I enjoyed this book quite a bit.....I found it to be creative and original - somewhat different from the typical vampire stories that I see in the bookstores. It was well written and the story flowed evenly throughout the book. The ending was satisfying and fulfilling, with no loose ends.
The characters are very well written. Jessica is intelligent and independent, good characters for a teenage girl to have and she is not one to define herself by whether or not she has a boy on her arm. Lucius, the teenage (vampire) exchange student who tries to convince Jessica that she is his betrothed vampire princess, is on the flip side, arrogant and rather annoying, but shows signs of promise as well. He reminds me of the "typical" (and I use this word extremely loosely here!) male vampire. In all the vampire books I`ve read, the male seems to be on the arrogant side, so I guess my opinion is a bit predisposed there. In any event, I thoroughly enjoy reading books that have strong female characters. These types of characters are lacking in so many books these days!
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the humor scattered throughout the story. Lucius's letters back home to his uncle Vasile were absolutely hilarious! ("...you know I have always wondered about eternity, but I need not be curious anymore. I have sampled eternity in Miss Campbell's fifth period Social Studies class...") Ha!Ha! And some of the other "nonchalent" references....."the good news was that the Dragomirs had an impressive estate of their own. The bad news is that it is open to tourists 4 days a week." (But hey, motor coach traffic is up sixty-seven percent!) I love a good sense of humor, and the author certainly doesn't lack one.
There is no sex in this book, but some of the scenes were a bit sensual. The sensuality, though, was an integral part of the story and was, in my opinion, beautifully written. And there is some language to deal with. Not a lot, but I thought it worth mentioning, just in case some might be wondering. I consider this to be 5-star writing, but I chose to remove one star for the language that was in the book. It really isn't a lot of bad language, but the author is so creative that I thought she could have written the story just as well without it. I saw no point to it.
Another theme that we deal with in this story is that of love and redemption. Our favorite arrogant vampire has feelings of worthlessness (I won't reveal why, it would spoil too much) and feels that he is unforgivable. Yet we see glimpses of kindness and love, even when he refuses to acknowledge their existence. It is a powerful, emotionally charged story that takes the reader on Lucius's emotional roller coaster ride with him, and has us sitting in the sidelines, cheering him on and hoping he finds the forgiveness he desperately craves.
All in all, I found this to be an excellent book. I finished it in 2 days, as I found myself not wanting to put it down. I originally chose this book so I could later donate it to my daughter's high school library. Now I'm actually seriously considering keeping it for myself...yes, I enjoyed it THAT much! I understand that this is the author's first book; I hope she will give serious thought to writing another one. It would be a shame not to have more wonderful books to read from such a fresh, new voice.
