Jess' Review: Caressed by Moonlight by Amanda J. Greene
Caressed by Moonlight
(Rulers of Darkness #1)
by Amanda J. Greene
Published November 29th 2010 by Amazon Digital Services
ISBN B004EEONLK
Dorian Vlakhos is no ordinary aristocrat. He is a vampire king, who will do anything to save his clan from complete annihilation, before an ancient curse can claim his immortal life.
Penniless and orphaned, Victoria Kingston has nothing to bring to a marriage, yet she must shackle an unsuspecting gentleman into marriage by the end of the month or forfeit her rights as guardian of her younger sister. With the help of her dearest friend, Victoria begins her hunt, and vows to stay far away from the dark, mysterious, Prince Vlakhos.
After meeting the beautifully innocent Miss Kingston, Dorian had to have her. He would do absolutely anything to make Victoria his. One sweet stolen kiss would bring them together while a force, more powerful than any vampire would bind them for all eternity. But treachery, war, and death rule Dorian's dark world and Victoria would be fortunate to survive.
Jess' Thoughts:
In the manner of all the best stories set in the Regency Caressed by Moonlight opens with Victoria, our heroine, attempting to find a husband during the Season. However for Victoria the stakes are a little higher than love, she must find a husband or risk never seeing her beloved sister Margaret again. The wonderfully imagined vampire side of the story comes in a little later and sits comfortably next to the world of Victoria, balls, intrigues and dresses.
All of the characters are likeable and believable (except the hateful Aunt Nelly who is believable but horrible!) and I found it easy to be drawn into the story. Victoria is a brilliant heroine, level-headed and strong willed, fighting to keep her sister in her life and managing, for the most part, to avoid any stains on her reputation. It's also refreshing to see a best friend who is actually allowed to be told things and help her friend out. Lana and Victoria clearly love each other's company and their exchanges do have the ring of truth about them. It helps, of course, that Dorian is an extremely likeable (and attractive!) love-interest who is initially very enigmatic but soon reveals more of himself to Victoria.
Dorian is plagued by a slightly mad curse, which is odd but works very well, and the London Season scenes move smoothly into the vampire sections of the plot where we are given a closer look at vampire society.
There was only one, slight, niggle; the editing was a little bit sloppy in some places. In one section you could read about a 'chard corpse' which put me in mind of a dead vegetable rather than a charred corpse. However, for the majority of the novel the characters spoke in a suitably Regency style and I was never truly pulled out of the story.
Overall, Caressed by Moonlight is a fantastic love story with believable characters which has both the gentleness of London society as well as all the thrills of a vampire story.
Jess' Rating: 4 Wine Glasses!