Reviewer: Tracy Christmas with a Bite by Patricia A. Wolf
Publisher: Macmillan, Entangled
Publication Date: December 15th 2014
Pages: 224
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Sometimes the holidays totally bite...
This Christmas, Mara Livingston is determined to start over. But as she's driving to her "new" home, a freak winter storm forces her off the road. Now she's stranded in the middle of nowhere. Then he shows up. And there's something strangely familiar about him...Connor Reese never expected to see Mara again. Nor is he prepared for the onslaught of emotions?including an unimaginable rush of desire?she stirs within him. Now he has a chance to claim the woman he's always wanted. Except, there are a couple of small details that Mara doesn't know. The first is that Connor is a vampire. And the second is that if his family finds out about Mara, she will most certainly be killed...
Tracy’s review of Christmas with a Bite by Patricia A. Wolf
Mara is on her way home for Christmas when she gets caught in a storm and her car goes off the road. She’s in the middle of nowhere and when she gets out to find help she is surrounded by wolves. She runs for her life and is saved by Connor Reece. He takes her to his isolated cabin so she can recover. Reece immediately recognizes Mara as the woman he met at a friends’ wedding 8 years earlier. He was fascinated by her then and never truly got her off of his mind even after many years had passed. When Mara awakens she doesn’t recognize Connor but is soon as fascinated by him as he is of her.
Connor takes Mara home to Denver but he doesn’t want to let her go. Unfortunately he is a vampire prince and his parents do not want him getting involved with a mortal as he had in the past. He knows he has to leave Mara but he loves her and doesn’t want to let her go. He can’t tell her who/what he is and it kills him to keep it from her. He can’t tell her though as his last lover he told killed herself to get away from the monster she thought he was.
Mara is bowled over by her feelings for Connor but finds out that he’s keeping a secret from her and that’s unacceptable. While at a Christmas dinner Mara is invited by Connor’s parents to dinner and that’s where Mara’s life takes a huge turn.
This is a cute but kind of intense category romance. I liked that parts of it were fun and light as well as sexy. Other parts were pretty intense and sad. It was almost insta-love but not quite. The story is one of fate playing a role in the lives of these two MC’s. Mara and Connor had a history beyond meeting at the wedding that is revealed and it’s incredibly sweet.
There was a major contradiction to the story. Connor was told that he could never be with a mortal and he certainly could never tell a mortal about his vampirism. That’s shot all to hell many times over in the book and that was a bit disturbing. I also found a lack of drama in the story and I felt there needed to be more in order for the final result to be completely satisfying.
Overall a good quick read.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
This title is available from Entangled Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.