Kerry Allen's Love Emporium

Demon Moon by Meljean Brook
Mass Market Paperback, 470 pages
ISBN-13: 9780425215760
Available Now
Retail Price $7.99
Second in The Guardians series

I read this book about 2 months ago.  Why is it taking me so long to post this lovefest? It has a lot to do with being unable to skip through it on the re-read and pick out the highlights. I was compelled to re-read every single word because:

1. If you don’t pay attention, you will get lost.

2. At no point did I think, I’m bored, time to skip the rest of this page, because in 470 pages, there isn’t a single wasted word.

3. Colin demands long, lingering stretches of undivided attention.

There’s a huge story here. To keep my squeeing under 20,000 words, I’m going to focus on Colin and Savi and not so much on the Grand Scheme.

After all the elder vampires in San Fran were wiped out by the nosferatu (the ugly, more powerful variety of bloodsuckers) in Demon Angel, leaving the younger generation leaderless, unorganized, and ripe for manipulation, Colin Ames-Beaumont is now the oldest and most powerful (and, it must be said, best looking) vampire in town. The younger vamps want him to step in to fill the vacant leadership position. However, Colin is a solitary creature (to paraphrase Ambrose Bierce, alone = in good company), self-absorbed and uninterested in leading a flock of fanged sheep. His philosophy is: “They should look and admire; they shouldn’t expect anything in return.” He is unlike them in ways they can’t possibly comprehend, and he’s not thrilled they’ve been stalking him and noting his recent preference for a certain “type” in his beverage selection.

Savitri Murray (aka the object of Colin’s obsession) is on a transatlantic flight with a nosferatu occupying one of the other seats and suspects she may soon be plummeting to her death along with the other 400 passengers.  She emails Colin to apprise him of the situation, and though assistance is promised, there’s no time to wait for it to arrive. Armed with only a vial of hellhound venom and the guts of her laptop, she kills the nosferatu, ingesting some of its blood and the venom in the process, which makes her terribly ill and has long-lasting side effects.

Colin has been unable to taste anything for the past 200 years, so he gets, um, excited when that’s not the case with Savi post-contamination. There are a number of obstacles preventing him from getting what he wants, though:

1. Mutual friends will eviscerate him.

2. Savi promised her very traditional granny she’d marry a nice boy who would take care of her, and she made that promise in earnest.

3. Vamp feeding and sex usually go hand in hand, and one human can’t sustain a vamp for long—in other words, Colin would have to starve to death in order to be faithful to Savi.

4. Colin can’t turn Savi into a vampire because his blood has killed everyone who’s tasted it. If she had someone else turn her, Colin could feed from her, but she still couldn’t feed from him because he’s toxic, so she’d have to dine elsewhere, and again with the fidelity issue…

5. Not to mention, no one’s sure what vamp blood on top of hellhound venom and nosferatu juice would do to her.

Well, doesn’t that just suck? (No pun intended.) Savi thinks so, too, so she proposes they spend one month together—she can put off her nuptials that long, he can keep his fangs out of other women that long, and the bloodthirsty friends will just have to deal.

At this point, tears were jerked. Because a month isn’t going to be enough, but there is no solution to these obstacles. (Seriously. It hasn’t all been a big misunderstanding. There’s no fortuitous discovery of fine print that changes everything. Their love is well and truly doomed.) Nobody plays it cool (i.e. acting like the typical tough guy) at this point—they’re both completely open with the I love you and the I don’t know how I’ll live without you and the damn this cursed fate stuff.

What is there to do when you’re doomed, other than say Fuck it and risk whatever interminable stretch of miserable life you have left on an astronomically slim chance at happiness? (It’s far more eloquent and romantic in the book, but I’m all sentimented out at this point. It’s an emotionally exhausting story, and I mean that in the best possible way.)

Why I like love Colin: Colin gets his own HOTM spread on November 2. For now, suffice it to say I adore the vain little bloodsucker.

Why I like Savi: She’s smart and resourceful, fearless and curious, always questioning. She doesn’t torture herself with grudges and regrets. Very much a modern girl herself, she honors her granny’s traditional values. And she smiles while her heart is being ripped out and chewed to bits because crying doesn’t make anything better, so what’s the point of it?

Even as herocentric as I am, I found Savi’s POV just as interesting as Colin’s, which (given my state of infatuation) indicates she’s quite a strong character. Meljean Brook has established herself in my mind as a writer of standout heroines.

My one gripe is with the cover. Dammit, would it be such a crime to have a woman with short hair on the cover of a romance novel?!