I debated whether to get this book, as recent SW offerings have been pretty lacklustre, but I think that that's because they are earlier works that have been reworked and lengthened...but I am glad that I got this one, as this was a real love story, with several phrases used that reminded me of the line ine the movie Ghost, where Sam leaves Molly for the last time and reminds her that 'the love you have inside, you take it with you...'.
It's a pretty simple tale, which starts when the leads are at school aged 8, and when Angelica, or Angel as she is called, tells Kelvin, or Kel as he is known, that she will marry him one day. Though he gets ribbed by his friends for 'having a girlfriend', he isn't mean and nasty to her, as he senses that she is different. The tale continues, with the author telling us what happens to them at various ages, until at age 18 they go off to college, and a year later become lovers.
But typically, the path of true love isn't all sweetness and roses, as Angel gets attacked by a vampire (not that she knows what/who her attacker is) one night, but before he can finish her off, Kel, who has been working all hours to save for a ring for Angel, senses her distress and races to her, only to be badly injured by the vampire...and to disappear from Angel's life, presumed dead. And Angel, though not converted into a vampire through her injuries, is changed and becomes 'vampire-bait', i.e. attractive to vampires.
Only, Kel isn't dead, and whilst the feral vampire who attacked him left him for dead, he was found by Rafe and Sheila (from the earlier Ellora's Cave Hunters series), who see him through his Change and teach him about his new life. During the 11 years over which Kel's acceptance of his new life takes place, his parents have died but Angel has loved him beyond death, though Kel cannot go to her, as for her sanity and survival, she needs to believe that the boy she loved is dead, and his lack of control means that should he have contact with her, he won't be able to control his blood-lust around her.
Yes, they eventually get their HEA, but not until Kel is forced to reveal himself in order to be able to save her life, and this is where the tale loses a *. About 1/4 of the book is about the leads growing up together, about 1/2 is about Kel and his life-after-Angel, then the ending, which should have IMO been about 1/2 the book, is in fact only about 1/4, making it seemed rushed. I'd have preferred more angst, more explanations and more avowals of love and talk of the future, more demands from Angel of Kel as to why he allowed her to grieve for so long and to go through counselling for 12 years...
Overall, though, this was, as the publisher says, a Samhain erotic novel, where it is all about the story, so yes, you get a good tale and your money's worth.
