Judith’s review of Madison Avenue Vampire by Jenna Reynolds

It’s the swinging 1960’s and Richard owns one of Manhattan’s major advertising agencies. He is also a vampire. He hungers to make love to Lana Sorenson’s lush, voluptuous body, but he also thirsts to sink his fangs into her lovely neck. Richard’s desire for blood is nearly out of control, and surrendering to both his lusts may deprive Lana of her life.

Lana is the proverbial farmer’s daughter. A small town girl from Wisconsin, Lana regularly sees things she never would have imagined in her wildest dreams. But when she finds out the handsome, sexy man she is dating is a vampire, Lana is faced with the terrifying possibility that the first time she and Richard make love could quite literally be their last.

This is an erotic and very cute novella which details the strange relationship between a beautiful but shy and naive farm girl from Wisconsin and a 400+ year old vampire who is wealthy beyond belief and who happens to be attracted to this voluptuous woman in a way that both surprises and dismays him. He first noticed and was attracted to her while she was working for him. After agreeing to start dating him, Lana quit her job at Richard’s ad agency and has now begun working elsewhere. It is the time of President John Kennedy and the Cuban crisis, the hope-filled days just as the space program was being launched, and when the world of the beatnik was a part of common conversation.

Richard just can’t seem to get Lana out of his system. He has tried, has stopped dating her for weeks at a time, but always returns to her. Lana is deeply attracted to Richard, but she just can’t seem to understand that there has been no more physical contact between them than a cool peck on the cheek whenever Richard brings her home from a date. He smokes constantly when they are together and he gives her expensive perfume to cover her natural scent, a scent that drives him wild. He has opened the world of music, history, archaeology, art, etc. to her, but his continued and obvious reluctance to deepen the level of their physical relationship keeps her convinced that no matter what they do together and how many new experiences they have shared in other ways, he still sees her as a dumb broad with a voluptuous figure but an empty head.

I think the basic premise of this story is the idea that vampires can have anxieties and fears that are just as binding and challenging as humans. Richard refuses to have sex with Lana because of his fear of blood lust–an overwhelming compulsion to feed on the blood of his partner in the throes of sexual orgasm. He almost caused the death of one of his partners in the past and thus refuses to put Lana in harms way.

On the other hand, learning Richard is a vampire has forced Lana to expand her horizons of reality. Now she is faced with the question of whether she can accept this as truth, whether she can continue to be in this relationship, can she overcome the programing of her sick and perverse father in whatever relationship she enters into? Ultimately, the real question for both Richard and Lana is “trust” and how this will impact any future they might have together. Can Richard trust himself? Can he trust Lana to continue to accept him? Can Lana move beyond the negative image of herself carefully and systematically built in her by her father’s perception of her? And can Lana trust in her instincts that she is, at the very core, a good and decent person, no matter what anyone else says?

This novella deals with some substantive issues even if the characters are a little different. Perhaps the very fact that one is a vampire and the other an innocent and naive gal from the upper Midwest work as metaphors for all of us as we are forced to deal with issues of trust in daily living as well as all sorts of relationships. I have not read anything by Jenna Reynolds before this, but I was impressed that she seemed to be adept at crafting some unusual characters. My only negative response to this book was that I thought that Richard’s angst was a bit drawn out but that was minor in light of the positives I found. This is a really cute love story and I think romance/paranormal romance fans will enjoy it. I give this novella a rating of 3.75 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Ellora’s Cave. You can buy it here in e-format.