Title: Kiss Me Forever
Author: Rosemary Laurey
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Zebra
Number of Pages: 336
Series: Vampire Romance #1
Publication date: 2004
Publication date: 2004
If there is one thing Dixie LePage does not need in her life, it's complications. And the man sitting across the table from her in a crowded English pub is a major complication. For starters, there's the broad shoulders. The slightly amused smirk. That smoldering look that makes it impossible to concentrate. No doubt about it, the guy is hot and sexy. Of course, there is one wee little problem: He claims to be a vampire named Christopher Marlowe, as in THE Christopher Marlowe, famous playwright, contemporary of Will Shakespeare. Amend that to hot, sexy, and totally insane. So why can't Dixie seem to resist the warmth of Christopher's charm, the protective feel of his strong hands, or the tempting pull of his full mouth when the sun goes down. . .?
I feel like this review should come with a warning: Scattered thoughts all over the place! While I really enjoyed reading it, I struggled with the review for some reason. Apologies in advance in case it makes no sense whatsoever!
Dixie LePage has just inherited her great-aunts house in England. She thought that she would go to England for a couple of weeks and it would help her get over her broken engagement and the death of her beloved Grandmother. When she arrives in England she finds that her lawyer Sebastian, and everyone else in town assumes that she will sell her Great Aunts house. Dixie however, surprises everyone including herself when she decides that she doesn't want to sell the house she inherited. While trying to get rid of Sebastian's nephew after one too many advances, she gets a little help from this gorgeous guy who claims that he's Christopher Marlowe. Dixie of course makes a crack about how hard it must be to have that name, and a friendship is formed. She finds out that he's interested in her aunt's extensive and very old collection of books having to do with all things paranormal. As they spend more and more time together Dixie realizes that she's totally falling for this guy who she knows almost nothing about.
Events happen and Dixie realizes that Christopher is actually a vampire, and is the Christopher Marlowe who wrote plays alongside William Shakespeare. Dixie is blown away by this because she (of course) doesn't believe in vampires or anything paranormal. She takes Christopher being a vampire in stride for someone who doesn't believe in the paranormal, and becomes very protective of him-especially when he's blamed for something he didn't do. Dixie works at clearing his name while learning more about the vampire world.
This is the first vampire romance I've read in a really long time. Most of the vampire books I've read have been Urban Fantasy ones, and romance is never the main focus in them. The first half of the book was great. I really enjoyed how Dixie wasn't about to be convinced to sell the house just because everyone thought she would and how she interacted with the local townspeople. I don't know what is about books set in England, but I always end up craving English food like Fish and Chips by the time I'm done reading them! I thought that Sebastian, and his nephew James were great creepy characters who would stop at nothing to get what they wanted-which was to get Dixie to leave so they could find papers that were vital to them in the house. We don't find out why they are vital to them until really late in the book, but all the secondary characters and the growing romance between Dixie and Christopher was such that I didn't really mind.
While I really liked Dixie and all of the secondary characters, I had a hard time with Christopher. He was just such a nice vampire that it took me most of the book to adjust to it. I know that sounds crazy, but I'm so used to my vampire hero love interests having a huge ego like Ethan from the Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampire series that I just wasn't prepared for such a nice guy love interest. (Or maybe Ethan has just ruined all other vampires for me.) Aside from Christopher's niceness the other problem I had was that Dixie's introduction to the vampire world seemed liked it took over the whole book and the romance part was lost for a bit as she focused on other things and the story became a bit predictable. I wonder if the introduction to the vampire world was a bit much for me because there are so many vampire books out there now and each go way too indepth in describing that world. I feel like I should mention that this book was written in 2004, and I believe that is just when paranormal romance started taking off, so while it seems a bit dated it wasn't for when it was published. Despite all it's flaws, this book is what I call a great comfort read. Sometimes you just need a light read every now and then. I look forward to reading the other books in this series. :)
Curran Crush Meter: Low
Martini Sigh Meter: Low
Barrons Hero Hotness Meter: Medium
Gighul Sidekick meter: Medium
Rhiannon Kick Ass Heroine Meter: Medium
Ethan/Merit Sizzle Meter: Medium (This is a very PG book though!)
