#BookReview – “Twilight Phantasies” by Maggie Shayne

Blurb

Tamara’s dreams are tormented. She is lost, alone, and calling out for someone, but when she wakes she can never remember his name. Then she meets an enigmatic stranger during a midnight skate on a frozen pond, and is overcome with a sense of familiarity and powerful longing.

Eric Marquand is a vampire, drawn to the beautiful Tamara because of the rare Belladonna antigen in her blood. It connects them. From the shadows, he has watched over her since childhood, a dark guardian. But when he returns after years away, he finds her living in the home of a man who’s devoted his life to the annihilation of vampire-kind.

Tamara’s parents had died during Eric’s absence. Daniel St. Clair, a high-ranking agent of the secretive Division of Paranormal Investigations, had become her legal guardian, had raised her.

Worse, she now works for the DPI too.

Tamara soon finds herself torn between her love and devotion for the dear, aging man who raised her, and her passionate desire for Eric, the man whose touch she craves. Daniel insists that Eric is a vampire who will drain Tamara’s blood and leave her a lifeless husk, given the chance. Eric says Daniel is a vampire hunter who performs sick experiments on his kind to find their weaknesses. He says Daniel will kill him, given the chance.

But she hasn’t much time to choose, because St. Clair’s protégé, DPI vampire-researcher Curtis Rogers, has his own nightmarish plans for them both.

Review

In book one in the Wings in the Night series, Eric Marquand survives the guillotine during the French Revolution and becomes a vampire. Now in present day, he finds himself inexplicably drawn to a young woman who’s calling out to him for help through her dreams.

Tamara Dey has horrible nightmares when she sleeps. She works for the DPI—the Division of Paranormal Investigation—but doesn’t have high enough clearance to really work on the interesting cases. She’s drawn to Eric even though he’s the main subject of a DPI investigation.

I liked Eric for the most part, but I couldn’t connect with Tamara at all. Even though she complained when her mentor Daniel and her coworker Curtis treated her like a child, she never stood up for herself and put a stop to them controlling her. She continuously defended the bad guys and refused to trust Eric, believing the worst of him.

Eric, however, was kind and patient (too patient sometimes) and treated her with respect.

I really liked Eric’s friend Roland, and I’d love to read more about him.

3 Stars

— I’d love to know what you think of the book or my review. Please comment below.

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