"terrific vampire romance"

In New Orleans, close friends Lauren Crow, Heidi Weiss and Deanna Marin are enjoying a bachelorette weekend together before the countdown to Heidi's wedding begins. The three pals stop at a portable table near the Cathedral where Susan the fortune teller reads their future. In a crystal ball Susan shows Lauren the image of a man offering her "a world of blood and death and darkness"; Heidi and Deanna do not see what Lauren saw. She is stunned when a dark smooth evil voice whispers he is coming for her. She makes a noise and the crystal ball breaks. Susan warns them to stay in crowded places fearing for Lauren.

The vision and Susan's reaction convince Lauren that her feelings that someone is following her are true and not just a response to the atmosphere of the French Quarter. Vampire hunter Mark Davidson trails malevolent bloodsucker Stephen who has 'seen" Lauren and believes she is the reincarnation of his long dead beloved. The vampire plans to reunite with her while dining on the blood of her friends. Mark plans to keep the three females safe although like Stephen he is attracted to Lauren.

Although the lead and secondary cast members are three dimensional, this terrific vampire romance is owned by post Katrina New Orleans as the atmosphere of the city is everywhere in the exciting story line. Mark is a fascinating obstinate hero who finds love distracts his edge by taking away from his narrow single minded focus. Lauren also changes from a disbeliever to a firm understanding that vampires exist. Although no monster twists occur as Heather Graham's fine tale is within the BLOOD RED sub-genre norm, fans will appreciate Heidi's bachelorette weekend in the French Quarter.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 24, 2007

Summary

When a fortune-teller shows bridesmaid Lauren Crow an omen of her gruesome death, she and her friends laugh it off as cheesy theatrics—until women begin disappearing in the night.

Even as the streets become more dangerous, Lauren finds herself lusting after a man who is himself dangerous—and quite possibly crazy. Mark Davidson prowls the city by night armed with crosses and holy water, in search of vampires, whose existence, he insists, is real. He is as irresistibly drawn to Lauren as she is to him, and not only because she's the image of his murdered fiancée. But Mark's frightening obsession with finding his lover's killer merely hides a bitter vendetta that cuts deeper than grief over a lost love.

As Lauren wrestles with desire and disbelief, sinister shadows lengthen over New Orleans, threatening her friends and foretelling a battle that may spell the end of the city's uneasy truce between the living and the undead.