Lord of the Vampires (Royal House of Shadows, #1)

by Gena Showalter

[Cocktails and Books]

Jane Parker has been living life the best she's could. Since regaining the use of her legs several months ago, she has religiously run 5 miles a day, read books, eaten when hungry and slept. The only time her life seems to have any meaning these days is when she's dreaming. The drunk driver a year ago took away her life, along with her family, when he smashed into the family car killing her father and sister instantly and leaving her to watch her mother take her last breath. But in dreams, she's with this mysterious man who's chained in a cell but who calls to her like nothing she's ever experienced before.

Nicolai, the Crown Prince of Elden is a man without memories. He doesn't know he's a crown prince or the fate of his parents and siblings. All he knows are the 4 walls of his cell, the chains the confine him, the princesses that torture him and the feeling of vengeance and rage that boils in his blood. That's until the human woman he magically summons comes his cell and he knows, without a doubt that he needs to possess this woman, that she is his.

I couldn't connect with either of the main characters and felt like I was racing to catch up with some part of the story that I missed. Jane studied vampires in the human world and had been cursed by one, but why was the government studying them. How did they know about vampires? How about the aftermath from the accident that killed her family and nearly her? Then we get to Nicolai, who doesn't have his memories when he initially meets Jane, but then when he gets them back...there's almost no aftermath. Wouldn't he be a tad bit upset? Wouldn't he show this to Jane if he needed her so?

The evil plot line with the Blood Sorcerer barely is a blip on the screen here. If Nicolai has been magically enchanted to seek vengeance against the Blood Sorcerer, wouldn't we have a tad bit more information about what happened and/or why it happened? I would think Nicolai would want to seek out that information. Then we have Nicolai sensing one brother, towards the end of the story, and trying to communicate with him. When he doesn't "answer", Nicolai brushes it off with "I'll try him later." What??? You just remembered you have siblings, once you can sense and possibly communicate with an you blow if off as if you'll just call him tomorrow?

This story had such potential, but it falls a little short.

3 Cocktails