Review: Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter

Lord of the Vampires

(Royal House of Shadows #1)

by Gena Showalter

Paranormal Romance

Find it one Goodreads!

Lord of the Vampires is the first book in the Royal House of Shadows series. This series tells the tale of three brothers and one sister, each is a prince or princess in the royal house of Elden, that is until their home is destroyed and their parents, the King and Queen, murdered by the Blood Sorcerer who now rules cruelly and desecrates their land. We loved the sound of this series, and as massive fans of Gena Showalter we had to pick it up and read it, but what makes this series really different is that each book, each sibling’s story, is written by a different author! This is such a great idea, it will keep the series fresh and interesting as we read each authors unique writing style writing in the same world toward the same goal adding perhaps to the idea that we are in a different characters head in each book we read.

The first book concerns the eldest of the siblings the Crown Prince Nicolai, not that he knows that his memory has been wiped and he is now kept as a sex slave by a cruel princess in a different kingdom. Chained up and longing for vengeance against the princess who has stolen his freedom and his identity he tries to summon someone who can help him escape. When Jane wakes up and finds she has fallen down the rabbit hole and is now in Wonderland she can’t believe it, and when she sees the silver eyed vampire who has been haunting her dreams she knows she must help him escape.

We loved the idea of this book, it was like a fairy tale in reverse rather than a damsel in distress waiting for her knight in shining armour to come, we have a hot hunky vampire in distress waiting for his damsel to come and in more ways than one! And the start of this book was fantastic, living up to all our expectations’ the prologue drags you in and throws you into a sensual paranormal fairy land of evil sorcerers, noble kings and queens and vampire princes.

The vampire prince in question is Nicolai and what a delicious vampire he was, tortured but strong, vulnerable yet dangerous an irresistible combination that surely no woman can resist! He was a good hero to read about and as a sucker for men who get all protective and monosyllabic when their woman is either in peril or when he is about to bang her brains out, we completely loved him. Jane Parker the woman who Nicolai gets all monosyllabic about was also a good character, although she may not be our favourite heroine of all time she was smart, gutsy and little bit quirky.   I think one of the main complaints about Jane was her constant ramblings in her head, it was starting to get a bit distracting.

However, we were a little disappointed with this book. It seemed to be building up to a big ending but then…nothing. It was very anti climatic, we weren’t expecting him to march in and defeat the big bad guy; after all there are three more books to go. However, why wasn’t there more about the fight for Elden? Or about the search for his siblings? It just felt like there should have been more in the story then there was. And also the blood curse thing going on with Jane, was that not the simplest curse to overcome in the history of all paranormal romance or was that just us?!

However, we did enjoy this book, it was very funny and sexy and we will definitely be reading the next book as soon as we can get our grubby little hands on it. After reading the blurb we are very excited!

Nicolai in a bad mood…

He snarled like a panther, bit like a shark and held on to whatever he clamped his teeth into like a pit bull.

Jane in a bad mood…

"You’re ugly and mean I wouldn’t give myself to you even if a flesh eating bacteria was ravaging this world and you cock held the only immunization.”
The awww moment…
“I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you. I want to wed you. To be with you always. I choose you, Jane. Over my crown, my people and my vengeance.” 

* eARC provided by netGalley

Book 2: Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe

Release date 20th September 2011

Book 3: Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Anderson.

Release date 25th October 2011

Book 4: Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh

Release Date: 22nd November 2011



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