"Gorgeous vamp hero and feisty heroine, spiced with laughter"

Claire Treemont is used to dead bodies. After all, she works in the Medical Examiner's office and performs autopsies daily. What she isn't used to is being turned on by sight of a particularly handsome and well-hung corpse, one Zachariah Kowalski (yes, he's a POLISH vampire). And she is especially disconcerted when one naked, well-muscled arm grabs her wrist. And even more so when the former corpse scoops her up and carries her to her office for a round of glorious sex.

It's even weirder when she wakes up to find her gorgeous once-dead lover in her house the next morning. No, it wasn't the result of a fever dream. Only problem is, who do you call to report "Help me, I've just boinked a dead guy and now I'm thinking that boinking him again might be within the realm of possibility"?

Zak explains he's a narcoleptic and a vampire, which makes a weird kind of sense. "Holy delusional, Batman!" He also dismisses a lot of the myths about vampires — that they're evil (depends on the vamp), that they can't go out in the daytime (lots of sunscreen and long sleeves help), that they're sexually insatiable (true). He also tells Claire they are fated to be mates — he knew it as soon as he saw her.

But it's what he doesn't tell her that's most important: that he has loved and lost her through many lifetimes, before he could change her, due to the interference of a hated rival. He has to keep her safe until the proper moment to change her, and that rival is still very much alive and very determined to thwart his plans. Claire of course has enough on her plate, with a family full of Polish vampire in-laws-to-be and a wedding to plan. And she wants to be changed now. Poor Zak has his hands full.

If you love vamps but are sick and tired of gloomy clones of Rice's Louis or self-centered smartasses like her Brat Prince Lestat, you'll fall hard for Zak. He's a sensible sort of guy, not to mention lusty and sexy enough to make country western signer Joe Nicols look plain — and he's got scads of equally good-looking relatives (more books, Dakota, HINT). Claire is sassy and spirited and sexy enough to give her fanged studmuffin a run for his money. Her internal monologues are unfailingly hilarious as she adjusts to her fate. Vampirism hasn't been so funny since Love at First Bite — but this time, the vampire is more than up to the challenges and to Claire's sexual demands. This is a truly original take on a perennial favorite genre, and Katie MacAllisiter has a serious rival in Dakota Cassidy. Enjoy this frothy confection for the sheer fun and the hot steamy sex scenes equally.

Sensuality Rating — sexy and steamy with lots of heterosexual monogamous sex.

Reviewed by Gillian Fitzgerald
Courtesy Sensual Romance Reviews
Posted July 18, 2004

Summary

Claire Treemont lives a quiet, mundane life, until she meets Zachariah...he's tall, dark, fabulous and very dead! He's also a vampire with a quirky medical issue and an enlightened view on vampires in modern day society. Zach is exciting and campy and he claims Claire is his life mate.

Claire sure won't argue with this hunk of a blood sucker, not after the wild lust he evokes in her with just a dimpled grin. The hunky Zach is everything to rival a girls wildest fantasies and more. His voracious appetite for Claire makes her a ready and willing participant in this vampire thing but there's one small problem...and it shows up in the way of fate and a nasty villain or two...