Rosemary Laurey

September, 1940. The plucky citizens of rural England have adapted to wartime life. Everyone uses blackout curtains, rides bicycles to save gasoline and takes in children from the cities or families whose homes have been damaged by bombings. Alice Doyle, the local doctor in the town of Brytewood, in Southeast England, administers what aid she can to the residents of her area. After having been up all night delivering twins, she comes across an injured man in Fletcher's Woods. She doesn't show more hesitate to bring him home with her, so she can care for him at her clinic.

Too bad the man she helps isn't a man at all, but one of four vampires employed by the Nazis and dropped into the English countryside to attack from the inside. When the ambulance that she has called finally arrives, the man has inexplicably disappeared. Alice's sweet Grandmother, who she lives with, invites the ambulance drivers in for a cup of tea. One of them is a nice young man named Peter Watson. Or he seems nice enough, but when Alice finds out that he is a Conscientious Objector she loses all respect for him. A healthy young man like him should be out there fighting, like her brothers are.

The disappearing man was the first odd occurrence, but there are soon more. Alice and her nurse, Gloria, have their hands full and desperately need some assistance. Their prayers are answered when a first aid assistant is assigned to them. It turns out to be none other than Peter Watson. Alice will have to find a way to work with the man, despite her personal feelings.

The vampires have their plans, and soon they are putting them in action. Fortunately for the citizens of Brytewood, there is some truth to the old folklore tales that everyone has been raised on. Magic still exists in England, though it has long since been dressed in a veil of normalcy. Take Alice's Gran, for instance. She is Pixie, a centuries old magical race and Alice is, too, though her rational mind refuses to believe it. And the old Sergeant in the village is a dragon. He rarely uses his dragon shape now, but he is still in command of his powers and is ready and willing to use them in defence of his beloved country.

If the Nazis think they have a monopoly on the supernatural, they are sadly mistaken. The vampires they have recruited are far from the only creatures in this war and they will find that their task is much harder than they had anticipated. The humans have far more help than they ever realized, but they will need every bit of it to defeat the greatest evil that the world has ever known.

This book is a wonderful combination of historical fiction, romance, fantasy and paranormal. I was immediately interested in the World War II setting and I loved the imaginative use of the folklore of England. I really enjoyed this one and am looking forward to reading the next two books in the series, Bloody Awful and Bloody Right. The only complaint I have is that the book should have been proofread more carefully. I received a finished copy and found quite a few typos and context errors that would have been caught by a good proofreader. Otherwise a very entertaining, delightful book! show less

Two stories in one. The first story is Hand of a Master. Helen is hired by Luc to catalog his library. On her first night, Luc and Branko, his secretary, stage a BDSM scene in the garden outside her window. She is aroused. Luc and Branko know she watched them. Luc and Helen then proceed to engage an affair. Helen's contract is coming to an end when there is a break-in and the cook is murdered. Who did it? What were they looking for? Will Helen stay with Luc?

The second story is Touch of a show more Dom. Adele is hired as a cook to replace the murdered cook from Hand of a Master. She is also looking for her father, so the position makes it possible to look for him since it was where her father supposedly went when he left Adele and her mother. Helen and Branko set up a scene for Adele's first night. Unlike Helen, Adele interrupts the scene and wants Branko. The two of them begin an affair. Will Adele find her father? Will she and Branko continue their affair if she stays?

I enjoyed these stories. I liked that they were part of a series. I liked how these characters were in tune with each other. Their relationships were open. They were made for each other. I liked the graphicness of the scenes. They were hot! There were secrets that slowly made their ways out.

I look forward to reading more of this author. show less

This was one of my very first forays into vampire romance - and I was blown away. I really enjoyed the characters and the author clearly used her knowledge of local England to enhance my experience.

As I have moved along and become much more discriminating I would never rate it as high as I presently have it - but I left the 4.5 stars as a reminder to my self that this book really was phenomenal to me at the time. And also to make me appreciate where I have come as a reader.

There are so many problems with this book that I don’t think I can name them all. I’ll just mention a few.
The beginning is confusing. Too many characters are introduced at once.
The descriptions are flat. I don’t see the place or the characters involved.
The characterization is lame, and as a result, the narrative lacks focus. There are so many POVs that even after I finished the book I have trouble deciding who the protagonist was. That’s some sloppy writing. Was there even one show more protagonist? Two? Five? Eight? The questions remain unanswered. None of the good characters is defined better than the others. All of them are 2-dimentional at best, so I don’t sympathize with anyone. The deeper characterization is reserved for antagonists, who are defined and obviously evil.
But despite the multiple flaws, I read the novel; I finished it. This book one redeeming quality is its story – and it’s a good one. It takes place in England during the WWII. The villains are Nazi vampires. They’re German spies, infiltrating a village outside of London to prepare for an invasion. The good guys are the villagers with some arcane powers: a couple of dragon shifters, a water sprite, a pixie or two, and a shape-shifting fox. Together, they thwart the vampires’ nefarious schemes and rid their village of the blood-sucking infestation. Along the way, they fall in love and get married, at least some of them do.
Everything in this book I’ve seen before, in other books, with better execution. But I want to finish on a positive note: the cover art is really funky: atmospheric and humorous, reflecting what this book was supposed to be. The cover actually inspired me to pick up this book from the library fantasy shelf. show less