Tuesday, October 7, 2008

"Nightwalker" by Jocelynn Drake


Joy, o joy! For all those paranormal fans out there who are over the whole "paranormal romance" genre but still jones for a good vampire book, search no more! Drake has created an intriguing world in "Nightwalker", one where vamps still try to hide their existence from us mere mortals. Of course, any time you have vamps, you have vampire hunters - this book has a great one. And just to make it even more interesting, the vamps have a immortal enemy, the naturi. These creatures are what have become elves and werewolves and such in human folktales. They're anything but cute and cuddly; they want to bring their queen, Aurora, back to the human world, then exterminate every vampire - and human - off the fact of the planet.

Mira, our heroine, has been a nightwalker for centuries (around 600 or so). She has her own territory in the States and currently has her base in Savannah. She's an enforcer of sorts; she kills her own kind when they step out of line and threaten to expose the vampires' existence. She lives a rather nice life in the old city and enjoys her time there. However, there's a new face in town, one that is as handsome as he is deadly. Danaus is a vampire hunter, and it would seem that he's hunting Mira. But to what ends? He's had plenty of chances to kill her but hasn't. And he's while he's human, he certainly isn't only human...

The pairing of vamp and slayer has obviously been done before, but Ms. Drake gives it a nice twist. Both characters have their own flaws and foibles, not the least of which are their preconceived ideas of each other. As the book progresses, Mira must rely on Danaus to help her reform the Triad, a trio of vampires from different bloodlines that vanquished the naturi during a battle at Machu Picchu over 500 years ago. He must also rely on her, as she saves his butt once or twice as well. There's definitely an odd love-hate attraction going on, one that grows as they realize that they've been wrong about a lot of things. For example, he's been led to believe that vamps kill every time they take blood. She believes that as a vampire hunter, he exterminates first and asks questions later. They're both wrong, of course.

Oh, an even more interesting twist to all this? Mira is also known as the Fire Starter. Yep, that's right - she can create and control fire. A very handy tool for a vampire, don't you think? And a very unique way to write a vamp. There are several plot twists in this book, great character development, and - you got it - a sequel on the way! Don't miss this one - it's a very good start to an intriguing series.

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