"Two erotic vampire novellas"

Marriage in Moonlust by Kate Hill

Historical. The local villagers all know that their overlords, the Family Debray, are vampires. But the Debrays are good and fair rulers, so the common people ignore the occasional unexplained deaths or anemic illnesses -- they feel they are better off than many others who live under cruel and greedy human lords.

However, while Lord Narcisse Debray is away, his evil younger brother Kornel is terrorizing the land, killing villagers and burning cottages, demanding the sacrifice of local women. Leona's unloving parents have offered her up to Kornel; Narcisse arrives home just in time to save her from rape and death. Narcisse tolerates his younger brother's behaviour and allows him to continue living at the castle only because Kornel once risked his own life in an unsuccessful attempt to save Narcisse's wife from death.

Narcisse quickly realizes that this beautiful peasant girl is good and pure and the first woman he has felt emotions for since his wife's death. Sabine, his young sister, enjoys having a friend, even if Leona is only a human. Narcisse and Sabine conspire to keep Leona in their family, but Kornel's madness and violence may bring them all to tragedy.

Although the plot was quite predictable, I liked the vampires in this story. They were very "human" -- they had emotions rather than being cold, had a religion of their own, and there were both good and bad vampire people. And they were not the type who moaned about how awful it was to be a creature of the night -- they accepted what they were as natural and normal. It was interesting that the vampires can conceive vampire children.

Icarus by Sherri L. King

Contemporary. The high-stress life of a popular songwriter and poet has driven Morrigan Mederos to abandon her life in New York City and move to an isolated manor on a Scottish loch. She hopes the change of pace and lifestyle will also bring an end to the disturbing recurring dreams she's been having -- dreams about a naked fantasy man who comes to her out of the water, claiming her as his own. Instead, once she is in Scotland, the dreams become more frequent, more detailed, more vivid. In fact, she starts having them even when she's awake, and suddenly it becomes difficult to separate reality and imagination. Especially when the man in her dreams drinks her blood -- and she wakes up with fang marks. She is frightened and wants to escape, but her dream man seems determined to keep her and willing to do anything to calm and please her. What exactly does he want from her?

The "vampire" in this story is a unique and interesting creation -- the typical vampiric fangs and need to drink blood, combined with living underwater and having giant gossamer wings. I enjoyed the hero's protectiveness and care for the heroine. Although I know not all readers care for this particular element, the 'fated love/destined mate' is a favorite theme for me. The only problem I had was that the complex storyline did not have enough space to truly develop within novella length. There were too many elements to be explained, and the ending became rushed; for example, adding a mysterious and sinister stranger only 18 pages from the end of the story meant there wasn't enough space left to create believable tension or interest in that subplot.

Rated Hard R by Ellora's Cave.

Reviewed by Raelene Gorlinsky
Courtesy Sensual Romance
Posted October 13, 2002

Summary

Marriage in Moonlust by Kate Hill: Sacrificed to a family of vampires, Leona is rescued by handsome, powerful Narcisse Debray. In spite of her initial fear of blood drinkers, Leona is unable to control her attraction to the vampire lord. His lovemaking excites her beyond her wildest imaginings and he offers devotion such as she's never known. Unfortunately, their happiness is tainted by the wickedness of a jealous enemy. Narcisse's younger brother will stop at nothing to see the lovers destroyed.

Icarus by Sherri L. King: He comes to her in dreams, when she is most vulnerable to his stirring touches and burning kisses. He drinks her blood and binds her to him in ways no mortal lover ever could...but Morrigan doesn't want to believe that her water-dwelling blood drinker is anything more than a figment of her deprived imagination. Morrigan wants to be free of her addiction to the highly sexual creature she knows only as Az. But Az has other plans...and soon he hopes that Morrigan will be too deeply under his spell to care that he wants to take her back to his homeworld... to be his mate for all eternity.