"interesting take on the vampire mythos"

Millenia ago eight aliens crashed landed on earth and the only nutrient that sustained them was human blood. A very few women who mated with them were able to bear them sons and the vampire race was born. In a dark alley, photographer Gabrielle Maxwell sees some men drinking the blood of victim. The ones who are doing them are Rogues, vampires with an out of control addiction to blood. They are vile and disdainful of humans who they see as cattle but the Breed vampires don't succumb to the blood lust and drink from volunteer humans.

Lucan is part of a warrior clan dedicated to the wiping out the Rogues. He sees Gabrielle in the alley taking pictures and after he kills the Rogues hunts her down. He gets the pictures from her by pretending to be a policeman but when they start to make love he sees a small mark on her neck. This marks her as a Breedmate, a woman who is destined to mate with a vampire and through the continued exchange of blood will have eternal life. Gabrielle is attracted to Lucan who fights his feelings because he is on the frontlines of a war and doesn't want any woman to take his mind off the fight. He is also afraid that he will give in to the blood lust and doesn't want Gabrielle to see that part of him that he feels is weak. The two put their own relationship on hold as the war between the Breeds and the Rouges heat up. A new leader has organized the enemy into an army that he hopes will exterminate the Breeds. Gabrielle finds herself in the crossfire of a battle and her only hope of being saved is Lucan.

Lara Adrian has an interesting take on the vampire mythos with its' deep structure and divisions in vampire society. This is an enticing and spellbinding paranormal romantic thriller. Lucan, who is nine hundred years old, comes across as a human with the same emotions and needs. Gabrielle accepts very quickly that vampires exist but is never frightened of Lucan who she sees as a vulnerable warrior tagged with the responsibility of eliminating the Rogues for too long. Readers who enter Lara Adrian's world will find themselves thoroughly absorbed in it.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 27, 2007

Read an Excerpt

Summary

He watches her from across the crowded dance club, a sensual black-haired stranger who stirs Gabrielle Maxwell's deepest fantasies. But nothing about this night—or this man—is what it seems. For when Gabrielle witnesses a murder outside the club, reality shifts into something dark and deadly. In that shattering instant she is thrust into a realm she never knew existed—a realm where vampires stalk the shadows and a blood war is set to ignite.

Lucan Thorne despises the violence carried out by his lawless brethren. A vampire himself, Lucan is a Breed warrior, sworn to protect his kind—and the unwitting humans existing alongside them—from the mounting threat of the Rogues. Lucan cannot risk binding himself to a mortal woman, but when Gabrielle is targeted by his enemies, he has no choice but to bring her into the dark underworld he commands.

Here, in the arms of the Breed's formidable leader, Gabrielle will confront an extraordinary destiny of danger, seduction, and the darkest pleasures of all. . . .