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…
Our story begins with the small but informative story of the four royal children of Elden. Nicolai, Dayn, Micah and Breena were all sent to safety by their witch mother when the Blood Sorcerer invaded Elden and she lay dying. The father sent a spell to the four children at the same time and infused each one of them with the need for vengeance. Because the spells were sent at the same time, and Nicolai, the hero of this book, was having sex at the time, he ended up at a slave auction in the kingdom of Delfina. The princesses of Delfina knew who he was and cruelly took him to be their own sex slave – suppressing his memories of who he is and where he came from.
Nicolai somehow contacts Jane, a human in an alternate realm and creates a spell for her to come to his realm and free him. He truly believes that he will leave Jane floundering in Delfina if it means his freedom but when it comes down to it he realizes that he cares for Jane and that he cannot leave her.
The pair survive trials and tribulations while trying to be free of the evil of Delfina and in the meantime they fall in love. Nicolai is getting his memories back, thanks to Jane’s blood and he knows he wants her with him always. But Jane was cursed by a vampire a couple of years ago to fall in love and be apart from her love always. How will the pair stay together?
This is the first book in the Royal House of Shadows series and it was an interesting start to the series. From what I understand each story is a twist on a fairy tale – this one being Alice in Wonderland.
While I liked the bit of background we got on Nicolai I never felt like I got enough. He remembered who he was but the story was focused more on the love story than on the vengeance. Which wasn’t bad – just a little frustrating. I can only assume that the four children will need to come together to seek vengeance on the Blood Sorcerer.
The love story itself was decent. It had the soul mate feel to it and knowing that this is the person you need to be with kind of thing. They both felt the pull so the relationship really had no problem with one pulling away, etc. The couple endured quite a bit in their short time together and that brought them closer together.
Again, while I would have liked more background and more info about what Nicolai did about the Blood Sorcerer I thought it was good introduction to everything. I’m looking forward to reading the next three books in the series – that are all written by different authors.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
The next books will be:
Lord of the Vampires – August 23
Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe – September 20
Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Andersen – October 18
Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh – November 22