Lord of the Vampires

Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter is the first book in the Royal House of Shadows from Harlequin Nocturne. The series is about the children of a royal family in a world that exists parallel to our own. This is a world where magic exists, the king is a vampire, and the queen is a witch. Unfortunately for this particular ruling pair, their throne was coveted by an evil sorcerer, and they were murdered. But not before they each cast one final spell. The king’s spell imbued his four children with an unstoppable need for revenge. The queen used her last ounce of power to send each of her children far away from the sorcerer, from the kingdom, and unfortunately, from each other.

Lord of the Vampires is the story of the crown prince, the oldest son Nicolai. The spell flings him naked out of his own kingdom, Elden, and into the slave markets of Delfina, where he is quickly sold as a sex slave.  His memories are wiped away by magic, and he knows nothing except rage and his dreams of vengeance against a sorcerer whose name he cannot remember.

In our world, a woman named Jane Parker receives a leather-bound book, along with a note bearing four simple words, “I need you, Jane”. Jane is disbelieving. No one needs her. Her family was killed in a car crash, and she was the only survivor. She has just regained the use of her legs. She is totally alone. But touching the book brings back memories that she doesn’t think are hers, as well as dreams that she barely remembers. In dreams she has experienced what the book details, and she knows it. What she doesn’t know is how it is even possible. She worked in quantum physics before her accident, she has met creatures from the parallel world, but she is sure what she feels just isn’t logical.

But just the same, she can’t stop thinking about the book, her dreams, and her memories of those dreams. So when logic fails completely, she settles down to actually read the book itself. And when she falls asleep over the book, she crosses the barrier between the worlds, and meets her destiny. And Nicolai, who needs her.

Lord of the Vampires fell into the “just plain fun” category for me in spite of the dark themes throughout the book. The evil characters were all caricatures of evil, particularly the ones who have been “keeping” Nicolai for the last several years. The link between our world and Nicolai’s was just a bit too convenient. And although Nicolai summoned Jane to help him escape from his captivity, when she turns out to be his chosen mate, they are both surprisingly agreeable to being bound together for life. On the whole, Lord of the Vampires was mind candy, but it was pretty good mind candy. The next book in the series will be Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe, followed by Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Andersen and last by definitely not least Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh. It will be interesting to see how different authors manage to handle the different siblings while still retaining the continuity.

Escape Rating: C+: Definitely worth following the series, but the cliché count rose to high to keep me up all night reaching for the ending.