Saturday, December 27, 2008

Night’s Pleasures-Amanda Ashley

Night’s Pleasures
Amanda Ashley
Zebra, Feb 2009, $6.99
ISBN: 082178062X

Journalist Savanah Gentry first met the magician when she was a little girl and her late single dad took her to watch him perform as the Remarkable Renaldo. Sixteen years later he still works the small town circuit but calls himself Santoro the Magnificent. In the Northern California audience he recognizes Savanah who somehow seems to follow his shows. Savanah wants to interview the magician, but though he wants her and has for years, vampire Rane Cordova has avoided his need to taste her blood. This time when she waits for him, he surprises both of them by asking her out.

Humanity has achieved universal peace until Vampires and Weres each believed they should run the earth so they finally went to war to decide who would rule (see NIGHT’S MASTER). Their fragile ceasefire is teetering as both sides seek the hunter who possesses a special reference book that lists all vampires. Savanah inherited the tome from her late mom, a renowned vampire hunter. Rane keeps her safe even as they fall in love.

This is an exciting paranormal romantic suspense starring star-crossed lovers as he is vampire and she's a slayer. The story line starts off at hyperspeed, get a bit anemic in the middle, but accelerates to the finish. Fans will enjoy this fine urban romantic fantasy as the paranormal species and Amanda Ashley’s alternate earth seem real.

Harriet Klausner

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