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La Bara Di Cristallo (2000)

by Michele Hauf(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Romance

series

Beautiful Creatures

review 1: I should start this by saying that this is not a book for young teens – I’d recommend this only for a mature audience, as there are strong sexual themes and some violence throughout the book. Admittedly, this one pretty much followed the basic formula of paranormal romance – vampire + werewolf = romance! And yet, it’s all set in Eighteenth century Paris. Now, given this is a Mills and Boone nocturne, you expect most of the book to be fairly explicit. I’ve read previous titles and more of Michele Hauf’s previous work, and yeah, it pretty much fitted with that convention. However, this one was much more romantic in nature than previous titles. Viviane, a newly patron-less (think a sponsor… a male vampire who gives the female blood to survive) vampiress, i... mores a bloodborn vampire rather than a turned vampire, and therefore lusted over by other males. Amongst said suitors is Constantine de Salignac, the head of the powerful vampire tribe, Nava, who wants to cement his position of power by producing blondborn offspring. He wants Viviane due to the rarity that is the female bloodborn vampire. Unfortunately, his half-brother and half-breed vampire/werewolf crossbreed, Rhys Hawkes, stands between him and his goal. Rhys intends to extract vengeance from a longstanding grudge match with his brother, and the best way he can see of managing that is to steal the object of his brother’s affections. Unfortunately, that goes wrong, when Rhys finds himself falling for Viviane in a way he never expected. Throughout the novel, the story is told between the perspectives of both Viviane and Rhys, and some of the story is set in Eighteenth century Paris, and some in the present day – all I’ll really say is think Vampires combined with Snow White and smut.Overall, the story was fairly good, but there were a few things that bothered me. One was the to-ing and fro-ing between Rhys and Viviane, with deciding whether he could viably be her patron, and should she go for Constantine instead, and no, she shouldn’t, yes she should… and yeah, so it goes on. Secondly, the way that things were sorted out at the end.However, overall, this book does deliver what it says on the tin, and this was a fairly enjoyable read, even if it isn’t particularly original, and does, to a degree, simply follow the ‘normal’ paranormal romance novel parameters. I enjoyed the book – it isn’t one for the younger audience – but it was a perfect holiday easy read, and yeah, there are hot and steamy bits if you’re into that sort of thing!
review 2: I really give this 2.5 stars. I enjoyed the layout of the book where she went back and forth between the past and the present and tied them together in the end, but I thought it dragged on a bit too much. The vampire everyone is trying to seduce doesn't seem like much of a catch to me. I don't enjoy books where the men are fighting over a woman who is just beautiful. Granted, one of the persuers did only want her to breed,but the man she ultimately chose only wanted her for revenge and then beauty. I would have liked Vivian to have more depth like the men in the story. Michele did do a great job of developing the men in the story, and I did really enjoy the style of the book. Overall I was just not that drawn into it and didn't really want to root for anyone. Perhaps the next book will be more fun... less

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