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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Book Review: Raphael by D. B. Reynolds

Raphael (Vampires in America #1)
by D.B. Reynolds

Malibu, California-home to rock-and-roll gods and movie stars, the beautiful, the rich . . . and vampires.

Powerful and charismatic, Raphael is a Vampire Lord, one of the few who hold the power of life and death over every vampire in existence. Thousands call him Master and have pledged absolute loyalty on their very lives. But when, in a brazen and deadly daylight attack, a gang of human killers kidnaps the one female vampire he'd give his life for, Raphael turns to a human investigator to find his enemies before it's too late.

Cynthia Leighton is smart, tough and sexy, a private investigator and former cop who's tired of spying on cheating spouses and digging out old bank accounts. When Raphael asks for her help in tracking down the kidnappers, Cyn's happy to accept. But she soon realizes her greatest danger comes not from the humans, but from Raphael himself.

Battling Russian mobsters and treacherous vampires, and betrayed by those they trusted, Cyn and Raphael find themselves fighting for their lives while caught up in a passion of blood and violence that is destined to destroy them both.

This is the new face of RAPHAEL, re-released by BelleBooks on all of the usual e-platforms. For the first time, RAPHAEL is available on Nook and already uploaded to Kobo, Sony, Apple, and all of the others.


Private investigator, Cynthia (Cyn) Leighton is hired by Master Vampire Raphael to look into a kidnapping. An ex-cop, Cyn is the investigator of choice for the West Coast Vampire Community and used to doing things on her own. Her only real problem up till now has been her money hungry, jealous sister. That is, until Raphael sets his sites on her.

Raphael is a very old vampire and used to getting things his way. His children bow down before him, quiver in fear when he's angry and he expects everyone in his path to do what he says and show him respect. But Cyn is unlike any human he's ever met and when she doesn't throw herself at him right away, it not only makes him angry but determined to make her his.

Cyn is hired after a vampire close to Raphael is kidnapped and he needs help finding her since it was humans who helped the vampires pull of the kidnapping. I really liked Cyn's character, she is strong, defiant and doesn't bow down to Raphael like the whimpering humans he's used to.

But I didn't care for Raphael's character at all. He's sadistic, dark, and expects everyone to cower before him. There are no cute sparkly vampires here. In fact, Raphael would fit right into one of those black and white Boris Karloff vampire movies where the vamps are dark, brooding, throat ripping creatures of the night. Of course he has a soft spot for Cyn, and that helped redeem his character a little.

The one thing I don't like in books I read are cliff hangers and that's what we get with this book. I like my stories to have a beginning, middle and end and hopefully a HEA. But that's not what I got with this book. When I got to the last page and read, "To be continued." I actually turned back a page and then looked a page ahead to see if it was a joke, unfortunately, it wasn't.

4 Sheep





Mary Kirkland
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About the Author:
Goodreads 
D.B. Reynolds is the award-winning author of the popular Vampires in America series, as well as other paranormal fiction. She lives with her husband of many years in a flammable canyon near Los Angeles, and when she's not writing her own books, she can usually be found reading someone else's.



6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review...guess I will have to look closer at the folks in Malibu next time I am there, lol. That does irk me, when there is a 'to be continued...'

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  2. No cliffhangers! The waiting is torture

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  3. This is one of my favorite series, still need to get to Aden. At least you don't have to wait for book 2 since this is an established series.

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  4. Is this a problem with the re-published book, that it ends with "to be continued"? I can't remember reading about major cliffhangers or half-books before. I do have this series on my wishlist.

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    1. I don't remember that on the original ebook when I read it a long time ago. That might be something new. I thought the book arc was concluded, just not the series arc story.

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    2. Thanks Sharon. I will just have to get my hands on the original paperback. If there ever was one.

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