious Michael, is involved that Daniel becomes something worth a deeper interest.
This is a quick, Gothic novella that I found myself enjoying even as it annoyed me by not giving me more. I wanted to know more about the vampires, how they lived and who they were. There were hints of power, of something new and different than other vampire books, but just as the story started picking up momentum, it ended. I really hope to see more from this author, because I enjoyed this novella. If you’re a fan of vampires and found families, you should consider giving this a chance.
