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Charles
Free is the self-appointed police for the vampire world, a crusader
determined
to protect the innocent. Prior to his
creation as a vampire, he’d been known as Sir Charles, the Handsome
Giant, so
proud of his appearance that he doesn’t know how to handle it when an
attack by
silver-wielding hunters leaves devastating long-term scars.
When her
lover and fiancée disappears, Marie Connor falls into a deep
depression that
nothing and no one can seem to break.
Charles had been her whole world and his
disappearance seemed to take
the life right out of her. When
well-meaning friends drag her to their Halloween costume party, she
meets a man
who reminds her vividly of her missing Charles.
Is it all a disguise, part of a game, or has he
truly stopped loving
her?
While this
reviewer loves the angst-ridden hero as much as anyone else, I had
difficulty
believing that a man could live for centuries and still be so hung up
on his
looks that the first damage to them would cause him to disappear. Ms. Hill’s reasons for Charles to disappear
seem good on the surface; they make the hero seem unreasonably flawed
the more
often they are mentioned. If the hero
can love an imperfect woman, for Marie is not the beautiful model type,
then
why can’t the heroine truly love him?
Other than that, Ms. Hill once again treats us to
the mind-blowing
sexuality of her vampire world. The
passion and love between Marie and Charles, even with their flaws, just
sizzles
off the page. And the teasing hint of
the next Blood and Soul book at
the end of Vampire
Crusader is more than enough to
get me back for more.
Reviewed
by MeriBeth McCombs for The Road to Romance
September
7, 2004
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