Tracy’s review of In the Heat of the Bite
Chivalry is far from undead…
Matthew Halkett, Earl of Blodswell, is one of the few men in the ton who can claim to be a knight in shining armor- because that’s precisely what he was before being turned into a vampyre. When he spies a damsel in distress in the midst of a storm in Hyde Park, his natural instinct is to rush to her aid…
But not every woman needs to be rescued…
Weather-controlling witch Rhiannon Sinclair isn’t caught in a storm-she’s the cause of it. She’s mortified to have been caught making trouble by the imposing earl, but she doesn’t need any man-never has, and is sure she never will…
But when Rhiannon encounters Matthew again, her powers go awry and his supernatural abilities run amok. Between the two of them, the ton is thrown into an uproar. There’s never been a more tempestuous scandal…
Rhiannon follows her sister to London thinking to save her from her aunt who is not a nice person and is more likely to sell her to the highest bidder rather than find her a love or even a proper match. But when she gets to London she finds that her aunt won’t even let her see Ginny. In her sadness Rhiannon heads to Hyde Park where she throws a bit of a temper tantrum and when Rhiannon does that you never know what’s going to happen. You see Rhiannon is par of a coven of witches and she’s a weather-born witch. She can make it rain, hail, or even strike people with bolts of lightning.
Matthew Halkett, Earl of Blodswell, and vampyre sees Rhiannon in the park and is entranced by her. He finds himself more than attracted to the woman and escorts her home. Of course she’s staying at her fellow witches house and that witch is married to a Lycan who is quite protective of her and doesn’t like the vampyre at all.
Rhiannon wants to look after her sister and devises a plan where Matthew is pretending to court her so that she can be found more respectable and therefore able to attend the same balls that her sister attends. But Matthew wants it to go further and make it a real engagement. The problem is that he doesn’t find that he can because of so many reasons. He will outlive her and he can’t give her children. Soon, however, Matthew finds that she’s the only one that he can feed from and this proves to be a problem when Rhiannon is surrounded by so many Lycans. Fortunately magic is on Matthew’s side and he soon finds that nothing will stand his way to Rhiannon.
Another nice addition to the series by Lydia Dare. This story sets us in London rather than Scotland which was a bit different. I find that I like the stories set in Scotland as all the witches are Scottish and they just seem to fit better there.
I really liked Matthew in this book more than I did Rhiannon. He was strong, honorable and just a darned likable guy. Rhiannon was nice and a fine character but she really didn’t stand out in any particular way – even with the weather thing. She was very emotional as shown to us by all the storms she created but other than that…there was nothing to make her stand out among heroines.
I also was quite aware of how being respectable and proper was important in this book but the woman were running around without chaperone’s and Rhiannon would go out walking with Matthew or get into his carriage with no consequences. I think I’ve had regency etiquette put into my head so much by the many historicals that I read that the lack really showed in this story.
Again, a cute story but really not all that much different than the book right before it in the series. Good characters and all but with much the same story as the first book in the trilogy.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
The series:
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This book is available from Sourcebooks Casablanca. You can buy it here