by Morris Fenris

This was a very moving story that brought together two people who would seem to have nothing in common. I felt for Annalise from the beginning because she was such a fighter who never let her situation get her down. Her character was so clear from the beginning and once I started reading it was hard to stop. The other characters were also well defined and easy to know and like as individuals from the first one introduced to the last. The narrative flowed naturally from beginning to end and kept the story moving.

Arthur Bugresson has been asleep for 1000 years while his brothers have been conducting the business of the family. Only Brock, the youngest also went to sleep, and then only for 100 years. His family are Initials, the line from which all vampires have come to be and so he and his brothers are the King and princes of the vampire empire. When Arthur awakens suddenly he will need to be brought up to speed on the modern world and so his brother finds him a cultural tutor.

Annalise had been a popular girl whose  friends did not realize was poor and mostly lived on her own when her parents went away on business. When she became ill with leukemia and was unable to pay for her treatment she was saved by an unlikely source, a vampire doctor. The doctor made a deal to treat her and pay her a salary for helping to bring his family into the 21st century. It was working well for them all. Then the King decided to take her away to help with his brother. Was she going to be able to help or would she die.

This was so much better than I had anticipated. I thought it was going to be some drivel about a teenager who is self centered or something. This was a sweet, sentimental, moving story about two people who seem to have nothing in common that find each other even in the face of tragedy. So worth the time!

My rating: 4 of 5 stars