Review: Lord of the Vampires (Royal House of Shadows #1) by Gena Showalter

Release date: August 30, 2011
Synopsis (Goodreads):

Once upon a time…the Blood Sorcerer vanquished the kingdom of Elden. To save their children, the queen scattered them to safety and the king filled them with a need for vengeance. Only a magical timepiece connects the four royal heirs…and time is running out.

Nicolai the Vampire is renowned for his virility, but in a cruel twist of fate “The Dark Seducer” has become a sex slave in the kingdom of Delfina—stripped of his precious timepiece and his memory. All that remains is a primal need for freedom, revenge—and the only woman who can help him.

When the wanton vampire summons Jane Parker, she is helpless to obey. She's drawn to his dark sexuality and into his magical realm. But for this human, all is not a fairy tale. For saving Nicolai could mean losing the only man she's ever craved...

My Thoughts:  I had fun reading this book.  I mean, what's not to like?  We have a sexy, enslaved vampire who wants vengeance on the women who've kept him as a toy and stolen his memories.  We have a damaged heroine who could save our hero and who finds herself drawn to him despite her reservations.  We have a pretty epic mythology chock full of vampires, evil sorcerers, and fantastical creatures.  These are all things I like.  All of them.

Nicolai was possessive of Jane from the beginning.  There's a reason behind it that doesn't involve the instant animal lust that we see in so many other paranormal romances.  Not that I dislike that, mind you.  It has its place.  It's simply nice to read something different every once in a while.  Admittedly, the reasoning behind their attraction was a little convoluted (lets just say it involved a curse and a bucketful of magic and leave it at that.  Look.  If you want to know more you're just going to have to read the book.  I do not spill important plot points at the drop of a hat.) but it wasn't run of the mill and I liked that.

Now I will say that this part of the overall arc was riddled with holes and we don't get a lot of progression toward resolution of the overall arc.  That said, the holes in the story made sense to me seeing as Nicolai has had his memory stripped from him and he has no concept of who he is or what he needs to do.  Would I have liked a few more answers?  Yes.  However, I can accept that the story will move forward a step at a time until we get to see the whole picture.

In the end, I had fun reading this book.  Gena Showalter has given us a sexy Alpha male who sees what he wants and goes for it.  I will absolutely be reading the rest of this series so I can see how the bad guys are defeated and the good guys all get their happily ever afters.

More books by Gena Showalter

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Lord of the Vampires was provided for review by Harlequin through NetGalley.