"Paranormal Romance at it's very BEST!"

Angela Knight shows her brilliance by combining the very hot vampire genre with Grail lore, and creates a very original concept. A concept that will put her on the bestsellers list! The first in the series, Master of the Night, we get a wonderful, fast pace tale that will have you hooked from the start. In September, smart people had a taste of the hot premise in Hot Blooded, an anthology (Knight, Christine Feehan, Emma Holly and Maggie Shayne), where Knight premiered her storyline with her tale "Seduction's Gift". In that novella, we learnt the "rules" of Knight's new magical realm.

Eschewing the Ann Rice's sexless bloodsucker and the promiscuous predator male who equates blood with good sex, Knight has struck out on her own -- and conjured gold! Rice's writing while amazing, left me cold where romance was concerned. Her vamps were often Androgynous, if not gay or bisexual, so this limited the range of emotions provoked by her prose. On the other end of the pendulum - the Vampire as a strictly romance hero always presented me with troubles. Problems of disease aside, how could a woman love a man who must go around "necking" with hundreds of dames to stay alive? This seems more a male oriented fantasy -- the accepting of a hero "sleeping around" on the heroine. Knight deftly handles both of these extremes, by promptly dismissing them, and travelling her own path. Vampires are not as we know them from Hollywood created lore. First off, they are male, never female. They can drink the blood of humans, but it's not the focus of their existence, not how they survive. Most would rather not. Where they get their true life giving essence is they must drink the blood of a Maja -- a witch, and the Maja must have the vampire take the blood in order for her to survive. A true symbiotic relationship, which dismisses the disease question, bars the vampires "forcing" his will on another, and removes the sexuality of the act out of the question -- unless the vampire and witch just enjoy that, too.

You see Camelot was a myth. But not the myth as we know it. Merlin and Nimue were from a race of beings outside of Earth. They came as protectors to the fledging human race, and still exist in their own magical realm. There are actually three realms on earth, the realm of the Mageverse, the Sidhe and the mortal world. Mortals know nothing of the other two realms, though both often play roles in shaping the normal world. In the Mageverse, the vampires and witches are the ladies and knights of Camelot. They're sworn to be protectors of mortal man. From the children of moral man and woman, come the potential vampires and witches of future generations. They are called Latents. Not all mortals who are Latents can be turned. Many cannot handle being changed into an immortal, and all the powers that come with the change, and often can drive them mad. And change can only be accomplish by having a male vampire turn a female Latent, or the female Maja witch changes the male mortal, through the sexual act.

Knight creates these original and imaginative perimeters for her series, and then sits back and has a great time. She is a bold, sexy writer that has a strong Southern (US) wit, and is THE writer to watch today. She is going places, and Master of the Night is the first sounding shot that this talent is here to stay.

In Master of the Night, Vampire Knight Reece Champion, Knight defender of the USA, and also agent of the US government, senses the Latent Erin Grayson. Erin is on a mission to romance international businessman Reece Champion. She believes seducing the sexy Champion will put her closer to the revenge she is seeking against a murderous organization. Only, what Erin does not comprehend is she is a pawn being used against Reece by the very people she is trying to stop. Sex with Erin is dangerous. She is a Latent. Three times of the "big whammy" and he would turn her into a Maja. It's forbidden for any immortal to change a Latent, without the Council's permission. The Council will only pass permission for the changing of Latents they know can handle the transformation. If you change a Latent without Council approval, it's a death sentence for the immortal and mortal both. So, Reece is fighting this unseen evil out to destroy both Erin and him, but must walk that fine line of deep attraction he feels for the Latent.

Knight is sizzling hot, she is frank, she is cutting-edge. She is the writer all other writers will be following, saying, "gee, wish I had thought of that." It's not a book for Auntie Em or for Gran -- unless they are bold ladies who likes their romance strong with adventure and sizzling red-hot!

Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted October 11, 2004

Summary

American agent Erin Grayson has a new mission: romance international businessman Reece Champion. Seducing the handsome millionaire could put her that much closer to the revenge she craves against a murderous death cult.

Erin doesn't realize she's being manipulated by the very cult she hunts. Champion is actually an agent of the U.S. government.

He's also a vampire.

Reece immediately senses the latent supernatural powers hidden within Erin, powers as dangerously irresistible to him as her lush body and hot blood. Yet he also knows that yielding to their mutual desire will make them pawns in a deadly game.

And their opponent is, quite literally, a monster.