Review: Lord of the Vampires

( Royal House of Shadows #1)
By: Gena Showalter
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: Aug. 23, 2011
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 288
Source:NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Rating: I really liked it! I couldn't seem to put it down.

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.

My thoughts...
After a blood sorcerer breaks into the palace and slaughters the king and queen (Nicolai's parent's) he and his 3 other siblings are separated and sent away by a spell cast by their mother with her last dying breath. Poor Nicolai ends up at a slave market and is bought by Princess Odette. In an attempt to escape his situation of being a sex slave, Nicolai sends a magical book to Jane, in which tells the story of his enslavement and begs her to come and rescue him. Jane at first thinks that this is a joke until she gets to the end that says "You, Jane Parker, you are Odette. Come to me, I command you. Save me, I beg you. Please, Jane. I need you." When she goes to sleep that night after reading the book she wakes up in another world, where she is thought to be Princess Odette, who everyone thought Nicolai had recently killed. With Jane there, now Nicolai can escape, get his revenge and go back home to take back his rightful place as king.

I am a fan of Gina's work. She has a great way of developing a world that the reader can envision. The characters in this story were developed really well. After reading about Nicolai's enslavement you felt for him and not only that but you wanted revenge too. Gina did a great job adding new elements into the story as it progressed to keep things interesting and fresh, without making it seem like she was randomly throwing things into the storyline. Everything tied together nicely and in the end you were left with a well crafted story.

None of the characters in this book were one dimensional. Well, except for the ogres, they were kind of stupid and simple minded but you sort of expect that from an ogre. I don't know if I could believe in an ogre that went to Yale. I also liked the dialogue in this story as well. Since Nicolai isn't from Jane's world he doesn't know what cars are or things of that nature. He gets really upset when she tells him how she was in a car accident and tried to explain what that was. He offers to slay this beast called a car. It sort of reminded me of the movie "Enchanted" where the cartoon characters end up in our world and the prince goes from fairy tale land to the middle of NYC and stabs his sword through the top of a bus and shots "The steel beast is dead peasants. I set you all free!" If you have seen the movie you know what I am talking about. That is how Nicolai is when compared to things from our world, which made for fun dialogue.

Favorite part:
An example of Nicolai's response to things from our world... Vicodin.
Nicolai- "More of my vampire blood. I cast a healing spell to aid the powers of my blood."
Jane- "It was better than Vicodin."
Nicolai- "Vicodin?"
Jane- "A pain killer from my world."
Nicolai- "A killer of pain. Did you love him?"