Vampire Guardian (Vampire Queen 17) by Joey W. Hill-Review tour
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date June 15, 2021.
Fae and vampires never fall in love. Except when they do.
Adan has come to Club Atlantis to do a job. The BDSM club is to become part of the portal network for magic users. A born vampire with the blood of a Cherokee shaman and an Irish Seer, Adan is apprenticed to a Light Guardian helping him hone his skills to become a full sorcerer. Perhaps even a Guardian himself one day.
But Club Atlantis is a haven for a Fae female, an unwelcome distraction. His hatred for her kind means even her scent can set off his bloodlust.
Catriona is a Fae unsettled in her own world, and physiologically unable to be in the human one without extraordinary protections in place. She can’t put down roots anywhere. For a tree nymph, that’s a serious problem. One that calls for a solution that will appall the Fae world.
History says a vampire and a Fae who fall in love are destined for tragedy. But love has a way of refusing to be ignored. No matter the consequences
•••••••
REVIEW:Part of a series.
Stand-alone? As I haven’t read any of the previous books in this series, I’d say yes, but I did get the feeling there are things going on in previous books, so I’ll probably go back and read the rest at some point. But it didn’t detract from the main story.
Vampires and Fae are bitter enemies? They don’t mix and they certainly don’t mate each other!
Adan is a young vampire (well to the vampire community he is) but he’s here to assess the BDSM club his boss/mentor sent him to check out.
The club intends to be more a club, it’s going to be used as a portal to different realms, and so it needs to be secure. His job is to enter undetected and then report back.
Adan was taken by the Fae as a very young boy, it changed him, and he swore never to be powerless again!
Becoming a light guardian is all Adan has ever wanted to be, to protect and wield magic, to help others as he himself was helped. He wants to become the youngest to do what only the oldest and strongest vampires can do. That path hasn’t been easy, he’s impatient and a little egotistical, so this job is an important step in his training.
Catriona a wood nymph. She doesn’t fit in anywhere. Too unusual to pretend to be human and unhappy in her realm, so coming to the club seemed the best option until she can work out what she wants. A quiet creature, but with a quiet strength that will hold her steady in this book.
Dealing with loss, pain and rejection, this book deals with it all. Both main characters know that they shouldn’t be together, but neither can stay away from each other.
His hate is all encompassing for the Fae and all of a sudden there is one staring at him from across the water! He wants to rip her throat out and drink her intoxicating blood but he also wants to dominate her! And that has him thinking she’s enchanted him somehow….
Time spent together has them fighting their feelings for one another. But how can Adan get past his hatred? And can Catorina be everything to him?
The master and servant plays a big part in this book, but it’s treated with reverence and respect. Those scenes were some of my favourite parts of the book, reading the interaction makes you understand a little more of the power play between the two characters.
We also get a byplay of secondary characters (these are from previous stories) which I was a totally inboard with (I need to know more about these now) ?
Can this couple really make a go of it? It was great watching them connect and grow as a couple, to read how they fought their feelings, and then fought to stay together.
Romance? There is plenty to keep the romantic happy, there is also enough spice to keep you riveted to the book.
I’ve read a few of the authors other series (Natural Desire) and I loved some of the books and characters in that series.
Recommend? Definitely. This book was one I couldn’t put down. And I’m now interested in the rest of the series. Beautifully written, and thought out really well. This author knows her genre, and she shows it in the mastery of her words. Your pulled in, you become entangled in the world. You hold your breath as they they battle both their feelings and both the communities they herald from. And when Adan gets the opportunity to train in the Underworld as a guardian, he’s torn! That means leaving everyone he knows, including his little Fae!
Will they survive the separation?
?
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Julie B
NOTE: The excerpt is intended for mature readers 18+ due to content and language.
“What magical abilities do you possess?” Adan asked coolly.
As she turned her head, a light smile touched her lips. “What intelligent being would reveal that to someone who has not decided whether he is friend or foe?”
“Don’t play with me.”
Her smile vanished, her body going rigid as she pivoted back to the cross. “If my company offends you, my lord, you can return to your studies.”
Why the hell was he testing these waters? But he already knew the answer.
Dom, sub. Same room. Dungeon equipment.
Let poor judgment reign.
“Tell me what you’re trying to figure out, about the cross,” he said.
Her shoulders tensed. “How it works,” she said stiffly.
When he closed the distance between them, she flipped around to face him, so fast non-human speed got a checkbox on her list of skills. He logged her rabbiting pulse, her dilated eyes. Flight and defense reactions. But when his gaze dropped to her hands, he saw half-curled fists. Fight reaction.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said gruffly. “I’m going to show you. All right?”
She pressed her lips together, gave him a short nod. He could tell her to step onto the cross’s foot platforms, facing him, but he didn’t. He slid an arm around her waist and lifted her. Her willow lean body was surprisingly resilient, and way too female. All the trigger points went off, designed by the smirking, sadistic gods to make him respond to a woman’s proximity.
Keeping a steadying hand at her waist, he gripped her wrist and lifted it, aligning her right arm with that arm of the cross. “Leave your knuckles pressed to the wood.”
He brought down the adjustable handle, guided her fingers beneath it and did the same to the other hand. “Grip those, and don’t let go of them.”
The Dom woodworker had been inspired by a medieval rack, only for far better purpose. Adan slid both handles back up, bringing her up on her toes again. While his vampire senses could calculate precise reach, his experience as a Master told him where that extra inch was, past which a sub had to strain for him.
It lifted her chest, pressed it against his torso. He spread his hands over her wrists, and noted her knuckles were white where they gripped the handles. That, and the quiver of her breasts, told him she wasn’t calm.
Now she had the confused, little-bit-dazed look a submissive new to it did. He’d scented a hint of her arousal when she approached the cross. That bouquet had gone from fragrant, barely there, to a full-on, heady perfume of want.
He should suggest they play, right here and now. If she wanted to learn, there was nothing like hands-on experience. He dipped his head, intending to test those waters by brushing his lips up along the shell of her ear. Except that shell narrowed to a point, and when he followed that track, he saw her wings, framed inside the V-top of the cross and fluttering in uncertain agitation.
It brought him back to his senses. He’d cut his dick off before he’d put it inside a Fae.
Unfortunately, that part of his body didn’t care. His fingers itched to tease her heated wetness, his mouth wanted to taste. He wanted to slide into her so deep he’d reach all her mysteries, open up whatever magic she was spinning on his senses.
Her waiting on him so obediently, while her need grew, didn’t help. She’d kept her hands where he’d ordered them, her body on display, an unconscious invitation, and it made him angry. But he managed to speak in an even tone.
“The Dom straps your wrists up like this. Your ankles to the bottom pieces. He can choose to keep you facing him, or turn you around, depending on what he wants to access.”
Her breath flitted across his mouth like the brush of a feather. “What does he do, once he restrains me?”
“Whatever he wants.”
Her grey-green eyes became even softer, the color of down. “What would you do to me, my lord?”
He stepped back, releasing her so suddenly one of her feet left the platform. Her hands slipped away from the handles and she gripped the frame to steady herself. Emotions flipped across her face. Surprise. Hurt. Thoughtfulness. She straightened, linking her hands together, knotted fingers pressed to her abdomen.
“One moment, you look at me with desire,” she said. “Interest. Hunger. The next moment, what’s in your eyes becomes hatred. So much it hurts.”
“Hurts who?”
“Me. You. Everything.” The break in her voice betrayed her emotions. “It coats everything around you in reds and oranges, the colors of rage.”
He stared at her. “Put your arms and feet back where I had them.”
“Why?” She set her jaw, her fingers digging against her stomach. She was having trouble standing against his will. Knowing why only made him sink deeper into trouble.
“Because I told you to.” He touched her chin to bring her eyes from his throat up to his face. “I still won’t hurt you.”
He hadn’t said the words with any kind of gentleness, but he meant them. Even though the volatile reaction boiling in his gut told him he couldn’t do this much longer.
Since the handles were still where he’d moved them, she reached up with a graceful arch of her body, another unconscious sexual offering, especially with her thighs spread along the bottom legs of the cross.
Red and orange were the colors for passion as well. And rage and passion could get along well enough.
He closed the distance, bringing them almost nose to nose. She had a sweet one, small and straight, nostrils flared from her agitation. When he put his hands over her slim wrists, her lips parted. It made him want to unsheathe his fangs.
“I can hate what you are and have you all the same,” he said, low. “Make you beg for more. You’ll cherish my hatred, what I can summon from those fires to turn your body to flame.”
She trembled. Her eyes, so big and filled with the colors of earth, beckoned him to tumble into their depths. Into the heart of the earth itself, which was flame, too. A different kind of flame.
Her head turned, and she started. Her reaction pulled him out of his turmoil, such that he followed her gaze.
Whatever influence he’d had on her mind and emotions had resulted in a resurrection of the wood. The cross now had several cracks in its veneer, tiny shoots coming forth, green leaves unfurling.
“Life doesn’t respond to hate, my lord,” she said softly.
Joey W. Hill writes about vampires, mermaids, boardroom executives, cops, witches, angels, simple housemaids . . . pretty much wherever inspiration takes her. She’s penned over forty acclaimed titles and six award-winning series, and been awarded the RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award for Erotica. But she’s especially proud and humbled to have won the support and enthusiasm of a wonderful, widely diverse readership.
So why erotic romance? “Writing great erotic romance is all about exploring the true face of who we are – the best and worst – which typically comes out in the most vulnerable moments of sexual intimacy.” She has earned a reputation for writing BDSM romance that not only wins her fans of that genre, but readers who would “never” read BDSM romance. She believes that’s because strong, compelling characters are the most important part of her books.
“Whatever genre you’re writing, if the characters are captivating and sympathetic, the readers are going to want to see what happens to them. That was the defining element of the romances I loved most and which shaped my own writing. Bringing characters together who have numerous emotional obstacles standing in their way, watching them reach a soul-deep understanding of one another through the expression of their darkest sexual needs, and then growing from that understanding into love – that’s the kind of story I love to write.”
Take the plunge with her, and don’t hesitate to let her know what you think of her work, good or bad. She thrives on feedback!
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Great review, Julie. Looks like a good story line.
Thanks for another wonderful review and excerpt.
Terrific review, Julie. Looks like a great read.
Very nice review and excerpt, thanks
Fantastic review, thanks for the excerpt.
Looks great, thanks Julie
Terrific review, Julie. Looks like something I would enjoy. Thanks.
Great review, Julie. Sounds exciting. Thanks.
Very nice review, Julie. Looks very good.
Thanks for the great review, Julie.