I find it quite hard to rate this book as, while there were parts that were very good, there were other parts that were completely dumb. 
 I liked the basic premise, where an alpha vampire lord, Raphael, hires a female private investigator, Cynthia Leighton, to look into a kidnap which had human involvement. Raphael feels that a human mind will be better able to anticipate the devious motivations of her fellow humans, more easily than a vampire could. Raphael appreciates Cynthia's sharpness from the start, and their relationship slowly develops with the usual twists, turns and setbacks that every romance book has. 
 The basic plot was fine. The writing wasn't the greatest I've ever read, but it was far from being terrible. The thing that bugged me was Cyn's numerous Too Stupid To Live moments. An example: (view spoiler)[ 
 Raphael decides she may be in danger and thinks she should stay at his estate for a few days. She wakes up and decides she wants to go home. The estate guards are puzzled, but make no attempt to stop her. She gets home and discovers another guard watching her house. Now let me emphasise that she was not a prisoner of Raphael's, except in her head. She convinces herself that this guard is going to phone for reinforcements and drag her back to the estate, so what's a girl to do? I know, let's just shoot the guard! I jest not, she shoots the guy in the leg. This is a human, not a vamp with mad healing skills. She doesn't think about, oh, maybe tying him up or even taking his phone and car keys off him. Nope, just shoot him. Maybe it's my European aversion to guns, but on what planet is this an appropriate response, especially from an ex-cop who should know better? It was ludicrous. There's another part where she confesses to Raphael that "you stalk my dreams and haunt even my days when I should be free of you". She's known him two days at this point. Two Days! I can't buy it. (hide spoiler)] 
 There were two or three other equally dumb moves from her that made me wonder if she was completely sane. 
 It really bugs me when an author has all the right ingredients for a story, with good characters and an interesting plot, and then they ruin it by making their hero or heroine act in ways that just don't gel with the personality that they have carefully cultivated. 
 I'd say this book was about 2.5 stars, but since it's a first novel, I'll be generous and round it up to three. Though, despite the teaser ending, I'm not 100% certain that I'll read more.