Caressed by Night (Rulers of Darkness, #2) in VAMPS-R-US

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Caressed by Night (Rulers of Darkness, #2)

Amanda J. Greene

Start date: February 29, 2012

Why we're reading this: A fellow Vamps R Us member! Her first book was bloody fantastic!
[close] A fellow Vamps R Us member! Her first book was bloody fantastic!

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Jan 30, 2012 jD rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2_kindle_own, fantasy_romance, fantasy_vamps, 2012_4-stars, 2012

I loved the first book of this series. It was set in the Regency period and the vampire King Dorian was sooooo alpha and sexy. This new installment did not wow me but I like this series and will read book 3 when it comes out.

Weaknesses...
The hero is vampire Dimitri Arsov. He is the last remaining pure vampire and has come back from the dead. No, he was never dead but just taking a 400 year nap because that's when his mate would be at humping age and living in Vegas. There could have been more b I loved the first book of this series. It was set in the Regency period and the vampire King Dorian was sooooo alpha and sexy. This new installment did not wow me but I like this series and will read book 3 when it comes out.

Weaknesses...
The hero is vampire Dimitri Arsov. He is the last remaining pure vampire and has come back from the dead. No, he was never dead but just taking a 400 year nap because that's when his mate would be at humping age and living in Vegas. There could have been more but that's how I interpeted it. Dimitri had so much potential that was never fully developed. His story seemed all over the place. He felt very commercial. That pissed me off because Ms. Greene has skills. I felt she didn't go as deep as she could have based on her first book. Kerstyn Ingmar is the heroine and his mate, she was also a little too simple and commercial. I can't stand those broke women meeting sexy, rich, and generous men -- jump in bed on a whim then whine --- "I don't want your money, cars, and influence". I would like to for once to meet a heroine who has a little gold digger in her blood.

Strengths...
The love story moved fast but it made sense. I enjoyed the heat between the characters and I felt they were a great fit. The biggest strength for the book was the supporting characters. There are at least three characters that need their own books. The foundation Ms. Green laid out for the future heroes has me salivating. I am so in for future installments. I liked the move to the present day. I like the fact that the witches were explained in this book. I could not work with that magicless batch from book one. Ms. Greene explained the magic clearly in this one and I like where she has gone with it. The historical elements are delivered via memories but I could visualize it quite well.

All in all, it wasn't perfect for me. It's a bridge book and uses too many pre-packaged plot devices. I didn't feel the full power of what I think Ms. Greene can do but it's still a very good read. BTW -- this is more romance than fantasy. This is also much more erotic than the first book which was intense for Regency. If you are a vamp fan, you need to hit this series.
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Mar 05, 2012 Kate rated it it was ok

Shelves: vampires, paranormal-romance

Whenever I throughly enjoy a first novel in a series 鈥� I鈥檓 worried the author won鈥檛 be able to keep it up for the next book.

That鈥檚 not a worry I needed to have with regards to Carressed by Night. Amanda J. Greene has more than delivered with this second installment of the Rulers of Darkness.

This book is different from most vampire novels in terms of timing. I鈥檝e always wondered why vampires who often live up to thousands of years always find their soul mates within months of each other. They liv ...more

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Apr 25, 2012 VampireNovelFan rated it liked it

Shelves: vampires, witches, urban-fantasy, paranormal-romance

One benefit for most vampires is that they usually live pretty darn long. Amanda Greene鈥檚 Caressed by Moonlight, Book 1 of the Rulers of Darkness series, was a delightful period novel focusing on vampire Dorian Vlakhos and his human love, Victoria Kingston. Fast-forward a good couple of centuries and though those two are alive and well, Dmitri Arsov and Kerstyn Ingmar are the central characters in this novel.

Dmitri, a pure vampire who faked his death hund

One benefit for most vampires is that they usually live pretty darn long. Amanda Greene鈥檚 Caressed by Moonlight, Book 1 of the Rulers of Darkness series, was a delightful period novel focusing on vampire Dorian Vlakhos and his human love, Victoria Kingston. Fast-forward a good couple of centuries and though those two are alive and well, Dmitri Arsov and Kerstyn Ingmar are the central characters in this novel.

Dmitri, a pure vampire who faked his death hundreds of years ago, has reemerged to take care of unfinished business. Focused on exacting revenge that鈥檚 been brewing for centuries against his attempted murderer, things get a little more complicated when he meets Kerstyn, his destined mate. To keep her safe would mean to stay away from her. But that鈥檚 impossible, so they have to fight against impending doom.

I thought the novel started off strong. Being set in modern times didn鈥檛 make it feel quite as dry as its predecessor. I don鈥檛 read a lot of series where there鈥檚 such a huge time gap, so that was a nice change. I enjoyed Dmitri鈥檚 character. He was confident without being too cocky, brutish or annoying. And even with his age he exudes a certain vulnerability, and not just when it comes to Kerstyn. Emo? Maybe a smidge, but it certainly isn鈥檛 intolerable.

I liked him better than Kerstyn who honestly felt like your typical cookie-cutter heroine in these types of books. She grew up privileged but struggles because her parents didn鈥檛 get her any real love. I feel like Greene could have written something a little more dramatic because I didn鈥檛 find myself very sympathetic to her situation.

The storyline could have been a bit tighter. I was really drawn in towards the beginning, but then they whine about the same issues over and over and I found myself pretty tired of it by the end. It鈥檚 not a very long read, but it felt that way after a while.

To be honest, the title between these books are way too close. If you read the first one, after hearing the title of the second one you鈥檇 probably think you already read the novel, even though the stories are like night and day鈥r past and present I should say.

So all in all it was entertaining, but there wasn鈥檛 a whole lot to set it apart from similar novels.

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