NetGalley Review: Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter

Lord of the Vampires
Book 1 in the Royal House of Shadows series

Author: Gena Showalter
Publisher: Harlequin Nocturne
Genre: Paranormal Romance
ISBN: 9780373618668
Release date: August 23, 2011

Once upon a time…the Blood Sorcerer vanquished the kingdom of Elden. To save their children, the queen scattered them to safety and the king filled them with a need for vengeance. Only a magical timepiece connects the four royal heirs…and time is running out.

Nicolai the Vampire is renowned for his virility, but in a cruel twist of fate “The Dark Seducer” has become a sex slave in the kingdom of Delfina—stripped of his precious timepiece and his memory. All that remains is a primal need for freedom, revenge—and the only woman who can help him.

When the wanton vampire summons Jane Parker, she is helpless to obey. She's drawn to his dark sexuality and into his magical realm. But for this human, all is not a fairy tale. For saving Nicolai could mean losing the only man she's ever craved...

Lord of the Vampires is the 1st book in a new series featuring 4 stories by 4 different authors.  The series is about the siblings of the Royal House of Elden that were scattered to different kingdoms by their mother to save their lives.  They have no memory as to what happened and the only thing to link them to their past is a timepiece give to them by their parents.  Nicolai was in bed seducing his next willing victim when he opened his eyes to discover that he was chained and transported to the Sex Market.  Jane Parker on the other hand has been having dreams of a man chained to a bed.  Her dreams began after she found a book sitting on her front porch.  After the chained man calls for her to come to him in another dream, she finds herself transported to to the world that Nicolai is in.  She manages to help him escape and together they try to learn more about his past as well as get Nicolai back home to where he belongs.

I liked Jane's character because not only is she an intelligent woman, but also because she is a survivor.  She was the victim of a recent car accident and had recently began walking again.  Nicolai senses the strength in her and is proud of this once he learns the truth of what happened to her. He sees her as a warrior and feels as if she has the battle scars to prove it.  She also manages to hold her ground when the two of them find themselves in the middle of a sticky situation.  What I liked about Nicolai is that he was sexy and wasn't afraid to let Jane know what was on his mind.  He said some very sexy things to her in this book and it just made him irresistible. 

I'm giving Lord of the Vampires a rating of:

This was a difficult book for me to read and it's hard for me to say that because I love Gena's work. She's my favorite writer and this book just seemed as if it was written by someone else.  The storyline also felt rushed to me and although I know that it's not a full length book that I'm used to reading, I just had a hard time getting into the storyline.  I enjoyed most of the scenes that the 2 characters were in as well as all the different creatures in the book.  But that was about it.  Although I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, I am going to continue to read the rest of the books in the series because I'm curious to see what will happen next.