Being currently on a box set/anthology bender, I thought I’d
give Amanda J Greene’s ‘Rulers of Darkness’ a little attention. It promised to offer some much loved dark and
lusty vampire fare - Vampire kings, dark knights, wicked witches; and fair
maidens destined to fall into their fateful clutches.
I have to confess, for my taste, these three books smacked a
little too ‘Mills & Boon’ for a ripping vampire yarn. - Am I showing my age? Should
that be ‘Harlequin’ I should have said there?
Anyway you get the picture… - Shades of Pemberley littered the first
chapters of the first instalment ‘Caressed by Moonlight’ where our hapless
heroine, Victoria, falls under the dark and dangerous Dorian’s spell. Not until they are heading back to his
homeland does the vampire lurking beneath Dorian’s lusty but trustworthy (I’m
not really sure these descriptions really go hand in hand but, oh well) demeanour
revealing his dark and hungry nature.
Book two ‘Caressed by Night’ had our darling, virginal-at-26
heroine, Kerstyn Ingmar, who just happens to live in Vegas and sometimes
frequents clubs, but still can’t get past the third date with any man (honestly,
third date! Vegas! Clubs! Men! Virginal? Really?). I know, I know the Madonna complex still
rules in the romance world apparently) meeting the only surviving of the
original Vampire Kings, the dark, powerful, and tormented Dimitri Arsov, and
becomes unwittingly involved in his plans to exact his revenge on an enemy who
had many years previous tried to kill him and usurp his rule.
'Caressed by a Crimson Moon’s' recently returned to sanity, (but
not really - that damned demon kept wanting to rear its foul and dangerously
murderous, ugly head) King Hadrian has many deep and dark secrets that only his
ward Eva Maldonado can seem to quieten.
Inexplicably drawn together, this couple instantly burned with an
undeniable passion for each other that threatened to send both of them over the
edge.
There was enough pain, guilt, murder, intrigue,
manipulation, lust, desire, tension, sex, fate ,love; tormented heroes and
determined (although virginal – did I mention that?) heroines to sate any
appetite, I could forgive the fact that the books suffered from both a lack of editing
and some obvious formatting issues. The
attempt in book one to create the formality of 1815’s London fell a little flat
when casual colloquialism invaded some of the dialogue and characters' contemplation, and then appeared to be completely abandoned (apart from a few
jarring patches of dialogue) further through the book – but I applaud the
effort, I’m sure it’s not an easy thing to maintain flowery elocution when you no longer actually live with it all around you.
Written in third person - which is my usual preference - these
books had the reader exposed to multiple points of view within each chapter,
within each paragraph even. I’m not sure
whether I felt this detracted from the narrative or not because it gave almost
instant access to the thoughts of the various characters in question at any given
time, but I think it did beggar the mystery and tension that that lack of knowledge can
often create in a reader.
Despite these niggles I did enjoy these rollicking yarns
spun by Amanda and look forward to reading ‘Caressed by Shadows’ book four of
the Rulers of Darkness series.
«««
Sydney Whyte
Rating Chart
«……………….A no goer
««……………Alright, but not a re-read
«««………..Liked it
««««…….Loved it
«««««…Amaze-balls – ticks all the boxes!!!
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